Summary reader response draft 2
Based on an article by Ciarletti et al. , “the search for evidence of life on Mars is the principal objective of the ExoMars Rover mission”, I thus believe that the ExoMars Drill unit is a highly efficient robotic unit that can fulfil the mission of the ExoMars Rover which is to find signs of life and determine the geochemical composition of Mars.
With the ExoMars drill unit, soil samples will be extracted and then transported to the inlet port of the Rover Payload Module for analysis. According to the European Space Agency, the ExoMars drill managed to drill 1.7 metres deep into the ground on Earth. In an article by Leonardo (2018) , it states that the drill has passed several tests under simulated Martian environment, indicating that it is able to look for any signs of life on Mars . Having such a capable and efficient drill unit in the ExoMars Rover will accomplish the main objective of the ExoMars mission which is to dig deep enough into the Martian subsurface to obtain sufficient soil samples for further processing.
The ExoMars drill unit also contains the Ma_MISS (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies) spectrometer instrument which is used to specify and measure the mineralogy and stratigraphy of the excavated borehole at different levels. According to a report done by Angelis et al. (2019) , the aim of the Ma_Miss spectrometer is to discover the composition of the subsurface matter, chart the distribution of the subsoil water and hydrated phases, distinguish the crucial optical and physical properties of the materials, and lastly create a visualisation that will give information on the subsurface geology. Thus, the spectrometer is crucial for understanding what the Mars' subsurface consists of.
However, in an article by Friedlander (2020), acidic fluids may have likely demolished biological evidence that were covered within Mars’ iron-rich clay. Scientists from Centro De Astrobiologia lead a research that simulated the Martian surface to analyse the stability of Glycine that was previously exposed to acidic fluids. In addition to finding that Glycine showed photodegradation after long exposure to Mars-like ultraviolet radiation, they also found that Glycine could rapidly degenerate under Mars' environmental condition. This means that finding for biological compounds on Mars is arduous because of Mars environmental conditions.
In conclusion, the ExoMars drill unit is fully capable
of drilling into the Martian subsurface and
acquiring a soil sample. Thus, it will fulfil the objectives of the overall
mission of the ExoMars Rover which is to find for any signs of life through its
geochemical composition and overall providing us with more details on the subsoil of Mars.
European Space Agency. (2019, September
1). The ExoMars Drill Unit. https://exploration.esa.int/web/mars/-/43611-rover-drill
(2017). The WISDOM Radar: Unveiling the Subsurface Beneath the ExoMars Rover and Identifying the Best Locations for Drilling. Astrobiology, 17(6-7), 565-584. http://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2016.1532
Ferrari, M., Angelis, S.D, Sanctis, M.C.D, Altieri,
F., Frigeri, A., Ammannito, E., Mugnuolo, R., Pirrotta, S., Ma_Miss team (2019)
Laboratory Activities in support to the Ma_MISS experiment onboard the
ExoMars2020 Rover. [Abstract] EPSC ,13. https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2019/EPSC-DPS2019-1711-1.pdf
Cornell University. (2020, September 15). Study shows difficulty in finding evidence of life on Mars. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/09/study-shows-difficulty-finding-evidence-life-mars
Gil-Lozano, C., Fairén, A. G., Muñoz-Iglesias, V., Fernández-Sampedro, M., Prieto-Ballesteros, O., Gago-Duport, L., Losa-Adams, E., Carrizo, D., Bishop, J. L., Fornaro, T., & Mateo-Martí, E. (2020). Constraining the preservation of organic compounds in Mars analog nontronites after exposure to acid and alkaline fluids. Scientific Reports, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71657-9
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