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ExoMars / CLUPI

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The CLUPI project takes place in the context of ESA's ExoMars mission, its Mars rover, and its Pasteur scientific payload.

The CLUPI instrument is a close-up color imaging camera, the equivalent of a field geologist's magnifying glass.

For the Orléans researchers involved, the CLUPI project is a part of their current Mars-GeoMicroPal project, sharing the same scientific objectives: to search for traces of current or fossil life on Mars, and to characterize its potential habitats in the rocks and soils examined.

The scientific approach involves using the optical observation instruments available on board the rover, at all magnifications, as well as geochemical instruments, to search for traces of present-day and fossil life in a geological, paleoenvironmental and micropalaeontological framework. This research will begin by characterizing the geological context on a range of scales from panoramic to microscopic. Observation of rock or regolith samples, from a scale of around 100 microns down to a few 10 microns with CLUPI, in combination with data provided by infrared spectrometers and the Raman spectrometer, will help to understand the nature of the material, its composition, its mode of formation, as well as the processes that have altered the rock or regolith since its formation. Understanding the geological context is fundamental to interpreting the biogenicity of any biosignatures, and the CLUPI instrument is an essential link in the analysis of a sample between the rover's external instruments and the analysis laboratory inside the rover, which has no visible optical microscope.

The CLUPI project is led by Jean-Luc Josset, Scientific Manager, and the Space Exploration Institute (SPX) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, at the head of an international consortium. Beda Hoffman, from the Natural History Museum in Bern, Switzerland, and Frances Westall, from the CBM in Orléans, France, are the scientific manager's two deputies.

In order to share development costs within the consortium, two French laboratories, CBM and LPC2E, have been awarded prime contractorship for the encapsulation of the CLUPI image sensor, with technical, managerial and financial support from CNES, and delegated to industry.

The French contribution to the development of the CLUPI instrument includes :
- encapsulation and functional testing of the image sensor (LPC2E) ;
- ground characterization of the image sensor and instrument (LPC2E);
- participation in the definition and development of the CLUPI project as a whole (CBM, LPC2E).
The French contribution to CLUPI operations on the surface of Mars and to the processing of the instrument's mission data includes :
- contribution to the scientific team in charge of real-time operations support (CBM) ;
- contribution to operations definition (CBM) ;
- contribution to image processing (CBM);
- technical support for implementation of the image sensor in the context of the CLUPI instrument (LPC2E).