DETERMINATING THE Ma_MISS INSTRUMENT CAPABILITIES FOR ORGANICS DETECTION

International audienceIntroduction: The key scientific objectives of the ESA mission ExoMars2022 are searching for signs of past and/or present life on Mars and characterizing the subsurface geochemical environment as a function of depth. The Rosalind Franklyn rover [1] payload consists of a suite of nine instruments that will provide information about the geological and geochemical environment of the surface and subsurface of the selected landing site (i.e., Oxia Planum) [2]. Remote sensing measurements performed by OMEGA and CRISM suggest that the exposed rocks on the surface of Oxia Planum experienced an intense aqueous alteration [3]. The widespread presence of Fe/Mg-Al-phyllosilicates and, more generally, of silicates containing OH group confirms an interaction between water and mother rocks happened in the past geological history of the planet, which is a prerequisite favorable to the development of life. In this framework, we performed several laboratory spectroscopic measurements of clay minerals mixed with different organic compounds for determining whether the Ma_MISS (Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies) instrument will be able to provide clues on the presence of organics in the Martian subsurface