A campaign to collect geological samples in the Makgadikgadi salt marsh area in Botswana took place 9-17 September. While today this region of Africa is a vast expanse of salty clay, in the past it was home to a large lake, making it a 'Martian analogue', i.e. a place on Earth with geological or environmental characteristics similar to those of Mars. The site has large areas where water/rock interaction can be studied and has similar geomorphological aspects to the Rosalind Franklin rover landing site (Oxia Planum). Thus, it represents a…

The 18th National Congress of Planetary Sciences, organized by the Italian Society of Planetary Sciences, began today in Perugia. There are many research topics covered during the congress, which is being held in the Sala dei Notari of Perugia's Palazzo dei Priori from February 6 to 10 with various Italian research groups directly related to planetary research. Ma_MISS is not missing, participating with several members of the Ma_MISS team presenting the latest scientific updates of the mission.

The campaign involving several members of the Ma_MISS team in Rio Tinto, Andalusia (Spain) has come to an end. As the landing site of the ExoMars mission (Oxia Planum) shows mineralogical and morphological clues that could be characterised by a hydrothermal history and a long duration of surface aqueous activity, in the Rio Tinto area the Ma_MISS team conducted a field campaign by performing a series of VIS-NIR measurements through a portable spectrometer and collecting representative samples that will be measured with the laboratory model of the Ma_MISS instrument. The…

The 17th National Planetary Science Congress, organised by the INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte (NA), took place in Naples from 20 to 24 June 2022. The Congress was attended by several members of the Ma_MISS team, who had the opportunity to present the latest mission results and take part in the discussion on the programmatic and scientific situation of Italian Planetology.

The first simulation of driving the ExoMars rover from its landing pad has successfully taken place. Indeed, after the nerve-wracking descent to the surface of Mars, the moment when the Rosalind rover will leave the landing pad and drive on Martian soil for the first time will be highly anticipated. To make sure there are no nasty surprises, ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover twin, Amalia, had to undergo its first driving simulation and successfully left the platform during recent tests in a Martian soil simulator at ALTEC's Turin facility. The exit…

A Martian analog sample was collected during a field campaign by the Ma_MISS team geologists last October 2021. It was gathered in a 120 cm-depth excavated trench in the Capalbio area (Tuscany, Italy). This clay was formed by pedogenetic processes following the hydrothermal fluid circulation of the Capalbio-Monti Romani belt (Pleistocene). Crediti: Apuzzo - IAPS (INAF) Its precursor was a metasedimentary rock. The mineral assemblage of the sample is constituted of Mg/Fe smectite, kaolinite, illite, quartz, and minor calcite. This composition resembles the superficial mineralogy of the oxia Planum landing…

The Ma_MISS team used the MOT (i.e., Ma_MISS Optical Tool) to make a series of laboratory measurements on different mineral mixtures representative of the Oxia Planum landing site, which from past studies appears to be dominated by rocks that in different geological eras have been altered by the presence of water. For this reason, six different samples obtained by mixing clays of various origins with other mafic minerals were prepared to simulate varying degrees of water-related alteration of a hypothetical shallow Martian subsurface. From the collected data, hundreds of simulated…

Many are the minerals that will be analyzed by Ma_MISS at the landing site in Oxia Planum. And many are also the samples that have been measured in recent years using the Ma_MISS laboratory model; measurements, however, that are often missing some information or even have different information between analyses. Having a unique database is crucial for organizing information about sample collection and related measurements, and especially to be used as a reference when Ma_MISS starts making real measurements on Martian soil. The Ma_MISS team has acquired and analyzed several…