The sound of geological targets on Mars from the absolute intensity of laser-induced sparks shock waves

C. Alvarez-Llamas (1) , J. Laserna (1) , J. Moros (1) , P. Purohit (1) , L. García-Gómez (1) , S.M. Angel (2) , P. Bernardi (3) , B. Bousquet (4) , A. Cadu (5) , E. Dauson (6) , O. Forni (7) , T. Fouchet (3) , O. Gasnault (7) , Xavier Jacob (8) , Gaetan Lacombe (7) , N.L. Lanza (6) , C. Larmat (6) , Jérémie Lasue , R.D. Lorenz (9) , A. Stott (5) , P.-Y. Meslin (7) , D. Mimoun (5) , Franck Montmessin (10) , N. Murdoch (5) , N. Randazzo (11) , A.M. Ollila (6) , P. Pilleri (7) , A.L. Reyes-Newell (6) , S. Schröder (12) , J. Ten Cate (6) , A. Udry (13) , D. Vogt (12) , S. Clegg (6) , A. Cousin (7) , S. Maurice (7) , R.C. Wiens (14)

1 Departamento de Química Analítica [Rosario]
2 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry [Columbia, South Carolina]
3 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique = Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics
4 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
5 ISAE-SUPAERO - Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
6 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
7 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
8 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse
9 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
10 PLANETO - LATMOS
11 University of Alberta
12 DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems
13 WGU Nevada - University of Nevada [Las Vegas]
14 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences [West Lafayette]

Inspection of geological material is one of the main goals of the Perseverance rover during its journey across the landscape of the Jezero crater in Mars. NASA's rover integrates SuperCam, an instrument capable of performing standoff characterization of samples using a variety of techniques. Among those tools, SuperCam can perform laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) studies to elucidate the chemical composition of the targets of interest. Data from optical spectroscopy can be supplemented by simultaneously-produced laser-produced plasma acoustics in order to expand the information acquired from the probed rocks thanks to the SuperCam's microphone (MIC) as it can be synchronized with the LIBS laser. Herein, we report cover results from LIBS and MIC during Perseverance's first 380 sols on the Martian surface. We study the correlation between both recorded signals, considering the main intrasample and environmental sources of variation for each technique, to understand their behavior and how they can be interpreted together towards complimenting LIBS with acoustics. We find that louder and more stable acoustic signals are recorded from rock with compact surfaces, i.e., low presence loose particulate material, and harder mineral phases in their composition. Reported results constitute the first description of the evolution of the intensity in the time domain of shockwaves from laser-produced plasmas on geological targets recorded in Mars. These signals are expected contain physicochemical signatures pertaining to the inspected sampling positions. As the dependence of the acoustic signal recorded on the sample composition, provided by LIBS, is unveiled, the sound from sparks become a powerful tool for the identification of mineral phases with similar optical emission spectra.

Mots clés: Acoustics; Mars; Perseverance; Jezero; LIBS; Geological material

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

C. Alvarez-Llamas, J. Laserna, J. Moros, P. Purohit, L. García-Gómez, et al.. The sound of geological targets on Mars from the absolute intensity of laser-induced sparks shock waves. Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 2023, 205 (July), pp.106687. ⟨10.1016/j.sab.2023.106687⟩. ⟨insu-04081051⟩