MARS 2020 ROVER PROJECT

Perhaps the most breathtaking French-American collaboration in New Mexico is the Mars 2020 Rover project, studying Mars’ habitability, seeking signs of past microbial Life, collecting and caching samples, and preparing for future human missions. The “SuperCam” component of the project examines rocks and soils with a camera, laser and spectrometers to seek organic compounds that could be related to past life on Mars. The project is directed by an American Principal Investigator in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and a French Deputy Principal Investigator in Toulouse, France. They are assisted by a team and various collaborators of 53 people (as of December 2018), of whom over half are French.

For more information see: 

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/

and https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/instruments/supercam/team-members/