Coordinated analyses of Antarctic sediments as Mars analog materials using reflectance spectroscopy and current flight-like instruments for CheMin, SAM and MOMA

Abstract

Coordinated analyses of mineralogy and chemistry of sediments from the Antarctic Dry Valleys illustrate how data obtained using flight-ready technology of current NASA and ESA missions can be combined for greater understanding of the samples. Mineralogy was measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and visible/near-infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectroscopy. Chemical analyses utilized a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) to perform pyrolysis-evolved gas analysis (EGA) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) both with and without derivatization, as well as laser desorption–mass spectrometry (LD/MS) techniques. These analyses are designed to demonstrate some of the capabilities of near-term landed Mars missions, to provide ground truthing of VNIR reflectance data acquired from orbit by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on MRO and to provide detection limits for surface-operated instruments: the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suites onboard Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) onboard ExoMars-2018. The new data from this study are compared with previous analyses of the sediments performed with other techniques. Tremolite was found in the oxic region samples for the first time using the CheMin-like XRD instrument. The NIR spectral features of tremolite are consistent with those observed in these samples. Although the tremolite bands are weak in spectra of these samples, spectral features near 2.32 and 2.39μm could be detected by CRISM if tremolite is present on the martian surface. Allophane was found to be a good match to weak NIR features at ∼1.37–1.41, 1.92, and 2.19μm in spectra of the oxic region sediments and is a common component of immature volcanic soils. Biogenic methane was found to be associated with calcite in the oxic region samples by the SAM/EGA instrument and a phosphoric acid derivative was found in the anoxic region sample using the SAM/MTBSTFA technique.