Within the CNES command center in Toulouse, where SuperCam activity is programmed, the laser camera installed on Perseverance which will land on Mars on February 18.

-

CNES / DE PRADA Thierry, 2021

  • Thursday evening, shortly before 10 p.m., the Perseverance rover must land its wheels on the planet Mars.

  • In Toulouse, alternating with the United States, engineers and scientists from CNES will take control of SuperCam, one of the NASA rover instruments.

  • These “snipers”, at the controls of the laser camera, are preparing to live under pressure, three months at the Martian pace.

"When people ask me about my job, I say that I make holes on Mars", Eric Lorigny barely jokes.

This engineer from the National Center for Space Studies in Toulouse has his feet on the ground, but for several months his head has been millions of kilometers above the ground.

In July, his mind embarked with the NASA rover, Perseverance, the one that will liven up his nights over the next few months.

This Thursday, around 10 p.m., after a very long journey and seven minutes of an interminable descent, this jewel of technologies will put its wheels on the red planet, in the Jezero crater where a river flowed 3.5 billion years ago. years.

There, for years to come, this robot will roam the rocky slopes in search of fossil traces of a life form.

Among the instruments on board, the precious SuperCam, the state-of-the-art ChemCam version of the Curiosity rover, already in operation for more than eight years on Martian soil.

More complex, it also gives more possibilities to scientists to explore it.

And every other week alternating with the United States, it is from Toulouse, where the “French operation center for science and exploration” (FOCSE), in short the operations command center, is located that the orders will be given. to the super-powerful laser camera.

To the rhythm of Mars

From the first hours, the engineers under the watchful eye of the scientists will check the vital functions of this instrument which will make it possible to auscultate Mars and for the first time to hear it.

“The day after his arrival, we will do simple activities, we turn on and off.

Every day we have new stages, from the deployment of the mast at the end of which SuperCam is located until the first laser shot which should occur on the ground 13 ”, explains Eric Lorigny.

Because from February 18, his life and that of his teams pass on Martian time.

A Martian (ground) day is on average 37 minutes longer than a day on Earth.

Slowly, but surely, over the first three months, the days of SuperCam's “snipers” will shift.

An untenable rhythm, where day and night merge.

This explains why the building in which they “operate” does not have a window.

This removes an additional pressure, when it is already strong.

Because far from being satisfied with playing with joystick to give orders to the French instrument, the members of FOCSE must make precision programming of which the slightest mistake can cost millions.

“We have come to the end of everything we have been preparing for years, we are even further ahead than for Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity mission).

We have already prepared the 90 floors, the landing remains a big moment to pass, because it is trying for the teams but also for the instruments because of the vibrations ”, recognizes Christophe Donny, head of instrument operations.

The magic (and pressure) of coding

He has already experienced the first steps of Curiosity, in 2012. But at the time, the entire French team had taken over the management of the United States for three months, living in isolation to have optimal conditions.

Since then, the Covid-19 has been there and we must now juggle between staggered postings and family life.

“We learn to sleep at other times, it takes a bit of organization, but when we are passionate about our work, we get there and it also makes our children dream,” puts Magali Bouyssou-Mann into perspective.

This young mom was not meant to program SuperCam to laser fire into Martian rock.

Having gone through finance, more in the aeronautics sector, she had always dreamed of space.

His bases in computer science and mathematics allowed him to join the CNES team several months ago, by training on the ChemCam of Curiosity.

This February 18, she will experience her first landing.

“I can't wait to experience it, even if we are doing image rehearsals, when we are 2 km from Mars, it will be a bit like before passing the bac.

We have the impression that it is so far and so close to see something that no one sees, ”enthuses the young woman.

In an adjoining room, his colleagues continue to operate almost live on ChemCam.

Some will do both.

They are thus ten in Toulouse to be able to be proud of being snipers on Mars, to target such or such stone with precision, thanks to their lines of code which are not entitled to the error.

Those whose computer programming will perhaps one day discover whether the planet has ever harbored a form of life.

“We would like to find traces of life.

On ChemCam, when you program a shot on a rock and I receive the photo afterwards, I have a certain pride in telling myself that it was me who did it, a child's joy, it's magic and I tell myself that I'm not doing this for nothing, ”concludes Eric Lorigny.

There's just !

Science

In orbit around Mars, China's Tianwen-1 probe sends video of the red planet

Science

Water vapor discovered in the atmosphere of Mars

  • Perseverance

  • Cones

  • Nasa

  • Space

  • March

  • Toulouse

  • Science