Investigating habitability with an integrated rock climbing robot and astrobiology instrument suite

A prototype rover carrying an astrobiology payload was developed and deployed at analog field sites to mature generalized system architectures capable of searching for biosignatures in extreme terrain across the solar system. Specifically, the four-legged LEMUR 3 climbing robot with microspine rock grippers carried three instruments: a micro-X-Ray fluorescence instrument based on the Mars 2020 mission’s PIXL provided elemental chemistry, a deep-UV fluorescence instrument based on Mars 2020’s SHERLOC mapped organics in bacterial communities on opaque substrates, and a near-infrared acousto-optic tunable filter-based point spectrometer identified minerals and organics in the 1.6 to 3.6 μm range. The rover also carried a lidar and a color camera for both science and navigation. Combined, this payload. Combined, this payload detects astrobiologically-important classes of rock components (elements, minerals, and organics) in extreme terrain, which this work demonstrates can reveal a correlation between textural biosignatures and the organics or elements expected to preserve them in a habitable environment. Across more than ten field tests, milestones were achieved in instrument operations, autonomous mobility in extreme terrain, and system integration that can inform future planetary science mission architectures. Contributions include 1) system-level demonstration of mock-missions to the vertical exposures of Mars lava tube caves and Mars canyon walls, 2) demonstration of multi-instrument integration into a confocal arrangement with surface scanning capabilities, and 3) demonstration of automated focus stacking algorithms for improved signal to noise ratios and reduced operation time.