MicrOmega-IR

MicrOmega-IR is an infrared hyperspectral microscope that is part of the science payload on board the European Rosalind Franklin rover,[2] tasked to search for biosignatures on Mars.

[3][4] The MicrOmega mnemonic is derived from its French name Micro observatoire pour la mineralogie, l'eau, les glaces et l'activité;[1] IR stands for infrared.

[6] The Principal Investigator of the MicrOmega-IR for the Rosalind Franklin rover is Jean-Pierre Bibring, a French astronomer and planetary scientist at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale.

[7] MicrOmega was developed by a consortium including:[8] MicrOmega-IR is a visible and infrared hyperspectral microscope that is designed to characterize the texture and composition of crushed samples presented to the instrument.

[10] Its main supporting components include:[11] The IR instrument uses a HgCdTe (Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride) matrix detector, the Sofradir Mars SW 320 x 256 pixels.

Grains of Earth olivine, one of the minerals MicroOmega is designed to detect