ENFYS
ENFYS UCL researchers will play a role in building a new instrument on the Rosalind Franklin rover, replacing Russian-made components, so that the Mars mission can launch in 2028. The project, funded with an additional £10.7 million from the UK Space Agency and led by Aberystwyth University, will involve the same team based at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory who led on designing and building the rover's panoramic camera system. The rover, which was built by Airbus in Stevenage as part of a European Space Agency programme, was due to launch in 2022 but the collaboration with Russia's space agency (Roscosmos) was cancelled following the illegal invasion of Ukraine. The new instrument, named Enfys (meaning 'rainbow' in Welsh), will replace the Russian-built Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars (ISEM), meaning the mission can recover its full scientific potential. Work will be led by Aberystwyth University with support from STFC RAL Space and Qioptiq Ltd as well as UCL. Enfys will identify targets on the surface of Mars for sampling and analysis, building on the scientific discoveries of the Mars rover mission. Enfys and the mission's UCL-led camera system PanCam will work together to identify minerals that could harbour evidence for life to enable the rover to drill for samples to be analysed by other instruments on the rover.
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