Research/ PLANETARY ROBOTICS
Surface Deposition of Molecular Contaminants in the Mars 2020 Rover Wake
Ira Katz, Jason Rabinovitch
Perseverance (Mars 2020)named in title, abstract · Mars Sample Returnnamed in abstract
No official subject categories from arXiv, OpenAlex or NTRS for this paper.
The Mars 2020 rover has very strict contamination control requirements in order to prepare samples for a potential Mars Sample Return. It is known that the rover will out gas a low-level of molecular contaminant on the surface of Mars, and numerical simulations using STAR-CCM+ are performed in order to predict the magnitude of the contaminant deposition to the Martian surface in the vicinity of the rover. This is done in order to determine whether or not the M2020 rover could self-contaminate a potential sampling site if it were to remain in the same location for a long period of time. Simulations are performed under a variety of surface conditions, and it is determined that the predicted level of molecular contaminant deposition to the surface near the rover will not be a significant factor in the overall sample contamination budget.