University of Western Ontario
The surface of Mars has been under 
exploration by landers and orbiters for 
decades. From the planetary geologists 
point of view, there are three critical 
pieces of information that enable us to 
determine the rock type: mineralogy, 
chemical composition, and textures. 
Mineralogy is the most important of these. 
Most rover instruments measure chemical 
information from minerals. It is desirable 
to deploy an instrument to obtain 
complementary crystal structural 
information from minerals.

The project will enable continued 
development and testing of a Miniaturized 
in situ X-ray Diffractometer for 
Mineralogical Characterization of Planetary 
Surfaces (ISXRD), to perform in situ 
analysis on intact Mars-analogue samples on 
Earth, with the goal of eventual deployment 
on Mars. Furthermore, another objective is 
to develop a Mars-relevant sample 
collection for testing purposes.