ExoMars CLUPI Operation Testing

CLUPI (CLose Up Imager) is a camera system installed on ESA' ExoMars rover designed to acquire high-resolution, colour, close-up images of outcrops, rocks, soils, drill fines and drill core samples. The visual information obtained by CLUPI will be similar to what a geologist would get using a hand lens. The information will be used to identify rocks types and potential biosignatures in those rocks. Nikolaus Kuhn is part of the CLUPI science team. This allows the members of his Physcial Geography and Environmental Science Research Group exclusive access to the data generated by CLUPI after the landing of ExoMars on Mars in March 2021. The preparation of the use fo CLUPI during the ExoMars mission is conducted in the framework of an extensive operations testing in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. A Flight Representative Test Model (FRTM) is provided by the Science Directorate of the European Space Agency to the the CLUPI Science Team lead by Prof. Jean-Luc Josset of the Space Exploration Institute in Neuchâtel. This SRTM will be used for operation testing and mission preparation in the Marslabor of the University of Basel. The cost of CLUPI are an estimated 10 million Euro and paid by the Swiss Space Office. The SRTM provided to the Marslabor of the University of Basel costs approximately 500'000 Euro.