Field Studies of a Robot System to Measure Ground Emissions of Methane

A robot system has been developed to search for signs of life on Mars. The system consists of a rover equipped with an open-path spectrometer, and is to designed look for potential biogenic gas emissions from the ground. The paper discusses preliminary field studies with the system. The findings indicate that for this type of application, the spectrometer should be located as close to the ground as is feasible. Also, because wind quickly disperses concentrated gases, frequent measurements are needed in order to determine the location of the source.