From 21^st to 25^th of October, our ALD and rover neighbor, the MOMA (Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer) instrument (https://exploration.esa.int/web/mars/-/47875-the-moma-instrument-and-its-modules) celebrated their annual scientific meeting at the conference venue Schloss Ringberg, a magnificent castle at Rottach-Egern (Upper Babaria, Germany).

Max Planck Conference Venue Schloss Ringberg

As part of this meeting, the RLS team was invited to take part on a dedicated one-day session of ALD Combined Science.

During the meeting, and in presence of Jorge Vago (ESA ExoMars Project Scientist), capabilities and needs of the ALD and instruments combined science were studied. Main aspects discussed were how to interact between the three instruments (MicrOmega, RLS and MOMA), for taking advantage of partial results of any of them by the others: during on Mars operation (in automatic mode), with the help of the ROCC (Rover Operation Control Center), from Turin for taking tactical (almost in real time) decisions, and for supporting rover strategical decisions (long term).

MOMA Science Meeting participants – dron’s eye view

The spirit of collaboration and teamwork showed, how adding the individual effort of the instruments, can lead to a scientific result that multiplies its impact. Because sometimes, the result of adding 1 + 1 + 1, is greater than 3.

The RLS Team