TLS TEAM: Dr. Chris Webster (TLS PI), James Kenny, Gregory Flesch, W. Steven Woodward, Siamak Forouhar, Mary Boghosian, etc.

The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) is one of 3 instruments that make up the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) payload. Other SAM instruments are the Gas Chromatograph (GC, Cabane, U. Paris) and Mass Spectrometer (MS, Mahaffy, GSFC).  SAM includes a chemical separation and processing laboratory (GSFC) and a solid sample manipulation system (Honeybee Robotics).
TLS will be a 6-channel tunable laser absorption spectrometer with the capability of making accurate measurements of the mixing ratios of several target gases and their isotope ratios. Specific target gases are H₂O, CH₄, CO, CO₂, OCS, and H₂O₂.  Isotope ratios include: D/H, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, and ¹⁷O/¹⁶O in water; ¹³C/¹²C in CH₄; ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O in CO₂; ¹³C/¹²C in CO; and ³²S/³⁴S in OCS.  Sensitivities for methane and hydrogen peroxide will be down to a minimum detectable amount of 20 parts per trillion. 
 

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission will launch December 2009 and arrive at Mars October 2010.  This rover will be twice as long and three times as heavy as the MER rovers currently on the Martian surface (see link http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/msl.html )