File:PIA23621-Mars2020Rover-SHERLOC-20200220.jpg

English: PIA23621: Close-up of NASA's Mars 2020 Rover's SHERLOC Instrument

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23621

The SHERLOC instrument is located at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars 2020 rover. SHERLOC (short for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) is a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and use an ultraviolet laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds on Mars.

JPL built and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for NASA, as well as the rover's SHERLOC instrument. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.

Mars 2020 is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans.

For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.