Investigating Microbial Biosignatures in Aeolian Environments Using Micro-X-Ray: Simulation of PIXL Instrument Analyses at Jezero Crater Onboard the Perseverance Mars 2020 Rover.

Assessing the past habitability of Mars and searching for evidence of ancient life at Jezero crater via the rover are the key objectives of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. Onboard the rover, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) is one of the best suited instruments to search for microbial biosignatures due to its ability to characterize chemical composition of fine scale textures in geological targets using a nondestructive technique. PIXL is also the first micro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer onboard a Mars rover.