During last wednesday and thursday (7-8 October), the Science team for the Raman Laser Spectrometer (RLS) instrument celebrated its Fall 2026 meeting. Hosted by the University of Valladolid, the event took place at the López Prieto amphitheater of the School of Medicine.
This event gathered researchers from institutions including the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and its Spanish Astrobiology Center (CAB), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), and the Leicester (UoL), Valladolid (UVa) and Basque Country (UPV/EHU) universities. They presented the current status of the instrument, ExoMars project schedules, collaborations with other instruments onboard the rover, and software tools, toolchains and pipelines for the telemetry analysis. Associated topics like planetary atmospheres, martian soil analogues (called simulants), mineral analysis, and of course Raman spectroscopy, were also discussed.
Also, on thursday evening, several PhD students, including newcomers with funding from the EXODOCS project, had the opportunity to briefly present themselves and their research projects to the rest of the team members.
Finally, during the meeting closure talk, it was also announced that our PI Guillermo López had been appointed as deputy-PI for the RLS instrument. Congrats, Guillermo!
