The Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), formerly the Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR), is a French laboratory of space astrophysics. It is located in Toulouse. The center's main areas of investigation are: space plasmas, planetology, the high energy universe, and the cold universe.
The center is jointly operated by CNRS and Toulouse's Paul Sabatier University, and was opened on 1 January 2011.[1]
Projects
The ChemCam instrument on the Curiosity rover (Mars Science Laboratory) was developed by CESR in conjunction with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.[2][3] It landed on the planet Mars in August 2012.
The SuperCam instrument on the Perseverance rover (Mars 2020) was developed by IRAP in conjunction with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.[4] It landed on the planet Mars in February 2021.