Students at Western University have teamed up with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to direct a planetary rover in a Mars exploration simulation.
The purpose of the mission is to collect samples here on Earth in preparation for a later mission searching for life on Mars, according to the CSA. Students located at a mission control centre in London, Ont. are directing the rover, which is operating thousands of kilometres away at a field site in Utah.
The rover is equipped with many instruments, such as a manipulator arm for grabbing samples of rock or soil from the ground, a light-based radar-like system for taking 3-D images of the environment, and two different cameras to provide information on the terrain.
A main goal of this simulation is to learn how to best use this equipment to ensure the success of future missions, according to CSA senior mission scientist Tim Haltigin.
“We want to refine techniques, make mistakes, and fix them so that we’re ready for Mars,” Haltigin said.
Utah was chosen as the test site location thanks to its geographical features similar to those on Mars, according to a release from the CSA.
The site chosen is in an ancient streambed, potentially similar to one identified on Mars. These streambeds may preserve signs of ancient life, and can provide scientists with the opportunity to test approaches that may make exploration more efficient, the release said.
“One of the biggest questions in planetary exploration is whether signs of life were present anywhere else in the solar system,” Haltigin said.
The data collected throughout the mission will be fed back to the CSA and NASA. Some of the information will even be used in NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission, said Gordon Osinski, the Western program lead.
Western’s team consists mostly of master’s degree and PhD students, with a couple of post-doctorate students as well, according to Osinski. He said watching students lead the effort in the control room is exciting.
“The commitment that all of the students are putting in is really cool,” Osinski said.
The students make decisions on what the rover will do throughout each day of operation, while members of the CSA control the rover’s movement, according to Eric Pilles, a Western post-doctorate student and planning lead for the team.
Western University PhD student and science lead Christy Claudill said she and her colleagues get to work with leaders in the science industry, which has students excited.
“You might not even have a chance to do that in your whole career,” Claudill said.
The mission runs from Nov. 1-18.
