Canadian Arctic Crater to Simulate Future Space Exploration Conditions
27.07.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Land & Geology, Arctic
A group of international researchers are currently in the Canadian Arctic testing concepts for future planetary exploration within the framework of the Haughton-Mars Project, an international, multidisciplinary field research project focused on the scientific study of the crater and surrounding terrain on Devon Island. Heading to the Haughton Crater on Devon Island (Canada), the team will use the environment to simulate the conditions that explorers might encounter on other planetary bodies.
As explorers and scientists are often faced with the need to return from expedition without some of the samples they would have liked to take, the team will be testing robots to be used in between manned missions to complete follow-up work. Mission planners say that in the future, there might be a significant amount of time between crewed missions, during which robots will be able to do research to a range of destinations.
The robots to be tested on Devon Island - the K10s - will be equipped with a wide array of instruments, such as a 3-D scanning lidar, colour imagers, spectrometers and a ground-penetrating radar. The K10s will systematically map above and below ground structures and characterize rocks, soil and landscape of key areas at Haughton Crater.
Besides finding a way to deal with unexpected roadblocks during future planetary exploration trips, the team will study the robots’ abilities to conduct scientific surveys, sample and gather images while on a set schedule. The team will use a K10 robot and HMP's MARS-1 Humvee Rover field exploration vehicle to simulate a large planetary crew rover equipped with scientific instruments.
