Euro-MARS Science (continued)

< Back to Page 1

Broad Science Goals

Detailed planning for the Euro-MARS Science Mission will be the responsibility of the Science Mission Team and the Euro-MARS Science Advisory Committee (EMSAC). However, the broad science goals of each of the MARS habitat units comprise a number of common goals (as stated in the Euro-MARS Overview Brochure):

• Each Science Mission will seek to enhance our understanding of the location in which each MARS unit is located: the geomorphology of the area, the prevalence of life in the region, where such life is found (underground, within rock samples, etc.), how extremophile that life is, etc. Understanding these elements on Earth will help us to better understand similar environs on Mars, and potentially learn where to look for extremophile life on Mars
• Each Science Mission will enable us to better understand what kind of equipment we need to take to Mars in order to undertake real science once we are there, and to identify the equipment that is best used in the habitat unit itself, and the equipment that needs to be portable and robust enough to be used in field operations
• Each Science Mission will enable us to define the optimum means of co-operative study between expertise which may be located at the habitat unit, and the personnel engaged in science operations on the surface of Mars (and potentially several kilometres away from the habitat unit)
• Each Science Mission will enable us to better define the protocols and procedures needed to protect against such elements as accidental contamination of samples collected during an EVA or which enable teams to perform widely differing science studies in the restrictive environment of the habitat laboratory area without risk of cross-contamination between experiments, etc.
• Each Science Mission will present opportunities for organisations external to the Mars Society (academic institutions, research organisations, etc.), to carry out Mars-related studies either directly or on their behalf by Mars Society personnel, in environments that mimic the surface of Mars.

Operating in this way, the Mars Society believes the MARS units will develop an invaluable scientific reference database which will enable us to better plan and execute real missions to Mars when we do eventually send humans to the Red Planet.