Preparing for Mars expeditions on Svalbard
The Norwegian archipelago Svalbard has been chosen as test bed for life-detection technology to fly on future missions to Mars.
The 2009 AMASE (Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) will be taking place from August 1st to 24th.
Since 2003 six AMASE expeditions have been carried out. This year’s expedition includes more than 30 scientists and engineers from USA, Norway, Germany, Spain and UK. The participants come from different disciplines like microbiology, geology, biogeochemistry and robotics, SpaceRef.com reports.
The participants will carry out very different activities: from testing equipment that eventually would fly in future Mars missions to study the conditions in which extremophiles thrive in glacial ice and develop and test protocols to search for past and present habitable environments on icy planets.
The main research will be carried out in Svalbard fjords rich in carbonates, clays, basalts or water-ice that are considered good Martian analogue.
