{"id":2148,"date":"2014-04-11T13:04:48","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T11:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/?p=2148"},"modified":"2014-04-11T13:04:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T11:04:48","slug":"mars-mimicking-chamber-explores-habitability-of-other-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/2014\/04\/11\/mars-mimicking-chamber-explores-habitability-of-other-planets\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars Mimicking Chamber Explores Habitability of Other Planets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers in Spain have designed a vacuum chamber capable of mimicking conditions on Mars to test gear for use in future missions<\/span><\/h3>\n

SOURCE: WASHINGTON,\u00a0March 25, 2014\u00a0\/PRNewswire-USNewswire<\/h4>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

A research team in\u00a0Spain\u00a0has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the \u00abRed Planet.\u00bb They do it within their Mars environmental simulation chamber, which is specially designed to mimic conditions on the fourth planet from the sun — right down to its infamous Martian dust. Mars is a key target for future space exploration, thanks to indications that the planet may have either been capable of supporting life in the past or is possibly even supp<\/span>orting it right now within its subsurface. To answer the many questions about the habitability of Mars, it’s critical to first develop new sensors and instruments capable of detecting the planet’s atmospheric and surface characteristics. In the journal\u00a0<\/span>Review of Scientific Instruments<\/em>, which is produced by AIP Publishing, researchers from Centro de Astrobiolog\u00eda, INTA-CSIC, and Instituto de Ciencias de Materials deMadrid\u00a0describe their work mimicking conditions on Mars. \u00abMars is a good place to learn about planets similar to ours and, as such, is the target of many NASA and European Space Agency missions,\u00bb explained Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Mart\u00edn-Gago, a research professor at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de\u00a0Madrid. \u00abOur group is primarily involved in the Mars Science Lab<\/span>oratory mission to construct a meteorological station intended for future use on a rover to further explore Mars’ surface.\u00bb By building here on Earth state-of-the-art vacuum chambers capable of reproducing the physical conditions of Mars — including temperature, pressure, gas composition, and radiation — the researchers can experimentally mimic these conditions to test instrumentation in \u00abreal\u00bb environmental operation conditions. Vacuum chambers have already enabled the researchers to test some of the meteorological sensors currently used onboard the Curiosity rover, which is exploring the surface of Mars. But they are now turning their attention to other challenges,\u00a0<\/span>such as Martian dust. \u00abWe’re simulating the effect of the Martian dust — one of the primary problems for planetary exploration — to gain a better understanding of how instruments behave when covered in dust,\u00bb said\u00a0Jesus Sobrado, the scientist in charge of the machine’s technical development. As part of its research effort, the team has designed and built vacuum chambers devoted to simulating spatial environments, such as the surface of other planets like Mars’ surface or even Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, the interstellar medium, and interplanetary regions. Vacuum chambers can \u00abanswer many questions about Mars or other related planetary bodies — both from scientific and technology points<\/span>\u00a0of view,\u00bb he added. Mart\u00edn-Gago and colleagues are currently collaborating with NASA on its mission to test the new meteorological station \u00abTemperature and Wind for Insight,\u00bb associated with the Insight mission, and are also expected to test the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer and Sign of Life Detector instruments proposed for the next mission to Mars in 2020. The article, \u00abMimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars\u00bb is authored by J.M. Sobrado, J. Mart\u00edn-Soler, and J.A. Mart\u00edn-Gago.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0has been published in\u00a0the journal Review of Scientific Instruments\u00a085<\/strong>, 035111\u00a0(2014)<\/a><\/p>\n

More information in this link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers in Spain have designed a vacuum chamber capable of mimicking conditions on Mars to test gear for use in future missions SOURCE: WASHINGTON,\u00a0March 25, 2014\u00a0\/PRNewswire-USNewswire A research team in\u00a0Spain\u00a0has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the \u00abRed Planet.\u00bb They\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,28],"class_list":["post-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categoria","tag-astrobiology","tag-planetary-simulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.icmm.csic.es\/esisna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}