ewing leading $11 million nasa-funded study of mars-like icelandic environmentsthe texas a&m team will conduct research in iceland that will inform the 2020 rover mission to mars oct 11 2018an example of terrain showing fluvial sorting in iceland (photo by ewan reid)if youre looking for a place on earth thats similar to the environment found on mars where would you go one scientifically correct answer is iceland specifically near thingvellir and askja and thanks to nasa thats where texas a&m university department of geology and geophysics associate professor dr ryan ewing will be conducting research next summer ewing is the lead principal investigator of a project recently funded by a $11 million grant from nasas planetary science and technology through analog research program in this program scientists go to environments on earth that are similar to environments on other worlds and conduct scientific research but we also do it in a way that mimics how that research might be approached on another world ewing said so were doing a science project but also an operational engineering project examining icelandic terrain an analog of mars ewing and a team of researchers will travel to two sites in iceland that are similar to environments on mars because the terrain includes: an abundance of igneous basaltic rock and sediment; glaciers; fluvial systems similar to martian ancient river systems; and wind-blown material similar to the sand dunes and ripples that cover mars today the project officially begins in january 2019 and the team will conduct research in iceland in the summer of 2019 and summer of 2020 our science question is how does the sediment in these basaltic environments chemically and physically evolve he said how are sediments chemically altered from their source rock from weathering in a cold climate how do sediments change through physical abrasion and sorting across different environments whether its in a river or in a windblown system the project team includes: dr elizabeth b rampe nasa johnson space center astromaterials research and exploration science division; dr briony horgan purdue university department of earth atmospheric and planetary sciences; dr mathieu lapotre stanford university department of geological sciences; and dr karl iagnemma massachusetts institute of technology robotic mobility group ewings science team is also partnering with a private space company mission control space services inc led by ewan reid this public-private collaboration will also include mission control investigators melissa battler and michele faragalli three texas a&m students two undergraduates and one doctoral will also be part of the research team from start to finish he said and will conduct research in icelanddr ryan ewingthis rover will be used by the research team in iceland it is pictured here at white sands national monument new mexico (photo by ryan ewing)well spend about three weeks in iceland each summer and well go to two different locations ewing said both of them are near glaciers on different parts of the island im very excited about it and it should be really interesting aggie-led research will inform the 2020 mars mission in addition to examining sediment processes in iceland the team will also conduct operational and engineering studies well be using a robotic rover and it will be instrumented with cameras and sensors that assess the terrain as its driving ewing explained a big part of this research is to test how autonomous terrain-analysis can be incorporated in scientific work flows for example if the rover senses a terrain thats sandy that can be useful information if its fed back to the science team which is making the decisions about where to go next or what to test next this research projects results will potentially influence and inform future mars rovers designs and operations the mars mission that will launch in 2020 will have a rover and a drone so we are testing both a rover and a drone in iceland he said the mars helicopter a small autonomous rotorcraft will travel on the mars 2020 rover mission scheduled to launch in july 2020 so what were doing will specifically inform operations for mars 2020 by leslie lee ‘09