Seminario DAS: "Search and use of Martian and lunar rock simulants in modern planetary research"

Speaker: Giovanni Leone
Instituto de Astronomía y Ciencias Planetarias, Universidad de Atacama

Title: Search and use of Martian and lunar rock simulants in modern
planetary research

Abstract: NASA and other worldwide space agencies are always looking for
new suitable places for their tests and excellent specific sites of
interest can be found in the Atacama region. NASA and ESA already
consider the desert of Atacama as one of the best Mars analogues on
Earth and have already performed several tests with rovers there.
However, more work is necessary to make the desert of Atacama a
permanent “must go” testing site with new appealing scientific reasons
and useful infrastructures. Discovering Martian and lunar basaltic
simulants as much similar as possible to the Martian and lunar basaltic
terrains already analyzed by the Martian rovers and the Apollo missions
will provide a good case for further national and international studies.
The current situation is in continuous development and Chile can find
its market of updated simulants for the international space agencies.

Rene A. Mendez
Seminar Coordinator
DAS/UChile - rmendez@uchile.cl