NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “amase

  2. AMASE 2009 expedition takes off in the Arctic



    The Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) 2009 is now underway in Svalbard, Norway. AMASE has established Svalbard as a test bed for life-detection technology that will be used on future NASA and ESA ‘Search for Life’ mission to Mars. This year’s expedition includes more than 30 scientists and engineers from a wide range of disciplines, including microbiology, geology and biochemistry. The team will be testing equipment that will eventually fly on future Mars missions while studying extremophiles that live in glacial ice.

    Source: [astrobio.net]

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  3. A New Way to Keep Clean


    It is almost impossible to get a spacecraft completely clean before launch. Therefore, missions to other planets carry some risk of forward contamination – where microorganisms from Earth travel along with the spacecraft to its destination. This is a big problem in the search for life on planets like Mars, because you don’t want to contaminate the site you’re going to be studying. To help combat this problem, a team of scientists funded by a NASA ASTEP award have developed a new cleaning protocol that could be used for future missions to Mars and beyond.

    Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

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  4. Mars Science Laboratory Shakedown in the High Arctic


    Members of the AMASE team (AMASE stands for Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) last month completed their fourth field season on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. They went to test out instruments similar to those that will fly on an upcoming mission to Mars, and to perform a field test of a prototype rover, Cliff-bot, that is capable of climbing up and down 80-degree slopes.

    Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, which lies between the northern tip of Norway and the northern polar ice cap. It is an inviting destination for astrobiology researchers because...

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