Research in the WROONA Group Daniel Mège FNP project TEAM 2011/7-9 October June one or two unrealistic ideas for future instrumental development

Wroona is a small blue world in Wroona system, located on the far edge of the Inner Rim in the Rayter Sector. The planet's continents are separated by vast oceans, and their blue-sand beaches stretch for thousands of kilometers. The near-human inhabitants of Wroona, numbering over seven billion, are a blue-skinned species with a lighthearted and optimistic outlook on life. StarWars wiki Mars helps understand the Earth Earth helps understand Mars © John C. Holden

Present collaborations

Comparative geoscience Research topics

Marsvs.Afar

Similar processes Socompa Peru Valles MarinerisLandslides Collapse of topographic ridges Valles MarinerisTatra Mountains Slovakia Rock alteration Gale crater SE Ethiopia

1 kierownik Research team 4 PhD students 2 postdocs (adiunkt) 1 PhD student 1 adiunkt (zastępca kierownika) 1 professor Science topics Evolution of paleoenvironments Cold environments Mass wasting processes

Datasets used SpacecraftInstrumentData typeBasic usageResolution /pixel Mars Global SurveyorMOCPanchromatic imagerymorphology6 m min MOLALaser altimetry shotstopography, gravity mapsvariable MAG-ERMagnetic field measurementsmagnetic maps Mars ExpressHRSCStereoscopic imagerymorphology, topography10 m, DEM 50 m OMEGAHyperspectral cubesmineralogy300 m MaRSOrbital trackinggravity anomaly maps Mars OdysseyTHEMISDay-time imagerymorphology19 m Night-time IR imagerysurface thermal properties100 m Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CTXPanchromatic imagerymorphology, topography5 m, DEM 20 m HiRISEPanchromatic imagerymorphology, topography25 cm, DEM 1 m CRISMHyperspectral cubesmineralogy18 m SHARADSounding radarsubsurface structure15 m (vertical) Mars Science LaboratoryVarious geological comparison between Gale crater and Wroona Group study areas

Favourite study area Valles Marineris tectonic volcanic sedimentary glacial, fluvial, aeolian - Window to the Martian crust (10 km deep) - Fossilized environmental successions in the landscapes - Variety of geological processes common to Mars and Earth

130 km 8.5 km Valles Marineris The whole Mars history is there!

What do we need? Ideas more high resolution imagery better spectral data better topography … more and better everything… We need to go to the field! Check the surface (geology) Check the subsurface (geophysics) Let's be innovative!

Let's explore the field! Subsurface geophysics Crustal structure Crustal deformation features Mège and Masson, 1996 © Medialab, ESA 2001 Subsurface structure Gravity-driven topographic deformation Mège and Bourgeois, 2011

Subsurface geophysics Seismicity Resistivity Magnetotelluric imaging Okavango Rift, Botswana MT survey Mosley Bufford et al., 2012 Gulf of Mexico Seismic survey Pindell et al., 2011

Seismicity geophones Geophone 4, Apollo 17 Subsurface geophysics Resistivity Magnetotelluric imaging electrodes Mole (in 2008)

Let's explore the field! Geological field work Valles Marineris is nice It has recorded on limited surface areas more geologic events than any other site on Mars These successions are concentrated on small surface areas It has the reputation of being unpredictable (surface roughness/ellipse problem) It is nonsense! MSL could have landed in a place similar to this in Gale Crater

MSL landing site proposed by Chonacki and Hynek MSL landing site proposed by Chonacki and Hynek 100 km 5 different sites were proposed in VM for MSL

How to get safely to nice rock outcrops? But the engineering constraint remains: a huge surface area must be smooth for landing corollary there is not much to see

Great discoveries are not planned! Technological challenge Technological challenge Considered option: Back to the basics Back to the basics of space exploration: like the incredible Curiosity landing EXPLORE instead of find what we are expecting to find like the New Horizons spacecraft Scientific and technological visibility Scientific and technological visibility

?  The Mars balls replace humans in the field. The Mars balls replace humans in the field.

 are robust and light enough to be easily transported by wind travel following the wind conditions and make observations and measurements when stabilized are robust and light enough to be easily transported by wind travel following the wind conditions and make observations and measurements when stabilized The Mars balls…

Radio communication Science payload: MS/HS camera and other sensors (thermal, mag…) Automatically inflattable for higher portance and instrument protection between observation sites Internal gravity balance for instrument orientation control Spring/hammering mechanism to start blocked balls or change the ball orientation for new measurements 10, 20, 50 items released in one flight? Requires good knowledge of wind conditions in Valles Marineris Radio communication Science payload: MS/HS camera and other sensors (thermal, mag…) Automatically inflattable for higher portance and instrument protection between observation sites Internal gravity balance for instrument orientation control Spring/hammering mechanism to start blocked balls or change the ball orientation for new measurements 10, 20, 50 items released in one flight? Requires good knowledge of wind conditions in Valles Marineris The Mars balls Other features

ARES platform (Joel Levine, NASA LaRC) prepared for another NASA Scout mission Carriers that have already been developed: KittyHawk glider, NASA Scout mission (Wendy Calvin, UNR), was to be flown above Valles Marineris in 2003 for the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' flight ARES Scout mission payload

Let's make it true!