Scottish university to test out Mars Rover on billion-year-old Highland rock
Scotland is making a contribution to space exploration by loaning out one of its ancient rocks to test out a robot bound for Mars, with researchers from one of the country's top universities trialling instruments to be used on the European Mars Rover.
Researchers from The University of St Andrews will carry out imaging and analysis of one billion-year-old geological formations that are very like those on Mars to boost the rover's intelligence before its set to launch in 2028.
A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle that is designed to travel on the surface of Mars and allow scientists to examine more territory, target specific features, and study the planet's geology and environment, reports The Daily Record. Some rovers also collect samples for future return to Earth.
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Using the billion-year-old mudstones that are unique to the north-west Scottish coastline, the researchers will be able to understand how the geological capture of ancient microbial life in these sediments changes the chemistry of the rocks.
They can also better understand how these changes can be detected using Mars rover instruments. These ancient rocks are the same that would have been found in Mars' ancient terrains when the environment was much more agreeable to life.
Led by Dr Clare Cousins, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, researchers have already been on getting their hands dirty in the fields of north west Scotland with two emulator instruments.
"Our understanding of Mars is rooted in geological knowledge inherited from the Earth," Dr Cousins explained.
"Rock formations here are vital testing grounds for new instruments that are destined for the Martian surface.
"It's hoped these instruments will allow the ExoMars rover team to identify those geological formations at the landing site that not only betray once habitable water-rich environments that existed billions of years ago, but also rocks that are excellent at preserving the long-gone remnants of microbial life.'
The University of St Andrews is also part of a larger project in partnership with the University of Western Ontario for their Canadian Space Agency project to test these same instruments at an impact crater site in Germany.
It comes after astronomers, including one from University of Edinburgh, have stumbled across a strange object that is emitting radio waves - and they don't know why.
The object - a long-period transient (LPT) - is emitting pulses of radio waves and X-rays every 44 minutes.
LPTs are a relatively new class of astrophysical objects that are known to emit radio waves periodically.
However, this is the first time such objects have been detected in X-rays. Incredibly, the discovery could hint at a new type of physics or new star models in the sky.
As of yet, there is no clear cut answer to what the curious entity is, and why it's doing what it's doing.
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