From Mars to Meifod: Surface Uncovered

Using data from MOLA, the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter, space scientists at the Department of Physics, University of Aberystwyth have built a scale version of the entire surface of the planet Mars as part of the University’s sponsored science exhibition at the National Eisteddfod at Meifod, (1 – 8 August). The model featured a larger scale version of the Gale crater, the area currently being studied by NASA’s Mars Science Lab rover ‘Curiosity’ and a ‘selfie’ mirror which has been built for the European Space Agency’s 2018 ExoMars Rover mission.

The Rover Inspection Mirror (RIM) will enable the ExoMars Rover to take images of itself should it become damaged. Visitors to the stand were able to remote control and programme mini landers to traverse the Martian landscape and have their photographs taken using a panoramic camera, as if they were actually standing on the red planet.

Project leader, Dr Matt Gunn, an expert in instrumentation and optics, said: “The work we are doing here at Aberystwyth will have a critical role in the success of the mission’s imaging work and will be used by instruments developed for the mission by scientists from the UK, Russia and Switzerland. It’s great to be able to show some of this work at the National Eisteddfod and promote some of the excellent space research that is being done here in Wales.”

The robotic arm of the recently rediscovered 2003 Beagle2 mission was developed and calibrated by researchers at Aberystwyth, work which provided the basis for Aberystwyth’s current involvement with the ExoMars European Space Agency mission in 2018.