‘Life on Mars? Geomorphology, Water and the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Rover Mission

​This seminar is organised by UCD School of Geography. Matt Balme (ESA ExoMars Rover Mission and Open University) will give a talk on ‘Life on Mars? Geomorphology, Water and the European Space Agency’s ExoMars ‘Rosalind Franklin’ Rove Mission’.

Abstract

The martian surface hosts an abundance of geological evidence for the action of liquid water and, of course, water is nearly always considered to be vital for the emergence and development of life Mars’ ancient ‘ period 3 7 Billion years ago), is thought to have been much wetter than the more recent ‘ 3 Billion years ago) period, yet there is still good evidence for liquid water having modified the surface during the past few millions or tens of million years I will present examples of both modern and ancient martian landscapes, and also discuss the ESA ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover mission, which will launch to Mars in 2020 with the main goal of searching for evidence of past life on Mars.

Biography

Matt Balme a senior lecturer at Open University, is a planetary scientist who has spent nearly twenty years working on Mars geoscience He has been involved in a wide variety of research projects, covering processes and landscapes as diverse as fluvial, glacial, periglacial, aeolian, and volcanic He is currently working mostly on preparations for the ESA ExoMars Rover mission and is a member of the ExoMars Rover Science Operations Working Group, and Deputy Science Lead for the Pan Cam (camera) instrument.