New era of planetary collaboration launched
A €9.95m project to integrate and support planetary science activities across Europe has begun.
The Europlanet 2020 research infrastructure (RI) is backed by Horizon 2020 and will run for four years until 2019. The project, led by the UK’s Open University and has 34 beneficiary institutions from 19 European countries, will address key scientific and technological challenges facing modern planetary science by providing open access to state-of-the-art research data, models and facilities across the European Research Area.
Project co-ordinator Professor Nigel Mason said: “Since its foundation in 2005, Europlanet has played an immensely effective role in bringing together the European planetary science community. In this latest project, we have an ambitious programme of research, transnational access, virtual access and networking activities.
“In particular, our focus will be on fostering a closer relationship between industry and academia involved in planetary science, and supporting institutions and partners from countries in the early stages of developing planetary research programmes.”
To support upcoming missions to Mars and to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Europlanet 2020 RI will provide transnational access to terrestrial analogues for the Red Planet, Europa and Titan – this includes field sites in Rio Tinto, Spain; the Ibn Battuta Centre, Morocco; and glacial and volcanically active areas of Iceland.
In addition, two new and highly diverse sites are set to be available to researchers, namely the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, the location of the Dallol Volcano which has remarkable hydrothermal activity that could help understand whether life could evolve elsewhere in the Solar System. The second site is the highly saline Tírez Lake in Spain, an environment that provides an analogue for chloride and sulphate deposits on Mars.
The RI also offers laboratory facilities to help study planetary conditions where there are no natural analogues on Earth, as well as providing a base for determining isotopic and elemental compositions of planetary samples.
Europlanet 2020 will also offer access to datasets needed for comparing and understanding planetary environments in the Solar System and beyond through its Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access (VESPA) service. Space weather research will also be undertaken.
