Scientists have devised a new vacuum chamber that mimics the environmental condition of the planet Mars. This is to further study the Martian dust and to provide answers to many questions.
They have been studying the Red planet for sometime now because of its habitability characteristics. However, there are still many questions about it that are left unanswered.
Researchers from Spain are testing out a new electromechanical gear that could be used in the future missions to Mars, and they are doing it inside the Mars environmental simulation chamber. This new technology is a part of their effort in devising new instruments that will provide answers for several lingering queries about the suitability of Mars to sustain life.
Through these vacuum chambers, researchers can experimentally imitate the environmental traits of Mars such as its temperature, gas composition, radiation, and pressure, to test instrumentation in an almost identical environmental operation conditions. It also enables them to study the Martian dust.
These chambers have proven useful in testing some of the meteorological sensors used in the NASA's Curiosity rover, a car-sized robotic rover exploring the Gale Crater on Mars.
Jose Angel Martín-Gago, a research professor at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de Madrid explained in a news release that "Mars is a good place to learn about planets similar to ours and, as such, is the target of many NASA and European Space Agency missions. Our group is primarily involved in the Mars Science Laboratory mission to construct a meteorological station intended for future use on a rover to further explore Mars' surface."
"We're simulating the effect of the Martian dust -- one of the primary problems for planetary exploration -- to gain a better understanding of how instruments behave when covered in dust," said Jesus Sobrado, the scientist in charge of the machine's technical development added.
This study was published in the journal, Review of Scientific Instruments.
