Research projects

Microbiology
- Kai W. Finster and Bente Aa. Lomstein

UV Induced Surface Chemistry
- Svend Knak Jensen

Analogue Soil Mineralogy
- Per Nørnberg and Haraldur Pall Gunnlaugsson

Dust Transport
- Jonathan P. Merrison

The Telltale Project
- Haraldur Páll Gunnlaugsson

Interdisciplinary laboratory

The Mars Simulation Laboratory is organized as an interdisciplinary collaboration around joint research on Martian surface conditions.

The Laboratory has access to terrestrial samples, that are very suitable Mars sample analogues, and to research facilities in which very realistic Martian surface conditions can be created.

The research group works in a close interdisciplinary collaboration managed during a weekly one hour meeting with minutes, and has the ambition of adding valuable information to the knowledge of present and past environmental conditions (wind, water, atmosphere, mineralogy, microbiology, chemistry) on the surface of Mars.

Biology:
Bacterial survival after exposure to Martian conditions
Microbiological formation of iron oxides (Mars analogues)

Chemistry:
UV formation of oxide radicals
Heterogenous iron oxidation processes
The Martian carbonate cycle

Geology:
Mars analogue sample mineralogy
Iron oxide formation, and particle size determinations
Mineral identification (XRD, MS)

Physics:
Aerodynamics modelling "on Mars"
Magnetic capture of aerosols
Adhesion/cohesion/charging
Mössbauer spectroscopy
Elemental analyses (XRF)

For further information on the project, please contact:
Per Nørnberg
Associate professor, Ph.D.
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Aarhus
Ny Munkegade, 520
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Tel.: +45 8942 3804
Fax: +45 8618 0037
Email: geopn@phys.au.dk