The course aims to acquaint students with the collaborative and multidisciplinary approach required for planning and executing robotic missions to explore our Solar System. The lecturers of the course are part of the Science Team of the Rosalind Franklin Rover, which will search for signs of past life on Mars as part of the ExoMars mission, led by ESA in collaboration with NASA. This mission will serve as the link between the following subjects: the search for extraterrestrial life, the history of space exploration, planetary geology, the detection of biosignatures, planetary exploration with orbiters, planetary geomorphology, research at Mars-analogue sites, and space systems engineering. 

During the first part of the course, the students will be divided in 3 groups and will have the task to prepare presentations covering 3 topics (The geology and climatic evolution of Mars; Search for life on Mars; Robotic Exploration of Mars) this multidisciplinary subjects will be complemented with discussions and presentations given by the lecturers. The second part of the course will include a practical component in which the participants will take part in a simulated mission to Mars, based on images and data acquired by NASA’s Curiosity rover. This simulation is similar to those that the ExoMars Science Team is currently organizing to prepare for the actual mission. It will give students the opportunity to understand the challenges associated with remote robotic exploration while also applying, in a realistic case study, the concepts of geology and astrobiology covered in the introductory lectures. During the course, participants will also visit the Marslabor of the University of Basel in Witterswil, a facility designed to simulate image acquisition and robotic missions in an artificial Martian landscape. A collection of Mars analogue samples is available in this laboratory and will be used for image acquisition exercises. At the end of the course, students will prepare a presentation summarizing the outcome of the simulated mission and displaying the data produced in the Marslabor.

The course is limited to 8 students. Selection of participants will be based on a short presentation and motivation letter (maximum one page) to be sent to Dr. Tomaso Bontognali to the following email address: tomaso.bontognali@clutterunibas.ch