Mapping out the Moon and Mars at Constructor University

Landing on distant planets isn’t possible without maps: In a week-long Winter School, Constructor University in Bremen imparted basic knowledge on how to create high-quality planetary cartography. The interest in the digital training was immense: more than 400 students and young scientists from all over the world participated. It was organized by Dr. Angelo Pio Rossi, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and his team.

By holding its third Winter School on the topic, Constructor University cemented its reputation as one of the centers for planetary geologic mapping in Europe. Among the lecturers were not only scientists from the private university, but also from the European Space Agency, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the United States Geological Survey as well as several partners across Europe from the Europlanet Research Infrastructure.

Most of the participants came from India, Italy, China and the United States. Their number has doubled compared to the first winter school two years ago. "This proves the great international interest in this topic," said Rossi. "Mapping is crucial to many planetary exploration activities."

The hands-on school was primarily devoted to creating geological maps of Moon and Mars, placing an emphasis on the characterization of landing sites. They must allow safe landing of rovers, be trafficable, and permit the fulfillment of scientific objectives.

In particular, geologic maps provide information on the distribution of rocks and deposits in the area, their ages, and the geologic evolution and subsurface geometry of the rock bodies. The more data available about an area, the better the maps. For this, machine learning techniques play an increasingly important role. The lecturers even looked far beyond the Moon and Mars, to Venus and Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn. However, according to Rossi, the latter are not yet relevant for human exploration.

 
More information on the Winter School:
https://www.planetarymapping.eu

Questions answered by:
Angelo Pio Rossi | Professor for Earth and Planetary Sciences
anrossi@constructor.university | Tel.: +49 421 200-3153

Image: Map view of the Jezero crater delta (NASA / MRO / CTX / USGS Astrogeology). In black the traverse of NASA Mars2020 rover (MASA MMGIS / JPL). (Source: Constructor University)