Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) uses Mars analog sites on

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

for testing of science questions and payload instruments onboard

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

missions. AMASE has arranged annual expeditions on Svalbard since 2003 and is run by Vestfonna Geophysical AS and funded by the Norwegian Space Centre,

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. Payload instruments CheMin and SAM onboard NASA's

Curiosity rover ''Curiosity'' is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. ''Curiosity'' was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and lan ...

were deployed on AMASE in 2006–2011. Field deployment of payload instruments onboard ESA's

ExoMars ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate ...

rover has been ongoing since 2007. In 2007 ESA organized a competition, won by a student from

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fi ...

, which allowed the winner to carry out her own experiment during the expedition as well as assist in other experiments and activities.

Dates of the expeditions

* 12 August 2007 – 26 August 2007 * 4 August 2008 – 17 August 2008 * 1 August 2009 – 24 August 2009 * 9 August 2010 – 25 August 2010 * 8 August 2011 – 21 August 2011

References

External links

AMASE Mission
NASA
Mars in the Arctic
ESA

Planetary Society The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, and ...

AMASE student blog: Arrival at Longyearbyen
(Blog entries available in right-hand menu) NASA groups, organizations, and centers History of Svalbard 2006 in Norway Arctic expeditions Human analog missions Human missions to Mars 21st century in the Arctic {{Svalbard-stub