Researchers are on a hunt for Mars-like rocks high in Canada’s Arctic.
The T-MARS project (also known as Terrestrial Mineral Analysis by Remote Sensing) is an expedition testing space living on Axel Heiberg, in the Arctic Ocean. Like ancient Mars, the remote island in traditional Inuit territory is a cold spot that still allows for liquid water at times of the year.
The running water and cold conditions makes the location perfect for T-MARS, a Canadian Space Agency-funded effort running until 2024. Numerous Canadian researchers are on site, including Arctic veteran and planetary scientist Cassandra Marion. “Once we get to the outcrop, we’re collecting a bunch of samples. So on the way back, you’re heavier, because you got a bunch of rocks on your back,” Marion joked with Space.com by telephone, from Axel Heiberg.
Marion studies craters in remote areas and is also the science advisor at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Canada. If you want to hear from Marion personally, the museum is hosting Zoom calls with her on Wednesday, July 18 (in English) and Thursday, July 19 (in French), subject to weather. You can register here.
As Colour Ridge narrows, the views of White Glacier and Thompson glacier get better and better. #gossans #AxelHeibergIsland #TMARS #awesomehike pic.twitter.com/MUmtwaiIIaJuly 16, 2023
See more
Marion and her colleagues are on the hunt to understand gossans, which are highly eroded ore deposits that have analogies to Mars rocks.
“Gossans contain abundant alteration minerals, which require the presence of water during their formation,” the T-MARS project website states. Similar minerals on Mars suggest “the presence of ancient hydrothermal systems on this planet, since the formation of these minerals requires water,” the statement adds.
Using tools and science investigations, the team aims to better understand Martian geological processes, to find new techniques to search for signs of life and to experiment with space technologies (such as satellites) to assist with the ground expedition.
“It’s really a remote sensing-based project,” Marion said of T-MARS, which uses both satellite data from Worldview and on-site data from a small drone Marion pilots herself.
“Some of the students, their research is focused on identifying these deposits from the satellite, and then finding them on site. They’re sampling, they’re mapping them and they’re evaluating if their interpretations from the satellite data are accurate.”
One student is also test-driving a new processing technique to make the gossans stand out in the data, Marion noted. And T-MARS is not the only investigation examining gossans on Earth.
For example, scientists with the NASA Curiosity Mars rover examined biosignatures from a location known as Iron Mountain, near Los Angeles, “to assist with interpretation of mineral texture on Mars,” a United States Geological Survey page about that study states.
Researchers with the T-MARS expedition set up their gear for the July 2023 excursion, which is the second and final in the campaign series. (Image credit: Cassandra Marion/Twitter)
This expedition is Marion’s sixth to the high Arctic and 13th overall; she has also been to locations such as the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah that also does Red Planet-like work and research.
Going on this expedition requires months of training, Marion pointed out. All participants have remote first aid certification as the “bare minimum,” while a few also have a firearm possession and acquisition license as a last-resort form of protection against wildlife. Training in riding helicopters, situational awareness and remote environments and wildlife protocols is also a necessity so that everyone knows how to behave and think before arriving.
Other requirements include physical fitness, as the expedition based near the McGill Arctic Research Station (yes, the McGill University facility’s acronym stands for MARS) requires hours of hiking in rugged terrain, and carrying equipment. Just one of the instruments, a reflective spectrometer, has a mass of 40 pounds (18 kilograms). “The whole instrument has its own backpack, and it’s the heaviest backpack,” Marion said.
A Twin Otter aircraft (far in the background) at the T-MARS research site in the Canadian high Arctic in July 2023. (Image credit: Cassandra Marion/Twitter)
The techniques scientists are using on-site are not only useful for Mars, but also the moon. That’s highly relevant given Canada is highly involved in moon exploration, alongside NASA, under the American-led Artemis Program aiming to land astronauts on the moon in 2025 or 2026 along with a suite of scientific payloads.
For example: Artemis 2 will send Orion the moon in November 2024 with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. A Canadian micro-rover, a utility vehicle and experiments funded by the CSA’s Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program are also bound for the surface, among many other activities.
RELATED STORIES:
“The students that we’re bringing up here, this is developing highly qualified people that you can use to work on those missions,” Marion said. “These expeditions are really training the generation that is going to be interpreting all of the data coming back from the moon, which is going to be huge for both the rover and human missions.”
Additionally, the head of science on the T-MARS mission is Myriam Lemelin, an assistant professor at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec. Lemelin is highly experienced in space missions and is part of three moon efforts alone: The lunar micro-rover, the NASA-led Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) water-hunting rover mission, and the lander-rover mission Lunar Vertex. All three are scheduled to touch down on the moon later in the 2020s.
The researchers will be on site until July 22, meaning they will also celebrate there the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission on July 20. Data analysis and publications will also close out the rest of the project timeline in 2024.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
