New research grant to investigate water on Mars

An OU researcher has been awarded £331,000 from the UK Space Agency Aurora Scheme to investigate whether the discovery of water and iron elements on Mars makes it a habitable environment.

Dr Susanne Schwenzer, Lecturer in Earth Science in the OU’s Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, will use the latest data returned from the Mars Science Laboratory mission to investigate further signs of water on Mars.

The grant which runs from 1 June 2018 to 31 May 2021, will feed into the upcoming ExoMars mission through creating understanding of water and element mobility and their impact on the habitability of Martian environments.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission has confirmed the presence of habitable fluviolacustrine mudstone and other sediments as well as alteration expressed as veining and nodules. This research grant is to understand the detailed alteration pathways, especially the formation of iron oxides, as observed at Vera Rubin Ridge in Gale Crater, and the clay units the rover will encounter as it descends from the ridge.

The UK participating scientist team will use a combination of spacecraft data, thermochemical modelling and experiments to investigate the alteration processes. Investigating the Gale Crater alteration processes will then give the team the opportunity to provide an accurate guide and set of hypotheses to better understand the record of water-rock reactions, redox and habitability for the two ExoMars sites currently under selection: Mawrth Vallis and Oxia Planum.

Dr Schwenzer said: “I am looking forward to working on the intriguing question of why we see hematite- a form of ferric oxide that gives Mars its red colour - in some areas and not others. Understanding this will give us insights into the environmental conditions at the time of mineral formation - and from that we can understand its habitability.”

The research grant entitled “Water Rock Reactions, Key To Habitability From The Gale Crater Lake To ExoMars” by Dr Susanne P. Schwenzer (The Open University, Principal Investigator), Professor John C. Bridges (University of Leicester, co-Investigator) and Dr Stuart Turner (The Open University, named Postdoctoral Research Associate) is a continuation of the work of Schwenzer and Professor Bridges on understanding of Martian alteration pathways at Gale Crater, Mars, and beyond. Professor Bridges and Dr Schwenzer are working on Mars Science Laboratory as a participating scientist team (Principal Investigator: Professor Bridges) since 2012 and are currently the only European participating scientist team on the project.

Read more about Space Science at the OU