Mars Analog Research

Planet Iceland …aka MArs

Beyond Iceland’s legacy with the Apollo Moon missions in the 60’s, Iceland has also been a critically important location when it comes to exploration of Mars. The Mars 2020 mission used Iceland to test navigational instruments and software for the Perseverance rover. The NASA DIGMARS research team lead by Pi Dr. Michael Thorpe utilized the martian analogs of Iceland to inform the research being conducted by the Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers. Currently the NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return Joint Science team is collecting samples in Iceland that are analogous to samples that have been collected by Perseverance at Jezero Crater. The NASA habitable worlds funded HABMARS project led by Dr. Roy Price is currently collecting samples at our hydrothermal vents that will inform what organisms may have lived on the martian surface 3.5 billion years ago. Beyond the exogeologial and astrobiological projects, technology for Human exploration of Mars is also being developed, tested, and trained in Iceland in connection with the Iceland Space Agency and our MÁNI program.