17 – Canada CanMars, too! (feat. Eric Pilles)
The University of Western Ontario's Eric Pilles joins Jake to talk abut the CanMars rover analogue run by the Canadian Space Agency.
WeMartians Podcast · WeMartians Podcast
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
NASA currently operates two rovers on the surface of Mars, but in the next five years that population could more than double as JPL prepares its third rover, and space agencies in Europe and China look to create their own footholds. That’s why creating a pipeline of talent that can plan, target, drive and otherwise operate these rovers is so important. Enter CanMars – an anlogue mission run by the Canadian Space Agency using real rovers here on Earth. I caught up with Eric Pilles, the planning lead for CanMars 2016, to find out how he and his team of scientists from universities across Canada are learning the ins and outs of rover ops, and how the science drives their goals.
Links
- Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (University of Western Ontario)
- Canadian Space Agency’s CanMars Site
- Specs for the Mars Exploration Science Rover (MESR)
WeMartians Theme Song is “RetroFuture” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/