Speaker
Description
20-minute talk + 10-minute questions
Since 2013, the Boulby Underground Laboratory has been used as a subsurface scientific site to study life in deep subsurface environments and to test equipment for the robotic and human exploration and settlement of space. Over ten subsurface campaigns as part of MINAR (Mine Analogue Research) have been hosted by the laboratory. They have involved teams searching for novel extremophiles in deep subsurface anaerobic brines of relevance to the search for life on Mars and testing rover instrumentation destined for Mars as well as NASA and ESA life detection technology. Planetary scientists from Europe, USA, China, India and other countries, have come to use the underground laboratory to advance space research work. This talk will discuss this work, how underground laboratories can be used for space exploration and settlement, and future prospects for underground laboratories as planetary exploration facilities.
