The next rover mission to Mars in 2020 to search for biosignatures — how New Zealand’s hot springs are helping NASA choose the next landing site
A team, including Professor Kathy Campbell, attended a workshop sponsored by NASA and JPL on 8-10 February 2017 in Monrovia, California, where 250 scientists and engineers discussed where the next Mars rover, launching in 2020, should land. Kathy’s team presented arguments for one of the 8 remaining landing sites that were still under consideration – at Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater – and were successful in making it into the Final 3. Choice of The One will happen at the 4th Mars 2020 landing site meeting planned for 2018.
Gravitational Microlensing – one way to hunt for exoplanets
New Zealand is solving some of the most captivating mysteries within the universe. One of the many research facilities is nestled within the Mackenzie basin at the Mt. John University Observatory in Lake Tekapo. It is home to some of the largest telescopes found in New Zealand; the largest being the 1.8m MOA II telescope. It uses a relatively old concept called gravitational microlensing, however this technique has only been put into play for the last 10 years to find exoplanets.