DOHA, 10 April 2005 — Mars too far away? Have you thought about going to Qatar instead? That’s what two American scientists, associated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are doing. They’re looking at the possibility of conducting some crucial experiments for planning Mars exploration in the deserts of Qatar.
Dr. David Wettergreen, associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute at Pittsburgh, and Dr. Pascal Lee, Mars Institute chairman and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute planetary scientist, were in Qatar recently on a scouting report.
Lee now is analyzing sand samples taken from Qatar for planning the experiments, a source told Arab News.
“The aim is to test the functioning of a solar-powered robot in the Qatar desert, and the suitability of the terrain for that is being studied with the help of the samples taken from various locations,” the source said.
The two scientists were in Doha as guests of the Qatar campus of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU-Q), one of an increasing number of top American education establishments opening their colleges in the Gulf state.
Wettergreen and Lee were reportedly inspired to visit Qatar by CMU-Q dean, Dr. Charles E. Thorpe, himself a world-renowned robotics expert.
“We are particularly interested in deserts because Mars is a desert on a global scale,” Lee said during his visit last month.
Terrestrial desert experiments are considered crucial for planning any Mars exploration because of the nature of terrain on the Red Planet.
The two scientists see Qatar as an ideal site for Mars exploration experiments due to the “combination of hi-tech academic facilities, infrastructure and proximity the desert.”
The Qatar trip offered the two experts their first chance to study a barren, sandy desert as they had only been to rocky deserts until then.
A factor in favor of Qatar is that it has both sandy and rocky stretches of desert. As experiments are being proposed in both types of topographies, scientists naturally will prefer an area having these two features in proximity.
“The advantages we have in Qatar include access to stony deserts in the northern part and the presence of gypsum rocks, which are found in Mars,” the scientists noted in the interview during their visit.
While in Qatar, Wettergreen explored the types of robotic systems that could be operated in the sandy desert and Lee the terrain’s similarity to the Martian environment.
Lee, principal investigator for the NASA Haughton-Mars Project, centers his research on the history of water on Mars and on the possibility of life in the universe. Wettergreen has done research and experimentation in autonomous long-range rover navigation and rough-terrain surface navigation. Sources said that if the tests prove the viability of Qatar deserts, the scientists may even attempt spacesuit experiments in select locations in the state in future.
So if you’re traveling across the Qatar desert and meet a strange little robot, do not be alarmed, unless, of course, you are a Martian because its next stop may be on your doorstep back home.
