Please Note: The Europlanet 2024 RI project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149, closed in July 2024. This archive page describes Transnational Access (TA) activities funded through the Europlanet 2024 RI project.
TA2 Facility – OU Mars Chamber (Planetary Environmental Simulation)
Average visit: 20 days
The Open University Mars Chamber is a large, adaptable environmental simulation chamber suitable for a wide range of scientific and engineering investigations.
At 1.8 m long and 0.9 m diameter, the chamber can recreate martian surface conditions for large-scale surface process studies, or for testing large instruments and equipment assemblies.
The temperature is fully controllable between -70ºC and 100ºC.
Atmospheres are typically N2, CO2, air or bespoke mixtures. The chamber pressure can be reduced to 2 mbar, in as little as 5 minutes, with automated control and logging. Extra filtration and frequent pump maintenance enable experiments that work with large volumes of dust.
Ongoing research includes simulations of mud-volcanism, surface runoff of both water and brine solutions on sediment slopes, CO2 sublimation-driven mass wasting on sediment slopes and CO2 sublimation-driven araneiform and dust plume simulations.
Supporting equipment includes:
- Pressure control & logging
- Temperature control & logging
- High speed video cameras
- High definition video cameras
- High speed pyrometer
- UV solar simulator
- In situ borescope
- Photogrammetry camera array & software
- A variety of data & power feedthroughs
- Horizontal, vertical & rotational mechanical feedthroughs
Contact:
Dr Manish Patel, School of Physical Sciences, Open University
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom, manish.patel@open.ac.uk
Selected publications from previous TA visits to the OU Mars Chamber
Report summaries of TA visits to facility
Publications related to TA2.20 facilities and visits
Back to the TA2 Distributed Planetary Laboratory Facility Page
