Dr Claire Cousins and Mark Fox-Powell explain how scientists look at life that exists in extreme environments on Earth, to see what kind of life scientists might see on the surface of Mars.  This knowledge helps scientists plan the best target for a rover.

Professor Cockell takes us through the astrobiology...

Astrobiologist Dr. Lewis Dartnell talks from the Atacama Desert about a research trip to find extremophiles that might give scientists some clues as to the kind of life that may exist on the surface of Mars.  Lewis shows how quartz can act as a natural sunscreen to enable cyanobacteria to grow in the dry desert...

Dr. Mark Woods explains how the rover technologies must be partly autonomous, since the signals from Earth to Mars take too long for every command to be send from Earth.  The technologies developed for space, also have applications on Earth.

This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the...

Professor Sanjeev Gupta explains how scientists from many different disciplines have been brought together for the European Space Agency Aurora programme.  Scientists and engineers also speak about how exciting it is to be working on a search for life on other planets. 

This video is part of a series of ten...

This resource supports the teaching of instrumental analysis, including gas chromatography - mass spectrometry  (GS-MS) time of flight mass spectrometry, using the context of archaeology. This is done by relating the use of solvents, chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to discoveries from the study of...

Professor Andrew Coates and Dr Ian Hutchinson explain how the ExoMars instruments, the Pancam and Raman spectroscopy instruments can be combined to help scientists identify areas of interest on the surface of Mars.  The video shows how field trips are important to learn first-hand the challenges that the ExoMars...

Planetary scientists, Dr. Matthew Balme and Dr. Elliot Sefton-Nash, talk about how challenging it is to find a scientifically compelling site to land in, once the engineering considerations in terms of the landing has been taken into account.

This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the...

Guidance and navigation engineer, Richard Lancaster, explains how the ‘Mars Yard’, at Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, allows engineers to test out the capabilities of the ExoMars rover.  He talks about the need to transmit all commands and receive data through a spacecraft orbiting Mars.  Spacecraft engineer,...

This resource looks at how cutting edge science is being used to answer archaeological questions, as well as solving present day problems, such as the identification of meat in processed foods. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA was performed, at the University of York, on samples from skeletal remains unearthed by the...