Researchers From M.U.S.T. Participate in Discussions on Upcoming Chinese Sample Collection From Mars

A team from the Astrobiology Research Group of the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences (SKLPlanets), Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.), participated at the 2023 International Conference of Deep Space Sciences. This conference was one of the events conducted during the 2023 Space Day of China, held in Hefei at the end of April. The team consisted of Associate Professor André Antunes, Associate Professor David Remolar, Assistant Professor Marta Filipa Simões, and Post-doctoral fellow Ting Huang.

One of the main highlights of the M.U.S.T.-SKLPlanets Astrobiology researchers’ participation in this event included an active role in the topical session Mars Landing Site Selection for Tianwen-3 Mission, with one invited talk and two oral presentations. This session was aimed at collecting opinions and recommendations from the research community in China and abroad on the best-suited samples and sampling sites for the search for evidence of past or present life on Mars, as part of the ongoing official selection process. Tianwen-3 will be the successor of the highly successful Tianwen-1 mission and is expected to launch in 2030 and lead to the return of Martian samples to Earth. The participation of the M.U.S.T.-SKLPlanets Astrobiology researchers at the conference further extended to the potential interactions between microbes and the Mars space environment, as well as the search for Life in the oceans of the Icy Moons of the Solar system.

M.U.S.T. Associate Professor André Antunes at the 2023 International Conference of Deep Space Sciences