• Question: after reading your profile i still don't understand quite what you do

    Asked by cookies to Elie, Jenn on 7 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by AstroPip, Vixen and Summer.
    • Photo: Elie Allouis

      Elie Allouis answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      Haha, then that requires some explanations 🙂

      My job is about taking a mission concept, like a future mission to Mars, and working out how to make it possible: designing a spacecraft, the lander and the other elements that are critical to the mission. I am especially involved in the design of all kind of robotic systems like a rover or robotic arms.
      When we know what we need, we can setup specific projects to develop and demonstrate the technology, including testing rovers and robotic arms…this is one very cool part… It allows us to gain really interesting experience to make sure our future mission concepts work.
      Some interesting projects included collaborative robots, spider robots and 3D printed robotic arms… 🙂

    • Photo: Jenn Wadsworth

      Jenn Wadsworth answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      I grow microbes in the lab then put them in high radiation environments (for example expose them to X-rays, Martian UV), then see if and how they can survive! I currently have some microbes in an experiment aboard the ISS, stuck to the outside of it and exposed to the harsh conditions of space. They’re set to come back down to earth this summer. Again, I’ll see whether and how any of them survived. This can tell us about potential contamination risk to other planets, how life could have spread across space and also about how life on earth developed tricks to survive extreme conditions. Such hardy microbes could eventually be used to help grow food or produce materials for colonies on other planets 🙂
      hope this helped!

Comments