Exploration of Mars

Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the earlier attempts.

Roughly 60% of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions, with some failing before their observations could begin.

Some missions have been met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

which operated for years beyond their specification.

Currently, there are two functional rovers on the surface of Mars, the Curiosity and Perseverance, both operated by the American Space Agency, NASA.

That had been my passion for a long time to work in the space industry.

And in particular with Mars exploration, I managed to get onto the NASA Phoenix Mars mission, which was going to be launched to Mars in 2007 and land near the North Pole and dig into the soil and look for ice under the surface of Mars.

And so one of my roles was to help develop the microscopes that were on board that lander that would take the highest resolution images of the Martian soil ever done to date.

So you could really understand what makes Mars red and how this fine dust might affect future astronauts, but also could there be signs of past or present life in the surface of Mars.

So that was a fantastic hands-on experience at building with my own hands and sending it to the surface of Mars where it sits to continue to sit today near the North Pole and will for millions of years into the future, no doubt.

So yeah, we made some great discoveries about the soil on Mars and the ice underneath it and the prospects for past life as well.

And based on the back of that, at the end of 2008, I was recruited by the European Space Agency to move to the Netherlands, where I'm based now and have been since 2009, working on developing technologies and future mission concepts for Mars exploration for Europe.

So as one of the few people in Europe at that time who had had this hands-on experience of actually working on a Mars mission, I was well-placed to contribute to that effort of preparing for all these complex technologies and capabilities we would need to do advanced exploration missions to Mars.