June 16–18, 2021
The USGS Astrogeology Science Center is hosted a virtual Workshop on Terrestrial Analogs for Planetary Exploration. The workshop brought together community members to discuss a wide range of scientific investigations of planetary analog terrains and processes, exploration strategies, and orbit-to-ground comparisons. Abstracts wre solicited for topics including various planetary processes (volcanic, impact, aeolian, subaqueous, mass-wasting, glacial, tectonic, and others) as well as geophysical, geochemical, and astrobiological investigations. Discussions of field methods, sampling techniques, exploration strategies, technology applications, and ground-truthing were covered, and topics related to data standardization and dissemination. In addition, the workshop addressed analog work that will benefit human and robotic exploration of other planetary surfaces.
Kai Staats provided the closing talk of the day, an overview of the Scalable Analog for the Moon and Mars, SAM.
