The WROONA project

Since October 2011, the WROclaw GrOup for PlaNetology Advance (WROONA) implements a project called “Mars: another planet to approach geoscience issues”, realized within the framework of the TEAM programme of the Foundation of Polish Science (project TEAM2011-7/9).

Planet Mars has been identified as the main target for this project, due to the wealth of datasets obtained by the many recent, ongoing, and future exploration missions to Mars, providing a very dynamic and stimulating international research context. The overall objective of the TEAM programme is to increase engagement of young scientists in research performed by the best teams and in the best laboratories in Poland.

 

The WROONA group is hosted at the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre in Wrocław.

Scientific reports

Biannual scientific reports are available below:

Report 1 (Sept - Oct 2011)

Report 2 (Nov 2011 - Apr 2012)

Report 3 (May 2012 - Oct 2012)

Report 4 (Nov 2012 - Apr 2013)

Report 5 (May 2013 - Oct 2013)

Report 6 (Nov 2013 - Apr 2014)

Report 7 (May 2014 - Oct 2014)

The ideas beyond

The activities of the group have been thought as a way to complement the Polish space engineering expertise by enhanced planetary geoscience research in the country, while Poland was joining ESA in 2012.  

As one of the terrestrial planets of the solar system, understanding the geology of Mars requires a good understanding of the geology of the Earth. In turn, because of the absence of tectonic recycling on Mars and the absence of vegetation, the conditions of preservation of landscapes on Mars are globally much better than on Earth. As a result, a number of geological processes observed on Mars can help understand similar processes occurring on the Earth. The WROONA group is investigating selected geological processes that are observed on both planets for a mutual benefit.