Europlanet’s Transnational Access programme allows any European planetary science researcher access to a set of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and field sites. A call for proposals is put out each spring and all applications are peer reviewed. Applicants must apply to use facilities outside the country in which they are based.

Europlanet's Field Sites TNA provides access to five sites that have been selected as realistic analogues of surfaces of Mars, Europa and Titan, to which planetary missions have either recently been directed or are planned. The five sites are:

• Rio Tinto a 100 km stretch of river located in the Huelva province in South West Spain. The river water at this site, uniquely in Europe, is very acidic (the pH averages 2) and is therefore a desirable site for studying possible habitats for life on Mars. Indeed sulphate-rich deposits suggest that Mars experienced a very acidic global environment during its history. The acidity of the water and the mineral presents at Rio Tinto give an opportunity to assess the relative roles of biological and inorganic processes in producing similar geology found recently on the surface of Mars by NASA’s Mars Environmental Rover, Opportunity.

   

• Tunisian Chott, located in South West Tunisia, is a seasonal lake that is completely dry most of the year. The surface of the lake is covered with a hard crust of sodium chloride (table salt) covering underground water. From the astrobiology point of view it is extremely interesting to examine the biological cycles at such low and salty water levels. Future space missions are expected to take advantage of remote testing facilities such as Tunisian Chott El Jerid to validate their instrumentation. Before the wider community could access the site, it needed to be fully characterised by Europlanet’s JRA1 team, using field, geophysical and microbiological methodology. It is open for Transnational Access from 2011.

   

• Ny-Ålesund in the Svalbard archipelago is the world's northernmost permanent settlement, only 1,200 km from the North Pole. It includes areas in front of two glaciers that are very well suited for testing instruments for ground ice and permafrost mapping. In addition, there are locations that include large amounts of buried glacier covered by layers of sediments that comprise mixtures of silicate minerals and organic material. Growing interest in the icy moons of Jupiter, and the possibility that they may host life forms, has made opportunities to carry out research at this site highly competitive. Europlanet provided access to the site during a field campaign in 2010.

   

• Ibn Battuta Centre near Marrakech in Morocco is a desert field facility. This extreme environment is used to test rovers, landing systems and instruments for Mars exploration and to perform scientific analysis of Mars-like terrains, including sand dunes, rocky deserts and flash flood drainage-features. Geological analysis of the region aims to understand the origin of environments that appear remarkably comparable to those observed on Mars, such as mud volcanoes and features shaped by the wind. Astrobiologists are also examining potential habitats and energy sources within ancient mud volcanoes and evaporated sediments to understand how organisms that live within rocks and bacteria in arid environments function.

   

• The Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia Russia is one of four regions in the world with extensive geyser activity. The site will allow scientists to study the complex inter-relationship between volcanism and how land-forms develop, whilst the hot springs are also the habitat of diverse microbiology. The microorganisms living in these springs survive in extreme conditions both in terms of temperature and acidity. The site is therefore both useful for studying prebiotic conditions and as an analogue for some of the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons (e.g Europa and Titan). The Kamchatka region also offers Mars analogue terrains and was used in the Soviet/Russian space programme for testing of Mars rovers for Mars-96 mission.

Several field trips have already taken place through the Europlanet TNA programme.  Some of the scientists that participated have blogged about their experiences:

Dr Felipe Gómez led an expedition to study the similarities between the Chott El Jerid Desert and mineral deposits in the surface of Mars, and look at ecosystems that survive in extreme conditions below the surface.  Read more

Professor Liane Benning (University of Leeds) travelled to Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, to study how life could exist on other icy places in our Solar System. Read more

Dr Agnes Samper (University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada) travelled to one of the remotest places on Earth, the Kamchatka peninsula, to piece together the complex life story of two volcanoes. Read more>