AROSE warmly welcomes new consortium member QUT (Queensland University of Technology); a collaborative Australian research university.
QUT brings to the AROSE consortium world-class expertise in disciplines required to design and build planetary rovers, including robotics, planetary materials and energy sciences.
This expertise is currently in use as part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover mission on Mars, where a group of QUT researchers and students are working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to guide the rover on its key astrobiology task of seeking signs of ancient life on Mars.
QUT’s Dr David Flannery is a member of the Perseverance science team, a Long-Term Planner for the mission, and a Co-Investigator of a rock chemistry instrument (PIXL) aboard the rover.
“With this mission, there is the opportunity to answer the profound question of whether life existed elsewhere in our solar system,”
Dr Flannery said.
QUT hopes to translate its terrestrial and space heritage to new projects with AROSE.
Acting Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics, Professor Michael Milford, said: “Space and robotics are both incredibly exciting, as is the opportunity to combine both together.
“We’re looking forward to working with the AROSE consortium to develop new technologies that benefit both space and terrestrial applications.”
QUT’s robotic solutions have also helped address key global challenges. Rangerbot, for instance, is a multifunction underwater robot used in world-leading research projects to facilitate coral restoration and control marine pests.
AROSE CEO, Leanne Cunnold, welcomed the university to AROSE saying: “QUT’s research expertise and focus on collaboration to solve challenges faced across the globe and into Space, completely aligns with the AROSE mission.
“Working together, we can harness our collective strengths and use our technologies, systems and models to benefit Earth with real-world remote operations solutions to global problems, while setting our sights on the Moon and beyond, to grow Australia’s space future.”
