Research project BL/03/IN17 (Research action BL)
Objectives
- Build on joint expertise to advocate the use of the Lonar crater (province of Maharashtra), as terrestrial analog for Lunar & Martian exploration programs
- Establish basic knowledge to develop an ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program https://www.icdp-online.org/home/) proposal to drill the Lonar crater (network members as leading Pi’s).
- Initiate a collaboration to study (micro)meteorites from Indian and Antarctica (Belgian collection) uniting the analytical facilities available in both groups
- Expand the network to attract more scientists from both counties with expertise in planetary sciences.
To cross-fertilize competences, two field trips will be organized for the network members. One to the 1.8 km in diameter Lonar crater formed 570 (± 47 ka) ago on basalts from the Deccan trap, which also constitutes a unique terrestrial analog for ongoing and future planetary missions to the Moon and Mars. A second field trip will visit the Ries crater in Germany, a highly didactic example to learn about cratering and ejecta processes. While the VUB and IISc group are focused on field and analytical work, the ROB partner contributes its expertise in numerical modeling (iSALE, https://isale-code.github.io). Terrestrial craters on basaltic crust are rare on Earth, therefore the network member propose to use Lonar as analog to better understand Martian and Lunar cases. Indeed, many Lunar and Mars exploration missions are aimed at craters, for example NASA Curiosity, Perseverance (Gale, Jezero Crater), or ExoMars 2022 in Oxia Planum as well as Chandrayaan 1, 2 and future missions of ISRO (ISRO-JAXA).
On meteorites, the Brussels group has been collecting (micro)meteorites from Antarctica since 2009 using the Belgian station PE and IISc has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Geological Survey of India who curates all meteorites that fell on the Indian subcontinent. This MoU guarantees access to a large range of Indian meteorites many of which have not been studied in detail. Moreover, the two partners analytical arsenal is highly complementary in the fields of geochemistry, with IRMS, HR-ICP-MS and MC-ICP-MS available at AMGC and ICP-MS and TIMS instruments operating at the IISc group.
The network composed of scientists with an international reputation in the fields of planetary sciences, geochemistry, meteorites and cratering will, via fieldwork, seminars, exchange-lab-visits fosters contacts and interactions between researchers.
Outcome:
- Belgian-Indian workshop on cratering and meteorites will be organized during the 2024 Meteoritical Society Meeting to be held in Brussels.
- Base for an ICDP proposal to drill the Lonar crater and use it as analog for Mars and Lunar missions
- Integration of analytical facilities between AMGC & IISc group, with ROB providing modeling expertise
The aim is also to use national and international funds to recruit/exchange PhD and Post-docs from both countries.
