Join us for a seminar on Ocean Worlds by NASA's Dr. Darlene Lim. This seminar is co-hosted by Open Ocean Initiative and Dr. Dava Newman from the MIT Human Systems Lab.

Use of analog research programs to design and develop mission elements for the human scientific exploration of the Moon, Deep Space and Mars.

Dr. Darlene Lim is a planetary research scientist from NASA Ames Research Center. She currently serves as Principal Investigator or Work Area Lead for 5 NASA research programs. In this seminar, Dr. Lim will share findings from two of these research programs, SUBSEA  (Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog) and BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains) and touch on the NASA VIPER Lunar Rover mission. These analog programs are multi-year endeavors dedicated to conducting field science research with the expressed goal of iteratively developing, implementing, and evaluating concepts of operations (ConOps) and supporting capabilities intended to enable and enhance human and robotic scientific exploration of the Moon, deep space and Mars. Of these NASA programs, SUBSEA  brings together multiple partners joining the worlds of Space and Ocean exploration science: NASA, NOAA, Ocean Exploration Trust, and various academic centers within the US. Its science is focused on fluid venting at volcanic seamounts, 4000m deep, as analog environments to hydrothermal systems on other Ocean Worlds.  The SUBSEA team leveraged the telepresence infrastructure aboard the research vessel to gain unique and unparalleled first-hand operational knowledge that will affect the development of Low Latency Telerobotic concepts that enhance and enable science and discovery in Deep Space.