The Life in the Atacama project is funded with a $3 million, three-year grant from NASA to Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute in the School of Computer Science. They collaborate with MBIC scientists, who received a separate $900,000 NASA grant to develop fluorescent dyes and automated microscopes to locate various forms of life.

The science team uses EventScope, a remote experience browser developed by researchers at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts, to guide Zo. It enables scientists and the public to experience the Atacama environment through the rover's "eyes" and various sensors. During the field investigation, scientists will interact with Zo in a science operations control room at the Remote Experience and Learning Lab in Pittsburgh. Scientists from NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, University of Arizona, the British Antarctic Survey and the European Space Agency will participate.

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Contact: Lauren Ward
wardle@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-7761
Carnegie Mellon University
10-Aug-2005