The ability of laboratory experiments to recreate extra-terrestrial environments and to test optical, mechanical, thermal, morphological and other physical properties of various analogue materials has always been a critical method for understanding the processes observed on planetary surfaces in the Solar System. Our science team focuses on the current state of experimental studies of the extra-terrestrial ices and how these studies are applied to analyze space data.
For this work, we use the term “ices” as it is commonly used in planetary science, i.e. to refer to the solid state of volatile chemical compounds with low boiling point, such as nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrogen, methane and sulfur dioxide.