La 2 premieres documentary about UPWARDS, a project for the study of Mars led by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia

The UPWARDS project is coordinated by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), with the participation of seven European scientific institutions. It will develop new analytical techniques to exploit the Mars Express and ExoMars data. Among the activities to publicize the project is the documentary "Rediscovering Mars: UPWARDS project", which airs today at 18h in La 2 of Spanish Television.

Over a period of three years, the consortium Understanding Planet Mars With Advanced Remote-sensing Datasets and Synergistic Studies (UPWARDS) will review and analyze the data collected by the European Mars Express mission and other missions to Mars. To do so the consortium will develop innovative tools for data analysis and apply new geophysical and atmospheric models to help scientists address unresolved issues such as the water cycle on Mars, the source of the methane gas detected in its atmosphere or the variability of dust storms. The project has been funded with 2.1 million euros by the European program H2020.

The new tools that will generate the UPWARDS project will not only allow to get more information from the data we have about the red planet, but it will be critical for the review of the evidence collected by the ExoMars mission that has recently arrived at Mars. Also, the intense work that will develop this multidisciplinary consortium will create a scientific context reference on which to prepare both the operation of ExoMars Rover, scheduled for 2018, and other future missions to Mars.