The University of Winnipeg

Published purpose

Dr. Cloutis has been involved in the NASA Mars Perseverance Rover mission since 2013, as a Co-Investigator on the Mastcam-Z Science Team (and as a Collaborator on the SuperCam Science Team). Mastcam-Z was selected for flight on the rover and is currently operating on Mars. He proposes to continue, deepen, and expand this involvement through this Announcement of Opportunity. With this Co-Investigator grant he will be able to more fully participate in this ongoing mission. The Co-Investigator grant will allow: (1) The proposer to attend team meetings of the full rover team and Mastcam-Z and SuperCam teams; (2) fund Canadian students to contribute more fully to rover and instrument operations in various roles; (3) respond to new discoveries by the mission via short-turnaround supporting laboratory studies; (4) train Canadian students via analogue field deployment to be able to better engage in rover data analysis; (5) bring new Canadian HQP into planetary exploration