Finding life on the dwarf planet

Luleå University of Technology may revolutionize research by landing on the dwarf planet Ceres with the CALICO project. The goal of CALICO, which stands for Ceres Autonomous Lander Into Crater Occator, is to land on Ceres and analyse its surface material. The project has passed the European Space Agency (ESA) selection process.

Ceres belongs to the group of ocean worlds, i.e. solar system bodies where large amounts of liquid water exist or have existed. Research on these types of bodies has increased because it is possible that they have had or have life.

CALICO will land on the dwarf planet Ceres in a crater called Occator, where salt-rich deposits indicate that salt layers have erupted on the surface. There, CALICO will use advanced tools and instruments from leading research institutes across Europe to analyze the chemistry, mineralogy, geology and physics of the surface material. The researchers will also try to find out if there are liquids under the surface of Ceres.

The CALICO consortium consists of more than 80 researchers from institutions in Europe, Japan and New Zealand. Instrument contributions were proposed by institutes from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. The proposal study was also supported by space agencies in Germany and Poland.