About Ernst Hauber

As a geologist, Ernst Hauber works primarily on researching the evolutionary history of Mars. He is interested in a variety of processes, ranging from endogenous dynamics, i.e. volcanic and tectonic activity, to various aspects of exogenous dynamics. The main focus here is on processes that influenced the uppermost areas of the Martian crust, which are characterised by permafrost, relatively recently and possibly still today. To this end, he analyses images and topographical data from space experiments, in particular the stereo images from the HRSC camera (High Resolution Stereo Camera), which was developed at DLR and has now been in operation for over 10 years. He heads the Geoscience Working Group of the HRSC team and has been planning the camera images since the start of the mission. He is also involved in other ESA and NASA camera and laser altimetry experiments as a co-investigator. He is a member of ESA's Planetary Protection Working Group and, as a member of ESA's ExoMars Landing Site Selection Working Group, has the task of identifying a safe and scientifically attractive landing site for the ambitious ExoMars rover. His geological studies repeatedly lead him to field work on so-called terrestrial analogues, which help to interpret observations of the surface of Mars in a specific way. He has already visited the permafrost landscapes of Spitsbergen in the Arctic six times to study phenomena such as frost pattern soils or rock glaciers.