In the Eyes of a Rover: An Educational Game Exploring the Ubehebe Volcanic Craters, Death Valley California, which Mimics the Traverse of a Rover

Abstract

The game application, Hebebot: A Martian Expedition through a Terrestrial Analog, was developed for high school students and first year university/college students to promote planetary science, using analyzed data from the Ubehebe Volcanic Field in Death Valley, California. The Ubehebe Volcanic Field are hydrovolcanic landforms created by phreatomagmatic eruptions, which formed a series of maars, which last erupted in the Holocene. The Ubehebe craters are circular depressions, which resembles the crater rich landscape of Mars. The game illustrates how scientists interpret geologic features on Mars by using the techniques and theories used to interpret geologic features on Earth through analog sites. Maar craters resemble impact craters as both are open depressions below the ground surface. The objective of the game is to assist the student participants to identify the origin of the craters, whether they are volcanic or impact. The student participants identified the craters as maars. Photographic images including panoramas and MAHLI images, geochemical analysis- XRF, and petrographic images used to develop the game proved that the craters are maars formed by phreatomagmatic explosions.