ISR Project Funded to Detect Mars Craters Using AI

PT Space announced the winners of the 2024 PROSSE initiative and one of the selected projects, UNFORSEEN, iwas composed by ISR|Lisboa researchers. It aims to revolutionize crater detection on Mars using unsupervised deep learning, eliminating the need for extensive annotated data. Principal Investigator Margarida Silveira highlighted the significance of craters for understanding Mars' geology.
Portuguese Space Agency (PT Space) has announced the winners of the 2024 edition of PROSSE – PROdex for Science in Space Exploration, a prestigious initiative aimed at funding scientific projects in the field of space exploration in Portugal. Two research projects emerged as selected to receive financial support to advance their groundbreaking research, which includes an ISR-Lisboa-led project.
UNFORSEEN, the project proposed by the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR|Lisboa) at Instituto Superior Técnico, aims to revolutionize the detection of craters on the surface of Mars. This project uses unsupervised deep learning techniques to overcome the limitations of current supervised models, potentially leading to significant advancements in planetary exploration.
Margarida Silveira, Principal Investigator, explained the rationale behind the UNFORSEEN project: “The vast majority of current approaches to crater detection require large amounts of annotated data for training, which is extremely time-consuming. The availability of much larger amounts of unannotated data allows the exploitation of unsupervised methods for the automatic detection and localization of craters. This is important since impact craters are an essential source of information about the geology and surface of Mars, and their accurate detection is also crucial for determining the characteristics of asteroid and meteoroid populations.”
The two projects will now move forward to the contractual phase with ESA’s PRODEX team. The other funded project is focused on mitigating muscular loss in astronauts, which can also be applied in the field of population aging. Both projects will receive funding and international support. “The technical expertise and oversight provided by ESA’s specialists are crucial to ensuring the successful implementation of these projects,” emphasized Marta Gonçalves, Scientific Program Manager at the Portuguese Space Agency.
Share the Post:

Related Posts

LARSyS Annual Meeting 2025

On July 14 and 15, 2025, the LARSyS community came together once again for its Annual Meeting, this time at the Pavilhão de Portugal.

More than 200 researchers and doctoral students from the four LARSyS research units – ISR-Lisboa, IN+, ITI and MARETEC – joined to share research highlights, pitch their thesis work, and generally strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration.

Read More

Paulo Tabuada’s Thought-Provoking Talk at ISR-Lisboa

June’s Get Together at ISR-Lisboa featured a compelling talk by Paulo Tabuada, titled “Ask not what AI can do for control; ask what control can do for AI.” Returning to ISR during a mini-sabbatical, Paulo highlighted how control theory can help us better understand and think of the future of AI, from modelling neural networks to addressing societal impacts. The talk drew a strong audience to the EA3 auditorium and was followed by a lunch for registered attendees. It was a pleasure to welcome back one of our distinguished alumni.

Read More