On the lower slopes of Mauna Kea, an inactive Hawaiian volcano, some Sudbury technology firms are in the process of testing equipment and rovers for possible missions on extraterrestrial surfaces such as the Moon.

Space Resources Canada (SRCan), which includes Sudbury's Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (NORCAT) and Electric Vehicle Controllers Ltd. among others, is conducting the field tests in partnership with NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center.

The work follows similar activity undertaken by the partners in Sudbury in late October.

Field tests center around recovering and using resources in space, with SRCan contributing expertise in mining technology, electric vehicle controls, mobility platforms, communications and vision systems, to name a few.