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Exploring the Red Planet

by Angela Hey

How would you spend an annual budget of $500 million, for 15 years, on Mars research? That's the question moderator David Kendall, director of General Space Science at the Canadian Space Agency, put to four world experts at a recent NASA Ames seminar.

The seminar was part of the International Space University's Summer Studies Program, a program which brought students from 35 countries here to Mountain View. They studied for nine weeks, learning how to collaborate on international space project proposals, launch rockets, speak to astronauts and undertake space research.

Pascale Ehrenfreund, a professor from George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said she wants to explore the biology of space, beginning in a lab on Earth. In this way, she said, we can learn about molecules that might show signs of life and analyze images from Mars.

She described three ways to look for life on Mars. First, one can study molecular structures found in living matter, like amino acids, found in proteins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, found in fossil fuels. Second, there might be fossil evidence. Finally, iron-based minerals may have reacted with microbes.

Hajime Yano, from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), gave a detailed roadmap for space exploration. Like Ehrenfreund, he emphasized getting the landing site right. The public will lose confidence in a mission if it brings back uninteresting rocks.

He noted that Martian ecology is a challenge. Energy, pollution, atmosphere, climate and habitat are hard to study on Earth, and really hard on Mars. Yano is interested in finding out how materials and life are exchanged between planets. After all, sending people to Mars is years away.

Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA, pointed out that the last decade has seen some very successful work on Mars. The rovers Opportunity and Spirit have been working since January 2004. Opportunity has recently discovered a large metallic meteorite, the size of a big watermelon. Scientists can learn about past atmospheres on Mars by seeing how its surface has changed with time. (Spirit is currently stuck in a sand trap, and getting covered by a dust storm, so scientists are simulating its escape route with two robots on Earth.)

In 2008, the Phoenix Mars Lander dug up icy soil and found water. Mars exploration is about following water, exploring former rivers, deltas, lakes and ice. It's about following gases that might spring from life. For example, scientists need to find out if the methane discovered on Mars is made from geological processes or from decaying biomass, like that underneath the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

David Southwood, director of Science and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), told how, last July, in his home town of Plymouth, England, NASA and ESA agreed to collaborate on Mars missions. It's man's destiny to explore: Darwin sailed from Plymouth for the Galapagos, supported by the English navy. But space exploration is novel, and every mission is a new project. Southwood's message was that space research needs integrating into societal thinking, like naval activities are.

When it comes to changing societal thinking about space travel, Mountain View is on the forefront. You can see this for yourself by visiting NASA's Exploration Center. Touch a Mars globe, or view flyovers of Mars at the Immersive Theater. NASA is engaging our society.

INFORMATION:

NASA Ames Exploration Center is located in Moffett Field just inside the main gate. Open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends noon to 4 p.m., closed Mondays and holidays. For more call (650) 604-5000 or visit www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/exploration.html.

Angela Hey can be reached at amhey@techviser.com.