Red planet comes home Red planet comes home (January 02, 2004)

NASA opens new exhibit on Mars

By Jon Wiener

With the unveiling of NASA/Ames' new Mars Center the red planet, or at least a re-creation of it, is becoming easier to visit. The exhibit opened at Moffett Field on Dec. 29 and will run through June in conjunction with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.

The Center features displays on NASA's exploration of Mars and the possibility that life exists or existed on the red planet. Visitors can remotely control models of the two rovers expected to land on Mars in January. An "immersive theater" will show mission images transmitted from NASA's Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena.

"We hope this Mars Center will inspire people, both young and old," said NASA/Ames spokesperson David Morse.

Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, a scientist on the rover mission, highlighted the firsts that NASA will achieve during this mission, including the use of two rovers, analyzing the contents of rocks and exploring the southern hemisphere of Mars.

"Future generations will remember this time as a turning point in our exploration of Mars," she said.

The focus of the rover mission is to find evidence that liquid water may have existed on Mars long enough for life to sustain itself. The rovers will attempt this by scratching surface and subsurface rocks and analyzing their contents.

In addition to NASA's rover mission, the European Space Agency is sending a probe that will use subsurface radar to contribute to the mapping efforts that are integral to the search for water and life.

Current research indicates the existence of liquid water on Mars in the past, according to Dr. David Des Marais, another mission scientist. Landscape features like ravines and shorelines characterize the crater where one of the rovers will land, while deposits of rocks like hematite make the second site a promising one for further evidence of water.

Des Marais compared the rovers to "our best attempt at a robotic field geologist," with tires for boots, cameras for eyes and all the tools of a geologist.

"It will take 90 days for the rover to accomplish what a geologist could in 90 minutes," he said, adding that even five minutes to explore the geology of the Martian surface would be worth it.

"We are hoping to come back from this mission with a better idea of where we should go to look for evidence of life in the future," said Des Marais.

The Center is located near the Moffett main gate in the white tent that formerly housed the U.S. Space Camp. Visitors can view the exhibit from 12 p.m.-4 p.m. during January 2-4. Then it will begin normal hours of operation: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays and 12 p.m.-4 p.m. on weekends.

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