City's ties to the Red Planet City's ties to the Red Planet (January 09, 2004)

With Moffett Field and the NASA/Ames Center on its southern flank, Mountain View has always enjoyed its close proximity to the science and cutting edge technology that often is generated there.

And now, just as NASA celebrates the extraordinary achievement of safely landing a roving vehicle on Mars on Jan. 3, residents with a scientific interest can learn much more by visiting the newly-opened Mars Center at NASA/Ames. Anyone interested in knowing more about the "fourth rock from the sun" can visit the center to see and manipulate models of the two Mars rovers or see images sent back to earth from Spirit, the first of the two NASA rovers scheduled to land on the faraway planet this month.

But while the Mars mission is overseen from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, NASA/Ames' involvement in the Mars mission is much more than providing a hands-on exhibit at Moffett Field. Scientists here, who specialize in astrobiology and thermal protection, among many other things, were deeply involved in the mission.

Planetary geologist Jeff Moore explained that NASA/Ames scientists were principal players in creating the rover's heat shield and parachute, as well as some of the mission software.

The Mars visit, while ultimately designed to determine if life did exist on the faraway planet, is primarily focused on a search for evidence of water on the now-arid surface. NASA/Ames scientists helped select the rover's Gusev Crater landing site, which featured "the greatest chance of having rocks or outcrops that were originally deposited in water," said Moore.

The contributions of all scientists to the so far-successful Mars mission is certain to help NASA/Ames and its parent agency restore some luster to the image tarnished by the loss of the Columbia spacecraft last year. We can all be proud of the men and women who make these exciting experiments possible and who bring them to the public at installations like the new Mars Center, which just opened at NASA/Ames last week.

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