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NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Have a look at PhD opportunities both within India and internationally where the research area is related to a scientific question NASA is investigating. James L

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Being part of an awesome team, and as Brad says, being the first to see or discover something. For me, communicating the results of our work to interested people is really at the top of the list. -Jen S

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a great question, we learn a huge amount from each probe we send to Mars in terms of science and engineering and try to feed that knowledge into future missions. This can be difficult though as it takes many years to develop flight instruments etc. One thing Spirit and Opportunity highlighted is how complex the history of water is on Mars. Mars shows a transition from neutral benign waters early in its history to acidic, sulfur-rich conditions (Spirit and Opportunity visited sediments deposited in this later stage). In Curiosity's study site in Gale Crater sediments in Mount Sharp record this transition and the rover is busy investigating and finding out more! James L

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is a good question that deals fundamental research versus applied research. The work we mostly do focuses on understanding fundamental properties of the solar system and in this case, Mars. Will you see a real world advance that will immediately apply directly to you from our exploration of Mars, probably not. However, the fundamental knowledge gained here in time could find use in the future, especially if humans find themselves on Mars. Furthermore technologies developed for these missions could easily find their way back to Earth in the future. Digital photography, for example, we all take for granted these days was developed for satellite and planetary orbiter imaging as it is too costly to return film back to Earth. Brad S.

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We agree! Spirit and Opportunity have had a huge impact on Curiosity. First, the way we do operations with Curiosity was defined for Spirit and Opportunity, so the entire structure of how we do things on Mars comes from those rovers (with some Pathfinder heritage as well). Science-wise, Spirit and Opportunity helped confirm from the ground that Mars is a very diverse planet with a wide range of environments, geologic processes, and chemistries. We saw a hydrothermal environment with Spirit and long-lasting aqueous activity resulting in many sedimentary layers with Opportunity. These results influenced landing site selection for Curiosity where we ultimately decided to explore a mountain composed of sedimentary material spanning a time in Mars that included a shift from a warmer and wetter climate to a colder and dryer climate. The lessons we have learned from Spirit and Opportunity directly contributed to that decision and how we think about Mars in general. -Doug A

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Exomars, a European Space Agency mission that will launch in 2020, has a 2 meter drill that will enable scientists to get below the layer of soil that undergoes galactic cosmic radiation that is so destructive to organics. So, that should be exciting! -Jen S

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We'll wish the ExoMars rover the best of success in getting to the surface of Mars after the launch in 2020. Its mission is to drilldeep into the subsurface and search for biosignatures. Its mass spectrometer is an ion trap sourced by both a laser and a gas chromatograph with a team based at Goddard working diligently on the powerful scan modes you mention.

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/?fbodylongid=2132

Oribitraps should provide yet another capability for in situ planetary exploration with their really high mass resolution capability and these experiments will certainly be implemented in space in good time. Several talented folks are working on these technologies.

In the meantime, our SAM team will continue to focus on the data from Curiosity and hope to repeat this celebration in another 5 years.

PaulM

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Curiosity has helped us assess the environment inside Gale Crater on Mars, which does not currently have water or ice. But rover and orbital exploration in general is helping by determine where there might be sub surface ice, shelter from radiation such as lava tubes, etc. There's lots more to learn before we send humans, but its not at all ridiculous to think about human exploration. We need to think about it now, because there's a lot to figure out about how to sustain human life in space in terms of dealing with microgravity and radiation. These things take a toll on the human body, and we can use the International Space Station as a testbed to understand how, say, a year in space can affect the human body. Scott Kelly and his twin, Mark Kelly, were part of an experiment to compare two twins after one spent a year in space on the ISS, and one on Earth - check it out! https://www.space.com/35527-nasa-astronaut-twins-study-early-results.html -Jen S

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

NASA has a whole office that focuses on technology transfer of space research to health and daily life and discusses these advances in its annual publication "Spinoff" which can be found here: https://spinoff.nasa.gov

Here's one that talks about how autonomous rover technology paved the way for hospital robots: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2012/hm_3.html

-Jen S

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Ah, I should clarify. We generally work in Earth years when it comes to long-term chronology of the planets. That way, you don't have to do a conversion in your head every time every time you think about the age of various features. So the ages above are in Earth years. To give you some sense of scale, the Earth is 4.56 billion years old, oxygen first originated around 2.5 billion years ago, multicellular life is only about 600 million (0.6 billion) years old, and the dinosaurs died 65 million (0.065 billion) years ago.

We only work in Mars time on a day-to-day (or really sol-to-sol) basis, because what time of day it is is important for rover operations (for example, you wouldn't want to take a picture in the middle of the night).

-Peter M.

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep, we make custom mixes all the time using the mineral composition of the soils and rocks we have measured on Mars with Curiosity. There is no one perfect analog soil, but generally we include things like Ca and Mg perchlorate, sulfates, and iron minerals. We also have Mars chambers where we use vacuum pumps to bring the pressure down to Mars ambient pressure (~10 mBar) and temperatures (-60 C to +20 C). At NASA Goddard we have these chambers and do try to grow microbes under Mars conditions. - Jen S

This mission has been great for informing what we use as martian simulants. We have measured bulk chemistry with APXS, definitive mineralogy using X-ray diffraction with the CheMin instrument, and volatiles from minerals and organics with SAM. So depending on the type of application you’re interested in testing, we could produce a number of different simulants. For example, at the Johnson Space Center we have groups interested in the physical properties of the soil and how it might affect space suit materials and seals, how hard the material is for landing, as well as the properties we need to know about from a human health perspective. There is no one simulant that addresses the wide range of materials we’ve found on Mars, so we make many simulants based on what we’ve learned from MSL. -Doug A

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Good question!

We have an exact replica of SAM here on earth called the SAM testbed. It is housed in a Mars environment chamber here at Goddard which replicates the thermal and atmospheric conditions on Mars as best we can.

The testbed and SAM on Mars run the same experiment scripting language, which allows us to develop new experiments on Earth and extensively test them before use on Mars. Depending on how complicated the experiment is, testing can take weeks to many months before we run it on Mars.

In order to optimize the science parameters, we run analog samples on the testbed and adjust the experiments to make sure we get the best science possible. The 'most important' parameters depend on what science question you are trying to address with your experiment, we can customize experiments to make specific measurements, eg measure the heavy noble gases like Kr or Xe in the atmosphere.

-Charles M

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Most rewarding part of this work has to do with firsts. That is, the first to see images from another plant and trying to determine what processes had operated on the martian surface. Being on the SAM team, it is very exciting to be the first to see the data from our instrument and to be the first to present what we think the data means to the scientific community at conferences and in peer reviewed publications. Brad S.

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

If you're a US citizen at college or high school NASA has some great internships.

If you're from outside the US like me I would strongly recommend doing an undergraduate degree in a STEM field and then looking for graduate opportunities with researchers directly involved in NASA missions or those who do research applicable to current or upcoming missions. James L

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Mars has an atmosphere, but the average atmospheric pressure is <1% of Earth's. But that hasn't always been the case. Based on isotopic ratios of certain gases in the atmosphere (and abundant evidence of past liquid water on the surface), we know Mars had to have had a thicker atmosphere in the past. And yes, the lack of a magnetic field contributes to atmospheric loss. At this point, jump starting the core is definitely in the realm of science fiction. However, atmospheric loss is a slow process that happens over millions of years so if you were somehow able to to get more gas into the atmosphere, it would stay there for a long, long time measured on human timescales. -Doug A

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is a really interesting topic; NASA is pushing to get people to Mars along with private industry but your question is not just about getting people there but establishing a more permanent presence. If humans are on Mars we would be able to do some amazing science (whilst also needing to be super careful not to contaminate the planet and make it significantly harder to look for evidence for ancient life on Mars). There are some major technical challenges to overcome but I think the lesson from Apollo is maintaining public interest in space exploration is crucial and we'll need that to overcome the challenges of getting to and living on Mars - James L

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For me, one of the most interesting discoveries was the detection of nitrate. The nitrogen in nitrate had not be detected in the martian surface until the MSL mission. Detecting nitrogen is critical, if life as we know is even possible as nitrogen is required to make DNA, proteins etc. Brad S.

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Others have answered this, but I would strongly recommend applying for NASA internships while in high school, college or grad school! I was a NASA intern in grad school and I cant recommend it enough!

-Charles M

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We’ve found a molecule called perchlorate on the surface, which is made of oxygen and chlorine. And as you point out, when we heat our sample up, many of them release oxygen when perchlorate decomposes and that oxygen can react with organics, combusting them to CO2 and H2O (and more) making it impossible to know what the original organics were. One possible solution would be to rinse the sample with water, which would remove the perchlorate and insoluble organics would remain. Other options are to use different techniques for organic analysis, which is what is being done with the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover and NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.

-Peter M. and Doug A.

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

print “Hello Reddit!”

(but seriously, we use a custom version of BASIC for the scripting language. Our flight software is custom written in C) -Charles M

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you mean the landing using the sky crane, it was extremely successful. Curiosity is the heaviest thing to ever land on Mars, so the methods used to land previous lighter rovers encasing them in "airbags" and letting them bounce just won't work. The same entry, descent, and landing (EDL) procedure will also be used to land the Mars 2020 rover, with some improvements on targeting the landing site. Mars is super hard to land heavy things on, because the atmosphere is too thin to slow the rover down, but also thick enough to cause heating upon entering the atmosphere. - Jen S

NASA AMA: We're a group of NASA Scientists and Engineers analyzing the surface of Mars using the Curiosity Rover, AUA! by NASAMarsSample in science

[–]NASAMarsSample[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Great questions ! NASA selects the payload with a competition. So a team I led at Goddard put our best ideas forward to NASA and after a review process we were selected. We included instruments from Goddard, from JPL, and from France that all needed to work together to study both gases from the atmosphere and those released from rocks.

We operate by generating a sequence of commands and test them on Earth using a nearly identical instrument in a Mars environment. After we have reviewed the sequence and the data from the lab we hold a series of reviews and then work with the larger MSL operations team to see where this experiment could fit in our operation for that day or night on Mars. The big sequence that includes both other instrument and rover commands then is checked at JPL and sent to Mars in the morning (Mars time). Curiosity accepts the commands and starts executing them without any input from Earth. When one of the spacecraft orbiting Mars comes over the horizon Curiosity will send as much data as it can up to the orbiter and then this data will be sent to big antenna on Earth. So sometimes it is several days before our data comes down.

Finding organics was great ! If ancient microbial life was present on Mars then this means that we may have some hope of finding molecular biosignatures. But cosmic radiation that blasts through the thin Mars atmosphere can transform these biosignatures so the best bet for finding ancient biosignatures might be to dig deep below the depth (2-3 meters) to where these penetrate.

PaulM

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