Three scientists at Carnegie’s Geophysical Lab (GL) are among those who will participate in NASA scientific investigations for the mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover scheduled for launch in 2009. NASA announced its selection of eight proposals to provide instrumentation and associated research December 14, 2004.
The Geophysical Laboratory scientists, James Scott, Andrew Steele, and department director Wesley Huntress, will work with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrumentation, which will conduct measurements on the surface to see if there is the potential for life on Mars. The goals are to inventory the distribution of key elements and carbon compounds near the surface; search for molecules relevant to life; examine the effect of chemistry near the surface on organic molecules; and look for isotopic signatures of Mars’ past evolution.
The Principal Investigator is Dr. Paul Mahaffy at the Goddard Space Flight Center, which will be responsible for the instrument package. More than three dozen scientists from institutions worldwide are on the team.
The instrument suite is composed of a sample manipulation system, a chemical separation and processing laboratory, and two instruments to analyze the atmosphere and materials extracted from soil and rock; a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS), and a tunable diode laser spectrometer (TLS).
James Scott will conduct laboratory investigations of terrestrial analogs for possible Martian microbial environments to compare with data to be obtained on the Martian surface. James is the NASA Astrobiology Institute lead for education and public outreach on the SAM science team.
Andrew Steele will conduct field studies with SAM prototype instruments in environments on Earth, which are analogous to Mars, during instrument package development to devise the measurement strategy, and then during deployment on Mars to provide a comparison between Mars and our own planet.
Wes Huntress will use SAM data to assess surface and subsurface sources of gases in the Martian atmosphere, chemical reactions occurring on or near the surface, and composition of trace gases in the atmosphere with particular attention to potential biological sources and the means to distinguish them from geological sources.
See more at
 |
 |
 |