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Discovering Martian "Corps" Values

by Steve Bartlett

The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity continue to deliver spectacular views of the Red Planet while amazing scientists on Earth, according to Dr. John Callas of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Callas described the latest findings to a packed auditorium in his talk Spirit and Opportunity: The Corps of Discovery for Mars on December 4 at the Long Beach Public Library. The presentation was the latest in the free OASIS Lecture Series.

The probes, which landed on Mars in January, have roamed several kilometers over the planet's surface, collecting data on its warm, watery past and returning their findings to Earth-bound researchers. These findings indicate that water was once abundant there, possibly making up a large sea or even a northern ocean, according to the JPL researcher.

Scientists hope to find out how long that water lasted on the surface and whether it still resides there, possibly far beneath the surface in the form of permafrost. The reason for this great interest in Martian water is twofold: first, because they want to discover whether water has played as important a role in the geology and chemistry of Mars as it has on the Earth; and second, because mankind has discovered that wherever liquid water resides on Earth, there is life.

The rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars, in the Meridiani Planum and Gusev Crater, and found signs of iron hematite, a mineral which is usually only formed in the presence of water on Earth. In addition, Spirit and Opportunity found what appears to be sedimentary rock, another material usually associated with the action of water.

Callas said that both rovers are still doing well and returning valuable data on surface rocks, craters, the properties of the sandy soil, the atmosphere, and on the planet's bedrock. The Spirit rover is currently climbing the Columbia Hills, from which it can survey the area for hundreds of square miles. The Opportunity rover is negotiating its way inside a large, complex crater the size of two football fields.

The talk featured numerous photos taken by the rovers' stereoscopic cameras, giving the audience a feel for the conditions on the planet. Besides the cameras, the MER craft also include instruments to collect information on the compositions of rock and soil samples.

The two rovers were built at JPL in Pasadena and launched to Mars aboard Delta II rockets built in Huntington Beach, making this a true Southern California program. Within a few years, additional missions will be sent to Mars to collect data from orbit and to land on the layered terrain around the planet's north pole.