University Hawaii at Mānoa scientists looked alive through NASA TV as Perseverance, the most exciting rover ever sent to Mars, thrived on the red planet as they prepared to operate the scientific instruments.
After six years of design, testing and development, UH Mānoa scientists and graduate students who are members of NASAInstrument teams will begin, now beginning the next chapter in finding signs of ancient life on Mars.
“There is a sigh of relief today after Perseverance made a successful voyage and landed,” he said. Shiv Sharma, researcher at UH Mānoa’s Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (FEAR) and a member of the SuperCam instrumentation team. “Now the work begins to find signs of ancient life in Crazer Jezero.”
Persistence is loaded with scientific instruments that the teams use to find signs of microorganism life, identify the geology and climate of the planet, and collect rock and sediment samples. are carefully chosen to return to Earth.
There was a lake on the roost site of the rover, Jezero Crater, which scientists believe is one of the best places to find evidence of ancient life.
Sarah Fagents, HIGP the researcher and volcanologist with the Mastcam-Z camera team, differentiating volcanic rocks from sediment deposition, confirms what rock features reveal the history of Martian volcanic eruptions and helps to ‘identify rocks worthy of closer inspection by the other instruments.
Working on the Mars era
For at least the first 90 Martian days, Fagents will have a challenging record – working on “Mars time” – as the rover moves over the hard terrain.
“A Martian day is about 40 minutes longer than our Earth day, so to stay in line with the rover, our activity moves need to move forward by about 40 minutes each day,” Fagents said. “Very quickly we work through the night. While the album will be challenging, it’s a joy to be at last and I wouldn’t want to miss a minute of this. ”
The SuperCam team will help find biosignatures – signs that there was life in the ancient history of Mars. Now that the rover is on the Martian surface, Sharma and the team select rock and ground targets for further investigation and then use green and infrared laser fluid to extract the minerals and organic or bio-material. any experiences found during these observations.
“Congratulations to him NASA, and the Mars 2020 Team. Sarah, Shiv, Eleni, Francesca and Evan Hawaii proud of their contribution to the success of our country’s latest study milestone, ”he said Rob Wright, HIGP director. “HIGP their faculty and students have been engaged in high profile NASA planetary science missions for over 40 years, and our continued involvement, through the competitive funding they receive, confirms the exceptional quality of the scientists who UH Mānoa has. ”
This effort is an example of UH Mānoa’s Aim for Research Excellence: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Initiative (PDF), one of four objectives identified in the Strategic Plan 2015-25 (PDF), updated in December 2020.
—By Marcie Grabowski