Mars Madness: Men are from Mars abut women can be martians too! Strip away the vegetation and St. George, Utah IS Mars.

1. Mars
Madness
Men
are
from
Mars
–
but
women
can
be
mar1ans
too!
Planetary
Scien0st:
A
STEM
Career
C.
J.
Hansen-­‐Koharcheck,
Ph.D.
4
January
2016
CO2
(Dry
Ice)

2. The Exploration of Mars
It takes a village…

3. Mars is the 4th
planet from the
sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

5. Our best views of
Mars come from
robotic spacecraft
• The first spacecraft
arrived at Mars over 30
years ago
• We have 3 orbiters
and 2 rovers operating
there right now
• One of the rovers has
been there since 2004
• The other landed in
August 2012
Exploration Theme: Follow the water

6. The desert planet
Very cold,
very dry
Like the earth, Mars
has mountains,
volcanoes, a giant
canyon, impact craters,
polar caps, dust devils,
clouds and an amazing
number of sand dunes
There is water on
Mars but today it is
all frozen. (The
average temperature
is -81F). Ice forms
permanent polar caps
and is frozen into the
soil like permafrost in
Alaska.

7. Very cold,
very dry
• Composed of
carbon dioxide
• Pressure ~ 10 mB
~ 1% of earth
• At this pressure
liquid water will
boil directly into
the atmosphere
• Clouds of ice
crystals
• CO2 snow
Mars has an atmosphere

8. Step 1: Mission Concept
What do we know /
What do we
want to learn?
• Scientists define
science objectives
• NASA / Congress
decide whether or
not to fly the
mission, and what
the scope of the
mission will be
Mars2020 Rover
How NASA carries out solar
system exploration

9. Step 2 – Select science instruments
and design and build the spacecraft
• Requires (think STEM!)
– Scientists to describe measurements to be made
– Engineers to design instruments and the spacecraft to
carry them to their destination
– Engineers and technicians to build and test the hardware
– Managers to plan schedules and keep the project within
the budget available
A. Instruments (“Payload”) and science teams selected
B. Spacecraft and instruments designed and built
C. Test the assembled hardware
D. Ship spacecraft to Florida and connect to launch vehicle

10. High Resolution
Imaging Science
Experiment
(HiRISE)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
With HiRISE we can view Mars at
geologists’ scale, detecting objects
~1m in size from an orbit 300 km
above the surface of Mars
Launched 2005
Began science observations late 2006
We wrote a proposal, and got selected, to
build this camera in 2001;
I am a member of the science team
HiRISE is a 1600 megapixel camera

11. Tharsis Largest volcanic province on Mars
4 large volcanoes
Eruptions began ~4 billion years ago
Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system
44.25° S 336.75° E
56.75° N
271.12° E
0°
~600 km
44.25° S 336.75° E
56.75° N
271.12° E
0°
~600 km
Olympus Mons
Arsia Mons
Pavonis Mons
Ascraeus Mons
Volcanoes on
Mars
At one time scientists
thought that all rocks on
Mars were igneous

12. Olympus Mons, the
largest volcano in the
solar system
21 km high = 69,000 ft
(3x Mt. Everest)
Most similar to the
Mauna Loa shield
volcano in Hawaii,
8 km high

13. Olympus Mons

14. Lava Tubes and Collapse Pits
Cerberus
PSP_007777_1790
Tartarus Colles
PSP_001420_2045
PSP_004847_1745
HiRISE Images

15. Sand Dunes on Mars

16. Valles Marineris: Super-Sized
Canyon on Mars
Earth’s Grand Canyon
was formed by water
erosion
Mars’ Valles Marineris
is a tectonic feature,
where the crust split,
due to the upward
pressure of the Tharsis
volcanic province
In the canyon walls we
see layers of volcanic
ash and / or
sedimentary rock

17. Grand Canyon on Earth

18. Layering is common in ancient
terrains on Mars
We are working on
understanding the composition
of these layers to understand
Mars’ history
PSP_004091_1325

19. Layers near Valles Marineris
Noctis
Labyrinthus
Just like on
earth we
study layers
to
understand
the geologic
history
Different layers
formed by
groundwater
infiltration
PSP_008538_1685_IRB

20. Mars may have been warm and
wet long ago
• There is evidence
that liquid water
flowed on the surface
of Mars over 3
billion years ago
• We see river beds
and deltas
• Catastrophic floods
carved channels
Dendritic channels indicative of river flow

21. Eberswalde Delta
Close-up of layers in the delta

22. Similar Rock Outcrops on Mars and
Earth - Dry Stream Bed on Mars
• Rounded gravel fragments
within the rock outcrop on Mars
(left) and earth (right)
• Gravel fragments become round
by transport, by wind or water
• Some fragments are too large to
be transported by wind
• There must have been water
streams transporting the gravel
fragments
Picture from the Curiousity Rover
Orbiters get global view
Rovers provide ground truth in limited areas

23. Liquid
Water on
Mars Today
• Recurrent Slope
Lineae (RSLs)
discovered in
HiRISE images
• Only active in the
summer
• Only in a narrow
latitude band

24. Recurring Slope Lineae on Mars
Flows of liquid water
on Mars today!
Must be very salty to
remain liquid in
Mars’ low pressure
atmosphere
Could there be life?

25. Mars’ Polar Caps
• At both poles, Mars has permanent polar caps composed of water
ice
• At the south pole the permanent water ice cap is covered with CO2
ice (dry ice)
• Both poles are also covered seasonally with dry ice that condenses
down to ~550 latitude
• The seasonal caps are very active in the spring when the dry ice
sublimates (evaporates)
SPRC

26. Avalanche
on Mars
PSP_007338_2640
Blocks of ice fell off
this 2300 ft. cliff at the
side of the polar cap and
caused the billowing
cloud of dust caught on
camera

27. Landing on Mars
• The first successful landers on Mars were the Vikings
• Two spacecraft, landed in 1976, sent back data for 6 years
• The first rover, Pathfinder/Sojourner, landed in 1997
• Two more rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed in 2004
• Phoenix landed in the north polar region in 2007
• The latest Mars rover, Curiosity, landed 5 August 2012
• Next will be InSight, 2020 launch
• Then Mars2020, with a 2020 launch

28. Rover Family now on Mars
Curiousity, the latest rover to land on Mars, touched down 5 August 2012
Spirit / Opportunity, Sojourner, and Curiosity

29. The first rover on Mars

30. The Movie “The Martian”
• Pathfinder is the rover he is digging up…

31. The Martian – what the landing site really looks like
• They got the sand right!
• But martian wind could never blow the MAV over
HiRISE image

32. Western Edge of Marth Crater
uahirise.org/
ESP_042252_1930
In the book “The Martian” by Andy Weir, stranded
astronaut Mark Watney is headed for the Ares 4
landing site but encounters the rim of Marth Crater
just as a dust storm arrives. This HiRISE image
shows the nature of this terrain.
The Trip to be Rescued

34. Opportunity’s
view from
inside Victoria
Crater
Opportunity discovered
definitive evidence that
there have been standing
bodies of water on the
surface of Mars, long ago
A real picture from the surface of Mars

35. Dust Devil in Action
Spirit caught this dust devil going by in a series of images,
making up a time-lapse sequence

36. Gale Crater
Landing Site
for Curiosity
• Landing site in Gale Crater selected based on presence
of clay minerals because clay is consistent with lots of
water in the past
The destination for
NASA’s latest rover

37. • Bigger, better
• Launch was in 2011
• Landing 5 August
2012
• Destination: Mt. Sharp
in the center of Gale
Crater
Mars Science Lab
“Curiosity”
Rover selfie on Mars

38. Curiosity’s Destination
• Gale crater central mound drive-to goal – study those layers!

39. 3 years, 10 km Later
Numbers
are days
on Mars
#976 was
in May,
2015

40. Do what you came to do!
• Requires
– Scientists to plan observations, analyze data, write
papers to document new results
– Engineers to operate the spacecraft and instruments
– Engineers to operate the Deep Space Network antennas
to receive data around the world
– Programmers to write specialized software
– Reporters and educators to communicate the
discoveries
Step 3: Carry out science observations

41. Step 3: Carry out science observations
Plan where to drill
Test experiments in
the lab before carrying
them out on the rover

42. HiRISE Team in
Snow Canyon
We learn about Mars by studying
similar places on Earth

43. Utah
minus
vegeta1on
=
Mars
HiRISE
team
mee1ng

44. What does a planetary scientist
do? (What do I do?)
• In charge of the “seasonal processes” science theme
– Formulate hypotheses
– Plan what pictures to take when (to test hypotheses)
– Analyze the images
– Share ideas and data with my colleagues at team meetings and
conferences
– Write papers with new understanding of what is happening on
Mars
• Several times per year plan entire picture-taking sequence,
set up camera configuration
• Working on a coffee table book of HiRISE images

45. Seasonal Processes on Mars
In the winter Mars’ polar region is covered with a
seasonal polar cap composed of dry ice

46. Seasonal Processes on Mars
• In the spring the ice turns to gas
• The gas coming off the bottom of the ice layer gets trapped
until the pressure builds enough to rupture the ice layer
• The gas escapes, carrying bits of the surface dirt with it

47. Seasonal Activity on Dunes
• These dunes are adjacent to the permanent
(water ice) polar cap
• Sand falls from the crest of the dunes in the
spring
PSP_007962_2635
Lat = 83.5
Lon = 118.5
Ls = 55.7
6 km
North

48. Coral
Pink
Sand
Dunes
• To
get
a
beQer
idea
of
how
this
all
works
we
took
dry
ice
to
the
Coral
Pink
Sand
Dunes
Utah
State
Park

49. Coral
Pink
Sand
Dunes
• Candy
geTng
ready
for
an
ice
run
• Seats
to
watch
dry
ice
sublimate
• Serina
burying
a
block
of
ice

50. Dry Ice Experiments

51. Dry Ice Experiments

52. (A
few
of
the)
Women
in
Planetary
Science

53. Future
Women
in
Planetary
Science
eSmart
Summer
Camp
2015