Ink and watercolor painting of a the Mars Curiosity rover. Annika Taylor // AS Review
By Annika Taylor
On Feb. 18 2021 NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars. The team that made this happen included Associate Professor of Planetary Science at Western Dr. Melissa Rice, Lab Assistant Kristiana Lapo, and students Sam Condon, Sabrina Curtis, Alivia Eng, Acacia Arielle Evans and Jess Mollerup.
Dr. Rice worked on several rover teams and in 2016 NASA named her a ‘Participating Scientist.’ This award allowed for far more collaboration between the Curiosity team and Rice’s undergraduate students, as well as providing a stipend and tuition for graduate students to work on the project. Ever since, Western students from a diverse set of academic backgrounds including geology, geophysics, physics, engineering, computer science and chemistry have had the opportunity to work on NASA missions.
The Western Mars Lab’s research focuses on the geology of Mars by using data from rovers and orbiters to interpret the history of water on the plant. Recent patterns of sedimentation, weathering and erosion have indicated that habitability on Mars may have been more localized than previously thought. The lab hopes to explain the nature of these wetter climates and to find records of environmental changes in rock.
The group works directly with two of NASA’s Mars rover missions: the Curiosity rover and more recently, the Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.
Both the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions are equipped with Mastcam instruments consisting of two cameras which take images used to determine the spectral variability of rocks and soils to help characterize the surface mineralogy. The Western Mars Lab assisted in the design, calibration and readiness testing to prepare for Perserverance’s Mastcam-Z surface investigation.
Becoming a part of the group was an organic process for some members. ForEvans, a senior geophysics and mathematics student, space was a passion from an early age.
“When I was five, my father brought some Einstein cassette tapes from Goodwill. In 3rd grade I wrote a book about Albert Einstein creating a time machine and going back to the age of the dinosaurs. There was space in there somewhere too,” said Evans.
Throughout her academic career Evans wanted to be in space and even began the process of becoming an astronaut. She thought college wasn’t for her and took a break, but then started up again with the intention of participating in the Western Mars Lab.
Evans describes her work as ”spacecraft imaging analysis.” Simply, the task involves looking at images, filling them into a database and creating graphs.
Alivia Eng, a senior geology and astronomy student, wasn’t initially drawn to Western for the Mars Lab but for Western’s environmental science, earth science and geology departments.
Eng found out about the lab at the beginning of her second year after taking mineralogy and geomorphology classes at Western. Her professores encouraged her to get involved with the Western Mars Lab. She was excited by her discovery of remote sensing and to see the fields of space and geology intersect with the Western Mars Lab’s work.
She joined the lab right before the COVID pandemic began. It was a transition for her. Eng said was nervous, but the group has been collaborative and supportive.
The daily work for Eng consists of a lot of reading and research to fill in the gaps of her understanding. Students are either assigned a research question or make up their own. This allows for independent work, but also collaboration if there is an overlap in focus.
“It’s fun to think about [robots shooting lasers in space] and it’s in our culture, like ‘The Martian.’ Our questions are driven by imagination and curiosity, but sometimes they can be a let down,” said Eng.
Eng sees the study of Mars as an opportunity to observe astrobiological targets and look for signs of ancient life. Additionally, the opportunity to learn about the history of the solar system, and what happened to the water on Mars provides an opportunity to predict what is in store for our own planet.
“We are getting more and more info of what’s there. We can learn a lot from other planets; it also helps that [Mars] is close,” said Eng.
Sam Condon, senior electrical and computer engineering student, planned to play baseball in college, but within a few months decided to study engineering at Western. When he started engineering he didn’t know that space was something he was interested in, but was inspired by the book “Endurance” by Scott Kelley, an astronaut involved with the Discovery mission. He found out about the group at the end of his sophomore year through a Google search, and then attended a talk that Dr. Rice gave in the Wilson Library.
He describes the members of the Western Mars Lab as friendly and down to earth. There was no such thing as asking the other members a stupid question.
“[The members of the Western Mars Lab] were friendly, but a little intimidating. They were smart science people and I didn’t know anything about Mars,” said Condon.
During his peak involvement with the Mars Lab, Condon would go in daily and look at images from the Curiosity Mastcam. His job was making sure that they weren’t grabbing too much information from the same feature in an image.
Condon cited future exploration as the most important aspect of studying Mars and imagination is his biggest inspiration for the work he is currently doing. The idea that we may one day leave earth and go to the stars is one he explores daily although Condon admits that the day-to-day work isn’t as glamorous.
The overarching goal of Western Mars Lab is to untangle the history of life and water on Mars, but when asked about the habitability of the planet, each member gave a slightly different answer.
According to Eng, whether or not Mars could be habitable is disputed, and partially dependent on the chosen definition of “habitable.” Perseverance was more focused on answering the question of habitability as compared to Curiosity.
Condon predicts that due to climate change on Earth that Mars may need to be habitable, and that the habitability of Mars adds an additional meaning to human existence.
“All humanity in the long run will need to expand beyond Earth. It will alleviate some of our problems. Interplanetary habitation is exciting, and can bring new meaning to human life,” said Condon.
However, Condon does doubt that Mars could support populations similar to what Earth is currently supporting.
Evans sees Mars as a viable escape route in our future but also surmises that humans may not need it. She predicts that the cooperation needed to colonize Mars is equal to the cooperation needed to address our current political and environmental struggles. This would make colonizing Mars unnecessary.
“I think it will get to a point that as a species we will need an escape route. I think that will be in our path. Humans are entering a new evolutionary stage. We need to learn how to work together. We’re one species, one mankind,” said Evans.
The students cited the value of cooperation as a big takeaway from their experiences working with the Western Mars Lab.
“Space exploration and the things we are doing is a big example of what humans can accomplish when we come together. We need to work through our differences,” said Condon.
Another main theme is the opportunities that can come when students get out of their comfort zone.
“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I just walked into Dr. Rice’s office one day. I was really nervous. Even if you don’t like the first thing, it may lead to something better,” said Eng.
Above all, Evans feels lucky to have the Mars Lab at Western and to have Dr. Rice as a mentor.
“She brings so many opportunities to students, she is one of the most caring mentors that I have had. She is so busy, but she still sets aside time for meaningful interactions with students,” said Evans.