Webcasts Feature Scientists On A 'Mars Mission'

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington September 24, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(Phone: 650/604-5026/9000)

Juan Bautista Rodriguez
Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain
(Phone: 011 34 91 520 1938)

RELEASE: 03-304

WEBCASTS FEATURE SCIENTISTS ON A "MARS MISSION"

NASA and Spanish scientists, who are developing ways to
drill into Mars in search of underground life, will take part
in eight worldwide, educational webcasts from their project
site near Spain's Rio Tinto River from Sept. 29 to Oct. 15.

NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC) scientist Carol Stoker will
kick off the webcast series on Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. EDT with a
talk about the Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment
(MARTE). According to Stoker, mineral deposits like the ones
the MARTE project is drilling into may also be found in the
Martian subsurface.

"Searching for subsurface life in the Rio Tinto system can be
viewed as a learning experience to teach scientists and
technologists how to search for life in the subsurface of
Mars," explained Stoker, principal investigator of the three-
year experiment.

Scientists and engineers from NASA, U.S. universities and the
Spanish Centro De Astrobiología (Center for Astrobiology)
hope to show how robot systems could look for life below
Mars' surface. Scientists believe liquid water may exist deep
underground on Mars. "In addition to looking for evidence of
subsurface life, we hope MARTE inspires students to pursue
careers in science and engineering," Stoker added.

"What's different about this course is that it offers real-
time transcription in both Spanish and English. So far, this
has only been done before with the French in 1998," said Mark
Leon, deputy chief of the ARC education office, which
organized the programs. "Not only do we have a live webcast,
but we have live captioning," Leon said.

NASA will show lectures by Stoker and other scientists with
subtitles in both English and Spanish. The Internet lecture
series has been structured as a three-week, NASA subsidized,
interactive course. The series, called NASA Robotics for
Research and Exploration, is worth one unit of college credit
at San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.

San Jose State University students enrolled in the course
will be able to ask questions using Internet chat technology.
Members of the worldwide Internet audience may monitor the
lectures live through the program Web site.

The other lecturers and their topics a

- Ricardo Amils of Spain's Centro De Astrobiología -- biology
and microbiology at Rio Tinto
and the role of iron in biology
- Todd Stevens of Portland State University, Portland, Ore. --
subsurface life
- David Fernandez Remolar of Spain's Instituto Nacional de
Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA) --
geology of the Rio Tinto region
- Brian Glass of ARC -- issues and challenges for robotic
drilling
- Javier Gomez Elvira of INTA -- down hole instrumentation for
Mars and the borehole
inspection system
- Kennda Lynch of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston --
searching for life on Mars
and sample handling
- Victor Parro of INTA -- instrumentation and searching for
life on Mars

NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring
Planets program is funding the project. The Spanish
contribution to the project is supported by the Ministerio de
Ciencia y Tecnologia, Comunidad de Madrid and the Instituto
Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial.

Educational webcasts enable students to watch live video
courses, listen and interact in real time with experts
participating in the programs. The schedule for the lectures
is accessible on the Internet at:

http://robotics.nasa.gov/courses/fall2003
&
www.cab.inta.es

For information about NASA Education programs on the
Internet, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

-end-