UC Santa Barbara Researcher Tapped by Europeans for Design of Instrumentto Test Soil on Mars (Forwarded)

Office of Public Affairs
University of California-Santa Barbara

CONTACTS:
Gail Gallessich, 805-893-7220
Joan Magruder, 805-893-3071

FEATURED RESEARCHER:
Luann Becker, 805-893-5471

December 12, 2005

UC Santa Barbara Researcher Tapped by Europeans for Design of Instrument
to Test Soil on Mars

Santa Barbara, Calif. -- The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today
support of a new program that will include development of an instrument
for testing deep soil samples on Mars in a European mission called
ExoMars. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara
will direct the development of the instrument.

"We are very excited about this," said Luann Becker, research scientist
with the Institute of Crustal Studies at UC Santa Barbara. "It's a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Testing by the two NASA rovers that are
currently operating on Mars has spurred interest in developing
different, new, and highly-sensitive instruments to search for present
or past life on Mars. The ExoMars rover will contain a drill that can
reach soil samples up to two meters under the Martian surface in search
of extinct or extant life.

Becker, trained as an oceanographer and geochemist, is deeply involved
in the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the
universe, a field known as exobiology. She is known for her development
of a theory about a mass extinction (much earlier than that of the
dinosaurs) and her team's finding of evidence of the impact of a meteor
250 million years ago in an area off the coast of present-day Australia.
The impact apparently ushered in a period called the "Great Dying," the
largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth, when 90
percent of marine life and 80 percent of life on land became extinct.

She anticipates that the American contribution to the Molecular Organic
Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) approved for development by the European Space
Agency (ESA) will be funded by NASA. MOMA will be included as part of
the ExoMars mission to Mars in 2011.

The discovery in 1996 of organic molecules enclosed in a meteorite --
that may be of Martian origin -- revived interest in the study of
Martian soil. One entire category of meteorites on Earth has been
identified to be of possible Martian origin because gases trapped in
them match the composition of the Martian atmosphere.

The opportunity to work with the Europeans makes the project especially
appealing to Becker. "The Europeans are coming together to support this
mission," said Becker. "U.S. support is also required. It's a very, very
unique opportunity. We all have a unified goal."

Her team includes many European scientists as well as two co-principal
investigators from Johns Hopkins University. The Americans a William
B. Brinckerhoff from the Applied Physics Laboratory, and Robert J.
Cotter of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Department of
Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences. The instrument will be developed in
the Applied Physics and School of Medicine laboratories in affiliation
with Johns Hopkins University.

The decision about the mission came last week when ministers from the 17
ESA member states gathered in Berlin for an ESA council meeting. There
they decided to pursue the overall core program of "Aurora," with its
first Martian robotic exploration mission, ExoMars. Scheduled to be
launched from Kourou, French Guiana, the ExoMars mission will deploy a
highly mobile rover with a suite of exobiology instruments.

The ExoMars mission was conceived as part of the Aurora preparatory
program activities that were started in 2002 with the support of twelve
participating nations: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
and Canada.

In Berlin, 14 countries agreed to subscribe to the ExoMars mission. The
12 countries from the preparatory phase were joined by Denmark and
Norway. Further contributions are still expected in the coming months.
As far as the financial shares in the program are concerned, Italy has
confirmed its leading role, followed by the United Kingdom, France, and
Germany. These proportions will also be reflected in the selection of
the industrial consortium that ESA will task to build the first European
rover for the exploration of Mars, along with a carrier and a descent
module.

Decisions about the ExoMars spacecraft will be finalized in the next few
months, with the aim of maximizing the mission's scientific return.
Subject to the availability of national funding for their research,
scientists from all states participating in the Aurora program are
represented in the initial selection of instruments. The U.S. is
included through the MOMA and one other organic detection instrument.
The lead American scientist on the other organic detection instrument is
Jeffrey L.Bada, professor at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography,
University of California, San Diego.

Together with the ExoMars mission, the other element of the Aurora
Program, the so-called "Core Activities," were also approved in Berlin.
The approval will allow for preparation for further exploration missions
beyond ExoMars, such as the Mars Sample Return Mission in which samples
will be brought back from Mars. ESA will continue the development of
exploration-related technologies and capabilities, and develop a roadmap
to raise awareness of the European involvement in space science activities.

"Andrew Yee" wrote in message
. ..
Office of Public Affairs
University of California-Santa Barbara

CONTACTS:
Gail Gallessich, 805-893-7220
Joan Magruder, 805-893-3071

FEATURED RESEARCHER:
Luann Becker, 805-893-5471

December 12, 2005

UC Santa Barbara Researcher Tapped by Europeans for Design of Instrument
to Test Soil on Mars

Santa Barbara, Calif. -- The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today
support of a new program that will include development of an instrument
for testing deep soil samples on Mars in a European mission called
ExoMars. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara will
direct the development of the instrument.

"We are very excited about this," said Luann Becker, research scientist
with the Institute of Crustal Studies at UC Santa Barbara. "It's a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Testing by the two NASA rovers that are
currently operating on Mars has spurred interest in developing different,
new, and highly-sensitive instruments to search for present or past life
on Mars. The ExoMars rover will contain a drill that can reach soil
samples up to two meters under the Martian surface in search of extinct
or extant life.

Becker, trained as an oceanographer and geochemist, is deeply involved in
the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the
universe, a field known as exobiology. She is known for her development
of a theory about a mass extinction (much earlier than that of the
dinosaurs) and her team's finding of evidence of the impact of a meteor
250 million years ago in an area off the coast of present-day Australia.
The impact apparently ushered in a period called the "Great Dying," the
largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth, when 90 percent
of marine life and 80 percent of life on land became extinct.

Ugh! That crater has not been dated to coincide with the Permian/Triassic
extinction events. It is a contentious body of work, and appears to have
been superceded with much stronger evidence that the PT extinction was the
work of natural processes right here on earth, such as long-term vocanism
at the Siberian trapps, which appears to have released the clathrates
locked up in the ocean, causing a series of runaway greenhouse events. The
evidence, which comes from the most complete section of the PT boundary, in
Greenland, indicates that it came in phases, not all at once.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4398401.stm

George