Chem Professor to work on Mars mission

A Tufts chemistry professor is part of the team that is developing a new Mars lander -- the Phoenix -- for NASA, set to launch in 2007.

Professor Samuel Kounaves and his colleagues will incorporate past projects when developing their new lander. "We called our [lander] 'Phoenix' because it brought back to life several of the instruments and science from the lost 1999 and cancelled 2001 missions," Kounaves said.

According to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory press release, the Phoenix Lander was originally built for the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program. The 2001 program, however, was cancelled when the Mars Polar Lander was lost in December 1999, when it attempted a landing at Mars' South Pole.

Kounaves and his team submitted their plan in 2001 against a field of 30 other teams. NASA selected Kounaves' team in August and gave them $325 million in funding for the project.

The Phoenix's mission is to "follow the water by landing at high northern latitudes where the current Odyssey orbiter has reported near-surface ice," Kounaves said.

The mission is set to last nine months, landing in May of 2008. The experiments will last for 90 Martian days, but also "perhaps 60 additional [days] if all goes well," Kounaves added.

The tasks will include searching for the origin of ice found on Mars, evidence of past water, and "habitable zones," to determine whether the soil could support indigenous life.

Kounaves believes the probability that there is life on Mars is higher now than it was in past years. "There are places on Earth that have harsher conditions than are found on Mars, and where living organisms are only now being found alive and prospering," he said. "Since Mars and Earth most likely had similar environments during their first billion years, there is no reason to suppose that life could not have developed and evolved on Mars, especially in a protected underground environment."

While this project will require him to spend time at the University of Arizona and the Jet Propulsion Lab in California, Kounaves is not planning to take a sabbatical until the time around the launch and landing of Phoenix. "Between now and then there will be a lot of meetings, but a portion of the research and preparation will be here at Tufts," he said.

Kounaves has involved both undergraduate and graduate students in his Mars research. "I have had undergrads working on various aspects of the Phoenix, plus several other NASA funded research projects for the past couple of years," he said.

Senior Graham Griffin is one of the undergraduates working on this project with Kounaves. "We're working to find out what materials can be used that can survive space travel and still work and we need that kind of information for the safety of manned missions to Mars," he said.

Kounaves is also working on developing a 2009 NASA Mars rover mission involving a "robotic chemistry lab."

President Larry Bacow praised Kounaves ability to "blaze" new paths in science. "He is part of the team that is developing the instrumentation that will allow us to answer one of the most fundamental questions in planetary science: Do the conditions exist to sustain some form of life on Mars? What could be more exciting?"