When NASA's Phoenix Lander blasted off last month, it carried a piece of Tufts handiwork with it.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Samuel Kounaves, along with a team of graduate and undergraduate students, designed equipment that will be used to check the soil of Mars for the presence of organic molecules crucial to life.
According to Kounaves, who serves as the head of the project's wet chemistry investigation, this mission will be the first of its kind on Mars.
Phoenix is scheduled to reach the Red Planet on May 16, 2008 after a journey of over nine months.
Upon landing near the Martian North Pole, Phoenix will dig one meter into the frozen soil four times. Then equipment designed by Kounaves and his team, known as a "wet chemistry lab," will add water to the soil and analyze it in "teacup-like sensors," he said.
As such, he compared it to taking soil from Death Valley and pouring water on it to check for its chemical compounds.
By adding water to the soil, an environment is created that is similar to that which exists inside human cells. The new environment makes it easier to detect ions and other organic compounds necessary for life.
But while the mission can determine whether the planet can theoretically sustain life, there is no equipment on-board that can actually detect that life.
Still, the mission "has potential for really groundbreaking discoveries," NASA's Mark Garcia, a deputy for the Phoenix project, said.
In addition to looking for organic molecules, the wet chemistry lab will also test the soil's pH, or acidity, levels.
These tests will pave the way for future journeys, which unlike Phoenix, may involve human travel. They will help because NASA needs to assure that astronauts do not land on highly acidic soil, Kounaves said.
Garcia said the mission appears to be going as planned. A routine check of the wet chemistry lab was conducted on Monday, and as of now, everything seems to be intact after take-off.
"Everything so far has been picture perfect," he said.
Kounaves was not the only member of the Tufts community to work on this project. His team, called the Kounaves Research Group, currently includes six students representing the chemistry, physics and engineering departments, in addition to one research assistant.
Forty-one additional students have worked on the project, but have since graduated. According to Kounaves, all of his students have been "heavily involved with the project."
Jason Kapit, currently studying for his masters in mechanical engineering, is one of the students working with Kounaves on the project. He has done so as both a graduate and undergraduate student.
"It's something I love to do, and I've been doing it ever since I found out about it," Kapit said.
As part of the team, both Kapit and Kounaves traveled to Cape Canaveral in early August to witness their wet chemistry lab blast-off into space along with a robotic arm, an atomic scope microscope, a surface imager and a meteorological station.
While NASA is in constant communication with Phoenix, the communication rate of 700 bits/second, about 50 times slower than dial-up Internet, limits the amount of data that can be sent back to Earth. Due to this, most of the data collected will be saved on board until it returns to Earth.
When it does, Kapit will be part of a select group in Tuscon, Arizona that will analyze the collected data. He will be one of the first to be able to do so.
As an added benefit, all students involved in the program received training paid for by NASA.
In all, Kapit said, "It's been great working for Sam [Kounaves]. He's given me a lot of opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise."
