PLANETARY EXPLORATION reaches a completely new level with the launch next week of a Mars rover called Curiosity. It is less a rover than a working laboratory on wheels whose main mission is to gauge how likely it is that life arose on the Red Planet.
Why Nasa would have spent €1.9 billion to launch yet another mission to Mars given eight previous launches in recent years will be explained tonight in Cork by Kevin Nolan, a lecturer in physics at IT Tallaght and a member of the Planetary Society. Mr Nolan is a Mars expert, having published a book on the subject, Mars, a Cosmic Stepping Stone.
The science being conducted by satellites orbiting the planet or roving across its surface is increasingly directed towards answering the big question about whether life ever existed on Mars, he said in advance of his talk.
Researchers are working under the assumption that where there is water, there probably was, or may still be, life. And the question about water on Mars is now answered fully.
“The key result they found was that Mars was inundated with water,” he said. Evidence has been found of more than 10,000 river beds and dozens of lakes measuring hundreds of kilometres across.
“Mars had an atmosphere at least as dense as Earth’s today. There is also evidence Mars had a temperate climate. It was quite warm,” Mr Nolan said. “Current scientific thinking suggests the chances of life arising on Mars in the past are about equal to it arising on Earth.”
The struggle to survive on the Red Planet was hampered by the planet’s low density – only about one-tenth that of Earth. It cooled quickly, lost much of its atmosphere and slowly desiccated. This provides an advantage for planetary scientists, however. It means that many of the features pointing towards water on the planet and therefore the potential for past life are still extant on the planet’s surface.
These are the features that helped when selecting a landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover unlike any ever seen before. The newcomer is set for launch on November 25th from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida.
The rover carries 10 advanced instruments including a laser to analyse samples. It is expected to arrive at the Red Planet next August and the plan is to land it at the foot of a layered mountain inside Gale crater, Mr Nolan said.
The region has ample evidence of past water with silicate and phosphate layers and a substantial amount of clay. These things arose most likely because of the presence of a large lake, he said.
The site is ideal because the rover will use its instruments to reconstruct a geological history.
It would be wrong to make assumptions about what the rover will find, Mr Nolan said. “The chances of finding past indications of life are still remote.” His talk takes place at 8pm at CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork.
Science Week: What's on
Today
Exhibition to mark Met Éireann’s 75th anniversary, free. 9am-5pm, National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin , Dublin 9
Microbe Magic @ school, presentation, 9.30am-1pm, Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, free but prebook with Gráinne Heelan on 021-4901430
Tomorrow
The Robert Boyle Science Festival: the Saturday Lectures, Pugin Room of Lismore Castle: Dr Allan Chapman on Boyle, Hooke and their physio-aerial discoveries, 11am; Prof Bob Watson on the effect of human activities on Earth’s atmosphere, 2pm; Prof Richard Wayne, on the Earth’s peculiar atmosphere, 5pm
Science Week at the Natural History Museum, all day, Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Sunday
Mayo Science Technology Open Day, 1pm, TF Royal Theatre Old Westport Road, Castlebar, Co Mayo
Family Science Day at the Robert Boyle Science Festival, workshops commencing at 1.30pm, Millennium Park, Lismore