Mars Exploration

Photo courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell

A close up of the rock dubbed "El Capitan."

Washington University faculty and students are making critical contributions to Mars-related research and space exploration projects, including the 2004 Mars rover missions. Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., the McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, is the mission's deputy principal scientist. Visit this page for news updates on WUSTL's involvement in the Mars rover missions and other Mars-related research projects at Washington University.

Faculty Experts:

Showing 3 Mars Exploration Experts.

Raymond Arvidson James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor Raymond Arvidson Download Arvidson is an interdisciplinary scientist on the Mars Global Surveyor, head of NASA's Planetary Data System Geosciences Node, a director of NASA's Regional Planetary Image Center and a deputy investigator of the Athena Mars Rover for the 2003 mission. He is deputy principal investigator for imaging ... Expertise: Mars, NASA, geology, remote sensing, solar system, venus Direct contact: (314) 935-5609 / arvidson@wunder.wustl.edu

William McKinnon Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences McKinnon Download McKinnon's research focuses on the icy satellites of the outer solar system and the physics of impact cratering. The last twenty odd years of planetary exploration can be characterized by both the unveiling of the outer solar system - initially by the Voyager missions, but now by the Galileo mission ... Expertise: icy satellites, meteorites, outer solar system Direct contact: (314) 935-5604 / mckinnon@levee.wustl.edu

Roger Phillips Professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences Phillips Download Roger Phillips, Ph.D., Washington University Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, and collaborators are interested in the interior evolution of the terrestrial planets and how a planet's evolution affects and modifies its outer rigid ... Expertise: Mars, NASA, origins of life on Mars, space studies, surface features of Mars Direct contact: (314) 935-6356 / phillips@wustite.wustl.edu

Showing 3 Mars Exploration Experts.

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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2008 McDonnell lecture Space scientist Flanagan to speak on Webb Telescope March 20, 2008 -- Flanagan Kathryn Flanagan, Ph.D., senior scientist and head of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, will deliver the 2008 McDonnell Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27, in Room 214 Wilson Hall on the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis.

Burnell reflects on pulsars and being a pioneer British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on the process of scientific discovery and being a pioneer March 12, 2008 -- British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell will describe her landmark work in discovering the first pulsars at the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. on Wed., March 19 in Graham Chapel.

Extreme environments Return to Europa: A closer look is possible Dec. 13, 2007 -- NASA/JPL Thick or thin ice shell on Jupiter's moon Europa? Scientists are all but certain that Europa has an ocean underneath its surface ice, but do not know how thick this ice might be. Download Jupiter's moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life. William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is discussing some of these recent findings and new opportunities for exploring Europa in a news briefing on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007, at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

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Related News Clips:

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NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course For Mars Landing ScienceDaily.com and 21 others April 11, 2008 -- NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet. ...

NASA Cut Means No Roving for Mars Rover Associated Press and 92 others March 25, 2008 -- Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday. The cut comes at a time when the robots are in the midst of an extensive exploration campaign, said deputy principal investigator and WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson.

Antarctica's unique space rocks BBC News (UK) March 14, 2008 -- A pair of meteorites discovered in Antarctica are in a class all of their own, a major space conference has been told. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ryan Zeigler comments.

The Crew of STS-123 The New York Times March 11, 2008 -- Article profiles the seven men who make up the crew of the shuttle Endeavour's mission to the International Space Station. The youngest member of the crew is WUSTL alum Robert Behnken. He will conduct three spacewalks, and will operate the space station's robotic arm during the other spacewalks.

Jupiter's Moon Europa: What Could Be Under The Ice? ScienceDaily.com and 3 others Dec. 14, 2007 -- Jupiter's moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor William McKinnon is discussing some of these recent findings and new opportunities for exploring Europa in a news briefing today at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Mineral may unlock secrets of Venus's ancient oceans NewScientist.com (UK) Oct. 11, 2007 -- Did ancient oceans on Venus last long enough for potential life to have emerged? The answer could be locked inside a hardy mineral called tremolite, which future robotic missions to our neighbouring planet could find and study. Experiments by Natasha Johnson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Bruce Fegley Jr. have previously shown that tremolite, which forms in the presence of water, is tough enough that it could have survived on Venus's surface to the present.

NASA Mars Rover Churns Up Questions With Sulfur-Rich Soil ScienceDaily.com, NewScientist.com (UK) and 14 others March 15, 2007 -- Some bright Martian soil containing lots of sulfur and a trace of water intrigues researchers who are studying information provided by NASA's Spirit rover. "This material could have been left behind by water that dissolved these minerals underground, then came to the surface and evaporated, or it could be a volcanic deposit formed around ancient gas vents," said WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson. He is the deputy principal investigator for NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

Passing probe to study 'crop circles' on Europa NewScientist.com (UK) Feb. 28, 2007 -- When NASA's New Horizons space probe makes its closest approach of Jupiter on Wednesday, it will get the best ever glimpse at the composition of several of the planet's large moons. NASA plans to send back only five images of Jupiter and its moons shortly after the flyby. One of those five will be of Jupiter's moon, Europa, which scientists think harbours a watery ocean beneath an icy crust. Some scientists say this is a prime place to look for life in the solar system. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Bill McKinnon comments.

Aerial sight was a meteor The Kansas City Star and 1 others Feb. 6, 2007 -- That dazzling object seen falling from the sky over Missouri, Kansas and other Midwestern states Sunday evening was a meteor, though where it ended up is uncertain, experts said. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Randy Korotev comments.

Mars rover reaches rim of deep crater Associated Press and 90 others Sept. 28, 2006 -- The Mars rover Opportunity reached the rim of a deep crater Wednesday after an arduous 21-month trek, marking a milestone. Victoria crater, with its exposed walls of thickly layered rocks, is a treasure trove for scientists trying to determine whether the rocks were formed in shallow lakes, which might suggest the planet once could have been hospitable to life. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor and NASA scientist Ray Arvidson comments.

Rover holding up well on Mars San Francisco Chronicle Sept. 12, 2006 -- Defying all the odds, the gutsy Mars rover Opportunity is still trundling tirelessly across the Red Planet's rugged landscape and making new discoveries of ancient water 2 1/2 years after it bounced to a landing on a mission designed to last only three months. When the rover reaches the walls of the huge Victoria Crater, it will find the thickest stack of layered rocks it has yet encountered, and to Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, the prospect of analyzing those rocks is truly exciting.

Rover nears crater science trove BBC News (UK) and 12 others Sept. 8, 2006 -- Nasa's robotic Mars rover Opportunity is closing in on what could be the richest scientific "treasure trove" of its mission so far. Within the next two weeks, Opportunity should reach the rim of Victoria crater, wider and deeper than any it has visited in more than two-and-a-half years on Mars. NASA scientist and WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson comments.

Begging a crust Nature.com (UK) Sept. 5, 2006 -- Article looks at the research still being done using the lunar rock brought back between 1969 and 1976, mainly by the U.S. Apollo missions. These rocks have helped scientists to understand much of what we know about the Moon today. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Randy Korotev comments on new techniques being developed as this research continues.

Wild weather: Iron rain on failed stars USA Today and 1 others July 5, 2006 -- Ever since their discovery 11 years ago, brown dwarfs have baffled scientists. Sometimes called "failed stars," brown dwarfs are too small to trigger the fusion of hydrogen that keeps stars like our sun shining for billions of years. Instead, over tens of millions of years brown dwarfs slowly cool and fade. Meanwhile, the weather on these strange objects is some of the wildest in the galaxy. WUSTL planetary chemistry professor Katharina Lodders comments.

Astronomers sweep space for the sources of cosmic dust Science Magazine online Nov. 1, 2005 -- Article on new observing tools scientists can use to study interstellar dust. Astronomers know that interstellar dust illuminates the erratic deaths of stars, and it traces a direct link from stars to the birth of our solar system — and ultimately, to Earth. WUSTL physicist and cosmochemist Ernst Zinner comments.

E=MC squared at 100 NPR: All Things Considered Oct. 4, 2005 -- WUSTL physicist John Rigden comments on the 100th anniversary of Einstein's famous equation. He is the author of Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness.

New method developed to find exoplanets United Press International, RedNova.com (TX) and 3 others Sept. 8, 2005 -- Astronomers looking for earth-like planets in other solar systems — exoplanets — now have a new field guide thanks to WUSTL earth and planetary scientists Bruce Fegley and Laura Schaefer. The research was presented during this week's annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Cambridge, England.

Scientists Release Rover Panoramic Photo Associated Press Online, Astrobiology Magazine and 58 others Sept. 2, 2005 -- Scientists released the first full-color panoramic picture of the landscape taken by the rover from its lookout point, showing the rover's tracks in the dust, flat plains of the surrounding Gusev Crater region, rugged terrain dubbed "the geologic promised land" by one scientist, distant plateaus on the crater rim and more hills. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson comments. He is deputy principal investigator of the rover mission.

Mapping life on Earth could predict finding it on Mars Universe Today Online and 2 others May 12, 2005 -- WUSTL geologist Carrine Blank is developing techniques that will help understand how early life developed and diverged here on Earth, to help predict where and what form it might take on Mars. Carrine Blank has traced the genetic relationships between different classes of bacteria, and determined when they broke away from each other to evolve into distinct organisms. These patterns of divergence have happened in several places on Earth, so it's possible they happened on Mars too.

Unexpectedly, the mars rovers are still going strong New York Times March 22, 2005 -- Nearly a year past its planned three-month lifetime, the Mars rover Spirit has found itself rejuvenated and is now making some of its most significant discoveries about Mars' waterlogged past. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, on the other side of Mars, have continued working so well that managers have requested that the mission be extended up to another 18 months. WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson comments. He is a member of the NASA science team.

More Mars-related news

Analyses show water stayed on Mars longer than previously thought
Nov. 26, 2001 - An analysis of high-resolution topographic maps and photographs, as well as recent studies of Martian meteorites suggest the presence of water on the Red Planet for a longer time scale than scientists had previously believed. Roger J. Phillips, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences and Director of Washington University's McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, analyzed topographic maps of the planet (accurate to within half a meter) that are based on data returned from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission. (http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/2002/science-tech/mars_water.html)

Mars-related articles from campus newspaper, The Record.

Feb. 6, 2004 — Mars mission gets boost from WUSTL

July 11, 2003 — Mars mission bolstered by Arvidson, colleagues

Dec. 7, 2001 — Water stayed on Mars longer than thought, analyses show

June 15, 2001 — Swept away: Study suggests massive water erosion of Mars' highlands

March 30, 2001 — Researchers pinpoint region responsible for Mars' heyday

Nov. 17, 2000 — Mars Rover project involves faculty, staff, students

April 4, 2000 — Life's origins: Researchers find intriguing posibility in volcanic gases

Jan. 29, 1998 — Arvidson takes on new roles in Mars Surveyor missions