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Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > Faculty Experts at Washington University in St. Louis >
Professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences
Expertise: Mars, NASA, origins of life on Mars, space studies, surface features of Mars
Bio:
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 shell or lithosphere through magmatic and tectonic activity. In this research, a variety of geophysical and geological data sets are used in conjunciton with computer modeling of physical processes. The underpinning of this activity is application of the concepts of coninuum mechanics, with emphasis on computational fluid and solid dynamics, to a variety of geodynamical environments. Phillips participated in the selection of the landing sites for the Mars rovers, but is not working on the 2004 mission at JPL . Phillips presently is heavily involved with the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the Mars Global Surveyor Mission and is the U.S. Principal Investigator on the Italian Sharad Radar Experiment, one of six instruments scheduled to fly on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2005. His special Mars-related Interests include: (1) the geomorphology and paleoflow conditions of outflow channels and valley networks and (2) spatial variation in tectonic strain and how this relates to the thermomechanical evolution of the Tharsis Province (a mammoth structure dominating a quarter of the Red Planet, rising to an average elevation of about 10 kilometers above the surrounding region).
WUSTL Contact Information:
| Work: | (314) 935-6356 |
| Fax: | (314) 935-7361 |
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Education:
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Ph.D. at University of California at Berkeley
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M.S. at University of California at Berkeley
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B.S. in Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines
| News Stories & Tip Sheets: |
Showing 2 Stories.
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Volcanoes and ice
NASA spacecraft read layered clues to changes on Mars
Dec. 13,
2006 --
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| NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona. |
| Polar layered deposits exposed in a scarp at the head of Chasma Boreale, a large canyon on Mars. |
Mars climate history, recorded in ice-rich deposits near the poles, on crater-wall cliffs and ancient sand dunes, is being revealed by a trio of NASA instruments now flying over and rolling across the planet, suggest Washington University in St. Louis researchers playing key roles in the mission.
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Walking on Mars
Radiation, microgravity two tough hurdles for humans on Mars
May 9,
2005 --
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| Mars Exploration Rover mission scientists remind us that the amazing success of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity is a harbinger for the day when humans inhabit the Red Planet. |
The major drawback to a human mission to Mars is preparing for the one to two years of radiation and microgravity exposure that astronauts must endure. While that is a large hurdle, enabling technologies are emerging that should be able to make this goal a reality over the next couple of decades, and America should go for it. That's the theme of a report from NASA's 2002 Astrobiology Academy appearing soon as a paper in Acta Astronautica.
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Additional Background: Phillips has been involved in planetary and terrestrial geophysical research for three decades, of participating in a number of space missions, and of serving on a bunch of NASA committees. The most important result of these endeavors has been to acquire lots of friends from around the planet (Earth, that is). Some of the more interesting committees have been the Exploration Science Working Group, the Space Studies Board, the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, and the InterMarsNet Science Working Group (the last of which treated me to an extraordinary snowstorm in Paris). He chaired the Lunar Exploration Science Working Group for a number of years, where we lived, then died, with the Space Exploration Initiative.
He is a co-editor of the Origin of the Moon and Venus II volumes and has been an editor of Geophysical Research Letters. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has served as President of the Planetary Sciences Section of that organization. He has been on numerous proposal review panels.
After graduate school Phillips spent 10 years at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab and then became the Director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. He entered academia professionally in 1982, becoming the Matthews Professor of Geological Sciences at Southern Methodist University. In 1992 Phillips joined the faculty of Washington University.
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