http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-658818.mp3
Albany, NY – ATTITUDES ABOUT LIFE ON MARS ARE CHANGING -
To help welcome in the new year, we're kicking off 2008 with a special
theme show on Mars. As scientists discover more planets outside our
own solar system, the hope is to find another planet just like Earth. One
that could support life as we know it here. Yet, even while new planets
are being found, the search for our origins of life continues. That's why
more countries are sending satellites, probes, and rovers to explore
Mars up close.
One of the better known Mars researchers is Dr. Everett Gibson, Senior
Scientist and Geochemist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
He's been with NASA for 35 years. Dr. Gibson is the Principal Investigator
in NASA's exobiology program investigating Carbon Geochemistry of
Martian Materials and Analogs. In an interview on the BBC, Gibson said,
If water exists beneath the Martian surface, why shouldn't life be present
today on Mars?
Long time TBOOK listeners may remember we had Dr. Everett Gibson
on our show in 2000 discussing his groundbreaking Mars meteorite
research. Now, as the Interdisciplinary Scientist on the European Space Agency's Mars Express Mission, instruments aboard that craft have yielded
several startling revelations. Dr. Gibson was at a gathering of European
Space Agency scientists recently and told Radio Netherlands, Laura
Durnford, how scientific opinions about life on Mars have been
shifting in recent decades.
Radio Netherlands, Laura Durnford reports. (3:29)
ORIGINS OF LIFE - SCIENCE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION SERIES
CO2-H2O PHASE EQUILIBRIA AND MARTIAN VOLATILE HISTORY
(OR HOW MARS ROLLED OVER AND DIED) -
Since Mars is the closest planet to Earth, scientists have always wondered
if it too may have spawned life, like Earth, when it was younger, warmer,
and had more water and atmosphere. Through the use of new technologies, scientists are even able to learn a lot about Mars by studying data that's collected from resources right here at home. After all, meteorites from Mars have fallen to earth. And our very cold Antarctic mimics frigid conditions on Mars.
Evidence of running water on Mars' surface has led scientists to speculate
that as much as 1 to 2 bars of carbon dioxide may have been present in
Mars' atmosphere 3 to 4 billion years ago. That would have been enough
to produce sufficient greenhouse warming to stabilize liquid water. But
today, only 1% of that atmosphere remains. So what happened to the
rest of it? Geochemist, Dr. John Longhi, has been investigating a
provocative theory that Mars' atmosphere may have been transferred
chemically to hidden reservoirs deep within the crust. Longhi talks with
TBOOK about How Mars Rolled Over And Died. Dr. Longhi is a Doherty
Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at
Columbia University in Palisades, New York.
Glenn Busby reports. (6:57)
The preceding material is supported by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.
**(For listeners interested in more information about this story, or any of
the other 140 stories featured in this exclusive radio series, or would like
to hear them again via their computer, the website mentioned at the
conclusion of the above story is www.orgins.rpi.edu, then click on
Seminar Program.)**
RECYCLING ON MARS TRIPS -
Putting people into space for relatively short periods of time, like shuttle
flights or the International Space Station is one thing. But ensuring their
health and safety for much longer voyages, like to Mars and back, is
quite another.
President Bush has set a goal to have astronauts travel to Mars within
the next 30 years. To accomplish that, among the many problems that
need to be solved first, is how to provide enough food, water, and air to
keep the astronauts going for at least three years, the possible length of
their voyage. You may recall in our last story we spoke with Dr. Longhi
about using Martian ice as a water source for space travelers to that planet.
To learn more about recycling on Mars trips, TBOOK visited with Stork Aerospace Product Engineering, and asked Dr. Lodewijk Westerling
about their Project MELISSA.
Radio Netherlands, Thijs Westerbeek reports. (4:54)