Monthly Archives: August 2012

Mars, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, valles marineris

Tectonically Speaking

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It Looks Like Mars Has Plates!

Remember back in geology class when we all learned about plate tectonics on Earth?  The continents and oceans of our planet ride along on crustal plates that jostle against each other like huge cracked regions in an eggshell, and in some places, dive under each other toward the mantle of our planet.  Those motions set off earthquakes, which you’ve probably heard about along such places as the San Andreas Fault in California.

The interior part of the Valles Marineris on Mars. Courtesy NASA.

Well, for the longest time, geologists and planetary scientists figured that Earth was the only planet we know about with plates.  Except now it turns out that Mars has a very primitive form of plate tectonics that are likely responsible for the formation of the huge Valles Marineris canyon system on the Red Planet.  UCLA scientist An Yin has discovered these plates by analyzing satellite images from the  THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), an instrument on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and from the HIRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Dr. Yin compared what has been found on Mars with studies done in the Himalayas and in California. There are striking similarities between the fault systems seen in these regions on Earth with canyons on Mars, which has a linear volcanic zone typical of plate tectonics.

In particular, the Valles Marineris region on Mars now appears to be an obvious product of plate tectonics, rather than just a crack opening up on the surface of the planet as scientists once thought. Yin suspects that this famous canyon system on the Red Planet is really a plate boundary that experiences horizontal motion. That’s similar to the motion along Earth’s San Andreas Fault, which periodically causes earthquakes.  The two plates divided by the Valles Marineris have moved approximately 93 miles horizontally relative to each other, according to Yin. By comparison, the San Andreas has moved about  twice as much, and the motions are comparable in type.

On Earth, the huge powerhouse of our core and mantle provide energy to move the plates around actively. Mars, on the other hand, doesn’t have as much activity at its core, which means that it likely has fewer plates and motions than Earth does.  This primitive state of Red Planet plate tectonics also means that Mars has quakes, just not as often as Earth does.

These days, Mars exploration is all the rage again, with the daily news and views from Curiosity, Opportunity, and the orbiters at the Red Planet sending back a constant flow of images and data. Discoveries of things like Martian plate tectonics are a natural outcome of all this Mars exploration. Not all discoveries get made overnight. Sometimes it takes years for scientists to get enough data and perspective to crystallize their findings. I’m excited to find out just what else we’re going to learn about Mars now and on into the future!

Speaking of exploring Mars, there’s a nifty 3D exploration of Mars that you can do right at your computer. Check out this view from Mars Day 2 from Curiosity.  I just spent some time playing with it, and I feel like I’ve just come back from a little Red Planet field trip.

 

 

Science, space exploration, Uwingu Fund

Helping Exploration to Uwingu

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Crowd-Funding Exploration

I was talking to my friend Alan Stern the other day. We both worked at the same lab at the University of Colorado and had the same advisor when we were in grad school.  If you don’t know about Alan, Google him sometime. He’s packed a lot of experience into his life, and is probably one of the most energetic and forward-thinking people I know.  Even talking quietly over his mobile phone so he wouldn’t wake up the rest of his family, Alan radiated energy.

So, what’s got Alan excited these days?  One word: Uwingu.  It’s the Swahili word for “the sky”, and the name of a new project called the Uwingu Fund  that he and a group of friends started. What the team wants to do is crowd-source space exploration and science research that is deserving of funding, but isn’t getting it in these days of austere budgets. “We want this to be a “gate fund” for space,” he said.  “There’s nothing else like it. We’re selling something of broad interest around the world and the dollars will go toward space exploration.  We’re hoping to do something transformational.”

Uwingu Fund lets people donate money in exchange for “perks”.  The funds they share will be used in as a “private sector” funding mechanism that could bring millions or tens of millions of dollars annually for space projects of all kinds.  For example, it will provide grants to people who propose meritorious projects in space exploration, space research, or space education. As Alan puts it some of the money will be used to fund people as projects. “It’s a very different way to fund research from the past. It’s a very 21st-century model,” he said. “It will be peer-reviewed, just as other science grant proposals are. We’ll have review panels to help select the deserving projects.”

The idea was seeded by Alan’s experiences at NASA, his involvement with the New Horizons mission (which will reach Pluto in three years), and, more recently, by a series of “bake-sale” and “car wash” and “shoe shining” type fundraisers he spurred.  “People would come up to me at those events and ask me, ‘what can I do to help?’,” Alan mused.

He pointed out what many of us have known for years but somehow gets missed by the media and the political elites: that many, many people across all walks of life ARE interested in space exploration and science, and they want to be a part of it.  Maybe they don’t all get to be astronauts, but they get to know that something they contributed to is making science good. For example, many folks have their names embedded on a microchip that went to Mars onboard on the Curiosity rover.  I sent MY name in, and it gives me a little frisson of wonder each time I think about it.  And, as I pointed out in another entry here, it only cost me $7.00 in taxes for that whole mission. Not a bad return on investment, and a heck of a lot healthier (mentally and physically) than a deep-fried meal at a fast-food joint.

I like Alan’s idea and I’ll be getting involved. As I mentioned above, Uwingu Fund is offering perks, just as other crowd-sourcing sites do. And, I’ll happily take a perk. But, for me, the biggest perk will be seeing some worthwhile science get funded that would have otherwise been ignored in the science-unfriendly political environment we face today. We need science to move forward, both as individuals and as a species.  And Uwingu Fund is a way to help that happen. It’s is new, it’s just getting started, but I do think that the group behind it will achieve great things and help others to do the same. So, check it out and get in on moving us forward.