Chris Herd looked at the sky when he was 13 and dreamed of holding a rock from Mars. He may have the opportunity.
The University of Alberta planetary geologist is one of a small team of scientists working with NASA on a 10-year mission to Mars to bring back some of its rocks and look for signs of life.
It’s incredible
, said Mr. Herd.
We are looking for these habitable environments from which we can choose a sample that will allow us to attempt to answer this big question whether life ever existed there.
.
Chris Herd, professor and meteorite expert at the University of Alberta.
Photo: Radio-Canada
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Meteorite analysis expert Chris Herd is part of a team working with Perseverance, NASA’s newest Martian robot, due to launch on Thursday.
Perseverance will land on Jezero Crater, just north of the Red Planet’s equator, drill into the surface and take between 20 and 35 cores up to 10 centimeters long.
The rover will store these samples on the surface. From 2026, another rover must retrace the steps of Perseverance and thus recover the rock samples that will have been left and then return to Earth, perhaps before 2031.
Chris Herd explained that these rocks will be studied to see if they contain elements that could have contained living matter.
Scientists believe that Mars possessed water in liquid form in the distant past, but about 3.5 billion years ago something happened.
The change on Mars has been dramatic and the planet has dried up, explained Chris Herd.
A mission of precision
The Korolev ice crater on the planet Mars
Photo: ESA / Björn Schreiner 2018 – FU Berlin
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Jezero was chosen because it is believed that this crater could have hosted a lake. If there was life on Mars, lake sediments or an ancient shoreline could be good places to look for signs of distant life.
An itinerary has been programmed in Perseverance. Chris Herd’s job, along with his colleagues, will be to monitor the rover and tell it when to collect samples.
Measurements of the immediate environment surrounding the nucleus should also be taken.
Perseverance will be able to return a lot of information on its own. It has 23 cameras to record on landscapes and an on-board laser capable of vaporizing rocks and analyzing their composition.
Perseverance will be able to detect organic matter in rocks and will carry radar that penetrates the soil.
There will be a lot of science to be done with the robot
.
But proving that there would have been life on Mars will require an Earth-linked laboratory.
The driver of the whole mission is to look for signs of old life
said Chris Herd.
This requires bringing back samples. If we are to make this extraordinary statement, we need extraordinary evidence
.
The mission could answer an old question dating back to the 19th century, when astronomer Percival Lowell thought he spotted water channels on Mars.
Mars has moved back and forth in our collective consciousness as to whether life is here. There was a whole period where, if you asked the average person on the street if there were Martians, they would probably say, “yeah”.
Belief of a life form waned after flyby missions showed a somewhat disappointing planet. But further exploration has found ice at the poles, increasing the possibility of the presence of liquid water at least at some point in the history of the planet.
Now here we are, and we follow the trail of the water
said Chris Herd.
We realize there were habitable environments in the past. It’s pretty amazing to send a rover capable of taking samples … to answer that question.
It is really exciting.
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