NASA AMASE 2008: Day 3: Pan’s Entry

August 6, 2008 / Written by: Pan

I came here to do three things:

Study habitability as a function of several environmental factors Do some experiments with an instrument that is similar to one going to Mars next year. I’m a member of the science team for that Mars instrument (called SAM), and I want to learn as much as I can about the chemical evidence of “bio-friendly” environments.

And my team is interested in optical techniques that can help scientists select rock targets of interest on Mars and other planets. If one can select the target that is most likely to yield an interesting result before hacking or drilling it open, that one can minimize the use of precious, possibly non-renewable resources.