IRA FLATOW, HOST:
This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.
Take a look at some of the pictures coming back from the Mars rovers. What do you see? Rocky fields, cliffs, dry
IRA FLATOW, HOST:
This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.
Take a look at some of the pictures coming back from the Mars rovers. What do you see? Rocky fields, cliffs, dry ground. They look a fair amount like some of the pictures of parts of southern Utah, especially if you put on a pair of rose-colored glasses. It turns out that researchers are studying the geology of Utah to help explain some of the features that the Mars rovers and orbiters are seeing. And, at the same time, other people are using Utah as a companion to Mars in another way, as a training ground to help develop tools and techniques for humans one day living and working there on the red planet.
Joining me now here in the Grand Theatre in Salt Lake City, from the campus of the Salt Lake Community College, are my guests, Marjorie Chan, professor of geology in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
MARJORIE CHAN: Thank you.
FLATOW: And Charles Killian, he's the CapCom coordinator for the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station that's in southern Utah, near Hanksville. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.
CHARLES KILLIAN: Thank you very much.
FLATOW: Thank you. Now, Dr. Chan, what is it about Utah that makes a good match for studying Mars?
CHAN: Utah is just a fantastic place for geologists, because things are so well-exposed, and we don't have a lot of vegetation, as was mentioned previously, that's covering things up. So we can make comparisons of what the surface, the landscape looks like, even from satellite-type images. And we can get on the ground and look at it in person.
FLATOW: Mm-hmm. How closely does what you see here track to what researchers are actually sending back from the rovers and things? Do they match up, the kind of things?
CHAN: It's been really exciting, and in part because some of the newest discoveries on Mars have found sedimentary rocks, and sedimentary rocks are the ones that contain life. And this is exciting because it really evokes the question: Are we alone in the universe? And can we find potential life on another planet?
FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Let's talk, Chuck, about the Mars Society. What's there about Utah that makes it a good place for the Mars Society?
KILLIAN: Well, in about the year 2000, a survey was done to find a place where one could build a habitat in an area that was a close analogue to Mars. And it turns out, southern Utah is perfect, because there's little-to-no vegetation, and the scenery is right, which is probably because the geology is right. If I can tell just a quick antidote.
FLATOW: Sure, sure.
KILLIAN: I was out there, oh, in October and got up early and was looking out a porthole, and the sun was coming up. And it was kind of the rosy glow you get in the desert that time of the day. It looked just like a photograph from one of the rovers. It was absolutely perfect.
FLATOW: Wow. What sort of things are the field crews doing at the Mars Desert Research Station? What do they do out there?
KILLIAN: Well, typically, they do things like biology, geology. They do - they work with small rovers, occasionally. What they're out there to do is to develop - as you stated - tools and techniques to - that may be useful in - during the human exploration of Mars. They, for instance, might go out and bring back samples and analyze them in the lab there - and they have - for biologics. Same thing with geology studies, that kind of thing.
FLATOW: If you have a question in here in the audience, please, step to the mikes if you want to know something about the geology of Utah and the comparison to Mars. One of the things that was quite interesting, Dr. Chan, a few years ago, the Mars rover found some really spherical-looking objects. You're shaking your head, or you know what I'm going to call them, those blueberries, blueberries on Mars.
FLATOW: What - did you figure out what they were?
CHAN: Well, prior to the landing of that particular rover, I had been looking at some of these marbles, these round balls, and these are sandstones that have preferential - that have cement that are making them much harder. And...
FLATOW: Natural cement?
CHAN: Natural cement made of iron oxides. And, typically, some of the minerals hematite and what we called graphite. And these are iron oxides. And this is really the history of how fluids ha