[meteorite-list] NASA Selects Scientists for Mars Rover Research Projects

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 16:13:15 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201603152313.u2FNDF8r000968_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5748

NASA Selects Scientists for Mars Rover Research Projects
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 11, 2016

NASA has selected 28 researchers as participating scientists for the Curiosity
Mars rover mission, including six newcomers to the rover's science team.

The six new additions work in Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania,
Michigan and Tennessee. Eighty-nine scientists around the world submitted
research proposals for using data from Curiosity and becoming participating
scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates
the rover. The 28 selected by NASA are part of a science team that also
includes about 120 other members, mainly the principal investigators and
co-investigators for the rover's 10 science instruments, plus about 320
science-team collaborators, such as the investigators' associates and
students.

An initial group of Mars Science Laboratory participating scientists was
chosen before Curiosity's 2012 landing on Mars, and several of those scientists
were selected again in the latest round. Participating scientists on the
mission play active roles in the day-to-day science operations of Curiosity,
involving heavy interaction with rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the mission for NASA.

The six participating scientists who are new to the mission are: Barbara
Cohen, of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; Christopher
Fedo of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Raina Gough of the University
of Colorado, Boulder; Briony Horgan of Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana; Christopher House of Pennsylvania State University, University
Park; and Mark Salvatore of the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Seven other newly selected participating scientists have participated
in the Curiosity mission previously in other roles: Christopher Edwards,
U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona; Abigail Fraeman, JPL; Scott
Guzewich, Universities Space Research Association, Greenbelt, Maryland;
Craig Hardgrove, Arizona State University, Tempe; Amy McAdam, NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Melissa Rice, Western Washington
University, Bellingham; and Kathryn Stack Morgan, JPL.

Fifteen researchers who had been selected previously as Mars Science Laboratory
participating scientists were selected again in this round: Raymond Arvidson,
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; John Bridges, University of
Leicester, United Kingdom; Bethany Ehlmann, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena; Jennifer Eigenbrode, NASA Goddard; Kenneth Farley, Caltech;
John Grant, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Jeffrey Johnson, Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland; Richard
L?veill?, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Kevin Lewis, Johns
Hopkins University; Scott McLennan, State University of New York, Stony
Brook; Ralph Milliken, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; John
Moores, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; David Rubin, University
of California, Santa Cruz; Mariek Schmidt, Brock University, St. Catherines,
Ontario, Canada; Rebecca Williams, Planetary Science Institute, Madison,
Wisconsin.

During Curiosity's prime mission, which was completed in 2014, the project
met its main goal by finding evidence that ancient Mars offered environmental
conditions with all the requirements for supporting microbial life, if
any ever existed on Mars. In Curiosity's first extended mission, researchers
are using the rover on the lower portion of a layered mountain to study
how Mars' ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for
microbial life to harsher, drier conditions. For more information about
Curiosity, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl


Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2016-068
Received on Tue 15 Mar 2016 07:13:15 PM PDT