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Home , Curiosity (rover)

MISSIONS TO ‘It is pretty special to get new views of martian vistas—it truly feels like exploration.’

A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken on 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

n August 2012, NASA’s Curiosity roles. Firstly, I am one of the Exploration rover touched down in Gale crater, sedimentologists and stratigraphers on Since the 1960s, humans have been Mars, after a 350-million-mile the mission, and my job is to work with exploring Mars with an increasingly journey lasting more than 8 other team members in reconstructing the sophisticated series of probes, landers and months. Sanjeev Gupta, Professor ancient palaeoenvironments from Gale rovers. In that time, we’ve learned a huge Iof Sciences at Imperial College crater strata and to determine the amount about the planet’s geological London, is an Earth and of early Mars. history, composition and potential for life. scientist who researches modern and ‘I am also one of the strategic planners Among the missions currently operating ancient environmental change on for the mission, what we call a Long Term alongside Curiosity are NASA’s InSIGHT Earth’s surface and on Mars. He is one Planner. For this role I integrate between (Interior Exploration using Seismic of the scientists working on the the science team and engineers in Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Curiosity rover mission—still active building strategic plans for exploration Transport) , which is studying the after 8 years on Mars. and scientifi c observations and interior of Mars, and MAVEN (Mars ‘On the Curiosity mission, I have two experiments.’ Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN), an

22 NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | DECEMBER 2020 | 23 INTERVIEW GEOSCIENTIST

As well as the Curiosity rover, Sanjeev is the mosaic because of data volume also working on , NASA’s latest constraints or issues with how long the rover mission launched in July and mosaic will take in terms of time. When the expected to land in February next year, and image frames come down, one of the the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, a Mastcam engineers will put the images joint mission between the European and together into a mosaic, though this is often Russian space agencies, planned to launch done automatically. in 2022. As one of the Long Term Planners ‘It is pretty special to get new views for NASA’s Perseverance mission to Jezero of martian vistas—it truly feels like crater, he has been working with the science exploration.’ team to develop investigation strategies for exploring deltaic strata in the crater. Sample return ‘The Perseverance rover will be coring Alongside the incredible images and scientific and caching rock samples for future return data already being collected, Sanjeev is to Earth. When analyzed in Earth hopeful that, in time, it will be possible to laboratories, scientists will be able to look for bring samples from Mars back to Earth. chemical and textural evidence for past life. ‘This is the plan! The Perseverance rover Moreover, investigation of the is collecting and caching rock samples, and mineralogy of samples will tell us which is the first step in the Mars Sample invaluable information about the geological Return mission concept. The idea is that and atmospheric evolution of Mars. around 2026, a mission will be sent to Mars We also hope to be able to collect samples that will contain a Sample Fetch rover that that could be age dated back on Earth so that will retrieve the cached samples, take them we can begin to construct a robust timeline back to the lander and the samples will be for Mars—something that is lacking. In the launched into Mars orbit in a Mars Ascent ESA/ ExoMars mission, the Vehicle. Then, perhaps in 2030, a third Rosalind Franklin rover will drill up to 2 m mission will retrieve the samples from Mars into the martian subsurface, well below the orbit and bring them back to Earth!’ damage zone, to look for organics It wasn’t until the final Apollo mission in martian rock samples.’ that a geologist was sent to the surface of the Moon--’s Harrison Schmidt, Martian vistas who is now an Honorary Fellow of the Curiosity has become known for the Geological Society and was instrumental in Sanjeev Gupta incredible panoramic images of Mars it has sample collection and documentation captured, as well as for the first ‘’ to be during that mission. It may be some time taken on Mars—created by stitching yet before we can send humans to Mars, together numerous images taken by the but Sanjeev believes that when we do, handlens camera located at the end of its geologists may be at the front of the queue. . The panoramic images we’ve ‘I think it will definitely happen and become used to seeing in the news are perhaps the key scientists on that first captured by the Mast Camera (Mastcam), mission will be geologists. Whilst we can which recently captured a mosaic made up do a lot with a rover on Mars, we really of one hundred images that contained 1.8 need geologist astronauts to explore the billion . complexity of Mars’s evolution.’ ‘Mastcam images are typically put In the meantime, the scope of what can orbiter studying the Martian atmosphere. together by a small group of people. When be achieved remotely is growing all the ‘We have learnt enormous amounts about I dial into daily operations, I will look over time, and the teamwork involved in Mars in the light of recent missions, such as a Navigation Camera panorama taken at planning missions is one of Sanjeev’s Curiosity, MAVEN and InSIGHT’ says the end of a drive the previous . I and favourite parts of the job. Sanjeev. ‘Curiosity’s big finding has been other team members will use this to ‘I really like doing rover operations and the discovery of ‘smoking gun’ evidence for identify and target areas, rock outcrops, working with the science and engineering active surface water flow on Mars—rivers landscape features etc., that we are team in planning what we will do on Mars transporting rounded pebbles and cobbles interested in getting a photo mosaic of. We the following day and the next days ahead. 3.5 billion years ago, and the presence of will make suggestions to the engineers of ‘We all know each other quite well now lakes in Gale crater at that time that likely the Mastcam team, who will construct despite having worked predominantly existed for at least hundreds of thousands , framework for a possible panorama to be online for the past 8 years. It’s great working if not millions of years. We have also taken by the Mastcam cameras based on with such an amazing group of people!’ discovered organic compounds in Martian individual image frames. samples.’ ‘Usually we have to decrease the size of Interview by Sarah Day

22 NOVEMBER 2020 | WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST WWW.GEOLSOC.ORG.UK/GEOSCIENTIST | DECEMBER 2020 | 23