Jet OCTOBER Propulsion 2009 Laboratory volume 39

number 10

Lab discoveries find Earth’s wet , an icy Mars

Data from three spacecraft confirm water Reconnaissance orbiter sees frozen water molecules on lunar surface exposed by meteor impacts

Three JPL instruments have played our understanding of the moon. This a central role in the discovery of wa- exceptional accomplishment rests on ter molecules in the polar regions of the state-of-the-art M3 spectrometer the moon—a possibility long imagined developed at JPL and is a tribute to the by scientists that could help provide Laboratory’s commitment to the suc- resources for future humans living on cess of such a complex international Earth’s . collaboration.” The JPL-managed Moon Mineralogy “These intriguing results,” added JPL Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the Planetary Science Instruments Manager observations. M3 was launched Oct. 22, Chris Webster, “remind us of the great 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research richness in science discovery that ac- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter‘s HIRISE camera took these images of a fresh, 6-meter-wide crater on Oct. 18, 2008 (left) and on Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 space- companies every planetary mission Jan. 14, 2009. Each image is 35 meters across. This crater’s depth is estimated to be 1.33 meters. The impact exposed water ice—the bright material visible in this pair of images—from below the surface. craft. Data from the Visual and Infrared that we conduct; even to our nearest Mapping Spectrometer on JPL’s Cassini neighbor that we thought was well In a fortuitous and unexpected discov- beneath Mars’ surface halfway between spacecraft and the High-Resolution understood.” ery, JPL’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the north pole and the equator, a lower Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on the M3’s spectrometer measured light re- has revealed frozen water hiding just than expected in the Martian JPL-managed Epoxi spacecraft contrib- flecting off the moon’s surface at infra- below the surface of the Red Planet’s climate. uted to confirmation of the finding. The red wavelengths, splitting the spectral middle . The spacecraft’s obser- “This ice is a relic of a more humid imaging spectrometers revealed water colors into small enough bits to reveal a vations were obtained after meteorites climate from perhaps just several thou- molecules in amounts that are greater new level of detail in surface composi- excavated fresh craters. sand years ago,” said Shane Byrne of than predicted, but still relatively small. tion. When the mission’s science team The findings provide “a new window the University of Arizona, a member of Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one analyzed data from the instrument, they into the ‘water on Mars’ story,” noted the team operating the orbiter’s High oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, found the wavelengths of light being Suzanne Smrekar, Mars Reconnaissance Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, also was found in the . absorbed were consistent with the Orbiter deputy project scientist. “The or HiRISE camera, which captured the “This is an exciting discovery on the absorption patterns for water molecules distribution of subsurface ice is some- images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 land- and hydroxyl. thing scientists have been pursuing for the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the ing that provides the impetus for new JPL’s Rob Green, project instrument a long time. This is our first insight into journal Science. ideas and opportunities, for which JPL scientist for M3, noted that the instru- how water and climate have changed on “We now know we can use new impact is in a strong position to compete,” ment—which weighs about 20 pounds, Mars over the last 10,000 to 100,000 sites as probes to look for ice in the noted Cinzia Zuffada, JPL associate runs with the energy equivalent to a 20- years.” shallow subsurface,” said Megan Ken- chief scientist. “It is likely to change Continued on page 3 Scientists controlling instruments on nedy of Malin Space Science Systems, a the orbiter found bright ice exposed at co-author of the paper and member of five Martian sites with new craters that the team operating the orbiter’s Context range in depth from about half a meter Camera. to 2.5 meters (1.5 feet to 8 feet). The During a typical , the camera craters did not exist in earlier images returns more than 200 images of Mars of the same sites. Some of the craters that cover a total area greater than Cali- show a thin layer of bright ice atop fornia. The camera team examines each darker underlying material. The bright image, sometimes finding dark spots patches darkened in the follow- that fresh, small craters make in ter- ing initial observations, as the freshly rain covered with dust. Checking earlier exposed ice vaporized into the thin Mar- photos of the same areas can confirm tian atmosphere. One of the new craters a feature is new. The team has found had a bright patch of material large more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly

These images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away from Earth, as viewed by JPL’s Moon enough for the orbiter’s spectrometer to closer to the equator than the ones that Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. On the left is an image showing confirm it is water-ice. revealed ice. brightness at shorter infrared wavelengths. On the right, the distribution of water-rich minerals is shown around a small crater. The findings indicate water-ice occurs Continued on page 3 2 men projectors combine to provide bigger and floor will include at least one conference room with 3 brighter pictures than those offered in von Kármán high-definition video capability. The Office of the Auditorium. CIO provides full-service networking capabilities The new auditorium will utilize built-in, multi-cam- for both the smaller meeting rooms (with a capac- n i v e r s e n i v eBuilding r s e a future The state-of-the-art audito-

era, high-definition videotaping and permanent video U

U ity of 12) and conference rooms (capacity 40), rium contributes significantly teleconference capability. The seating capacity is which are scheduled through JPL’s Unified Messag- for flight projects to the building’s promise of approximately double that of von Kármán. Chairs in ing Service. the new facility include small, retractable desktops energy efficiency. Its features The facility also includes some new recycling By Mark Whalen and Alex Abels for easier note taking. Food is prohibited inside but features not found in other buildings on Lab. include carbon dioxide sensors water is allowed. Events in the auditorium require a Pantry areas on each floor (which also serve as a to reduce heating and cooling minimum of 50 people. copy center) are equipped with receptacles for the when lightly occupied as well For large meetings that don’t quite require all the recycling of bottles and cans. Each floor has an as displacement ventilation for auditorium’s features, the building’s basement in- additional area adjacent to the elevators for recy- cludes a 200-seat multipurpose room, which will be cling newspapers and magazines, and an additional improved air quality. available in late November. With capabilities similar receptacle for plastic bottles. Pantries also have to the 180-101 and 167 conference rooms, the room a tall blue paper-recycling bin, next to the copy will offer multiple projectors and non-permanent machine. Additional bottle and can recycling can Bottom row, from left: An exterior seating so it can be configured in a “U-shape” with be provided for auditorium events. For information, view of the building and its green- tables, a feature often used for design reviews. In contact Taenha Goodrich, ext. 4-1973. Thom Wynne / JPL Photo Lab ery; Pete Jones shows off the new this configuration, the seating capacity is approxi- An exercise room is also being prepared in the look in sliding glass doors for mately 130 people (compared to about 80 in 180- basement, and will be available in late October. 101). Other setups will be available, Inova said. To The Flight Projects Center was championed offices; one of the newly designed schedule events, call ext. 4-6666 or 4-6170. among others by retired JPL executive Tom Gavin, cubicles, which offer enhanced All told, more than 40 meeting/conference rooms thus the building’s affectionate designation as working and storage space; the are available in the building. Floors 3, 4 and 5 each “Gavin Towers.” Conceived early in this decade, “green” roof; the theater-style have meeting rooms in the four corners of the build- the building was constructed in approximately 24 ing; floors 1 and 2 have meeting rooms in three auditorium; one of the meeting . The cost of about $71 million was funded corners. Conference rooms offer a centralized con- by JPL projects through NASA’s Construction of rooms that are on most corners trol system, projection capability, computers and a Facilities program. of the structure. voice conferencing system. By late November, each

Earth’s moon Continued from page 1 “For all of those who thought the moon was just a orbiter’s higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2008, ...... watt light bulb and is about the size of a desktop laser white or gray body in orbit around the Earth, it isn’t,” confirming a cluster of small craters. printer—has returned almost 1,000 gigabytes of data in Green said. “It’s full of spectacular spectral variations, “Initially, the science team was extremely excited and the past 10 months “to allow us to cover more than which we can relate to composition. There are many hoped that it was water, but they were cautious, since A green, living roof atop the new 422-seat auditori- JPL’s sparkling new Flight Projects Center, which started occu- 90 percent of the moon. You’re seeing just the beginning more questions today than we had six months ago, and it could have been an observation of salt or some other um will help keep the building cool in the summer and pancy in September, is so much more than a structure that will of the results and some of the highlights from the early there’s going to be a lot of work over years, and prob- material,” Smrekar said. “So the team had to keep it warm in the winter. The green roof, comprising mostly analysis of the data.” ably decades, understanding this phenomenon and fol- under wraps until the final confirmation.” provide additional office space for JPLers. succulent plants, will provide insulation from thermal “We are not talking about lakes, oceans or even pud- lowing up on it. Indeed, she said, confirmation came through with data shock from the auditorium and will also help minimize dles,” said Carle Pieters, M3’s principal investigator from “The discovery will have important consequences from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Compact Reconnais- storm water runoff into the Arroyo Seco, Wager said. Brown University. Team members said that on average, to NASA’s portfolio of future missions and needed in- sance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, “a tool that looks “greening” of JPL. The facility has received gold certi- Planning calls for the building to house project The state-of-the-art auditorium contributes signifi- one ton of the top layer of the moon’s surface could con- strumentation, and may impact the ongoing Planetary deeper than spectrometers can observe and thus pro- fication from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Lead- team members who are transitioning from missions’ cantly to the building’s promise of energy efficiency. tain as much as 32 ounces of water. Science Decadal Survey priorities,” Webster said. “For vides us with a view of shallow ice at lower latitudes.” ership in Energy and Environmental Design rating JPL, it is a validation of the careful, meticulous way Smrekar praised the successful collaboration between formulation phase to development and implementa- Its features include carbon dioxide sensors to reduce While the M3 team found water molecules and hydrox- system, which verifies that the building was designed yl at diverse areas of the moon’s sunlit region, the water that we build robust but sophisticated spectrometers the mission teams, noting the critical coordination that’s tion phases, said Pete Jones of the Engineering and heating and cooling when lightly occupied as well as and built to save energy and water, reduce carbon signature appeared stronger at higher latitudes. Water like M3, under the guidance of instrument managers needed between the Context Camera, HiRISE and spec- Science Directorate staff office. To date, most of the displacement ventilation for improved air quality. 150 Mars Science Laboratory staff members have dioxide emissions and improve indoor environmental molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data Tom Glavitch and Mary White. We are delighted with the trometer teams to rapidly obtain images and the ability “We have taken a great leap toward saving energy spectacular results from Carle Pieters’ team and the of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft team to relocated to the new Building 321, as have Orbit- quality. The certification is a first for NASA, noted from a 1999 Cassini flyby of the moon, but the findings by installing new LED-based stage lights that have far were not published until now. “The data from Cassini’s Chandrayaan spacecraft performance on India’s first successfully roll the orbiter multiple times over a short ing Carbon Observatory staff. Members of the Solar Randy Wager, supervisor of project administration in less power consumption and much lower heat output instrument and M3 closely agree,” noted Roger Clark, a lunar mission. period to see the same interesting sites. System Exploration and Mars Exploration director- the Facilities Engineering and Construction Section than the traditional theatrical lights in von Kármán U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member “Already, we are discussing future mission opportuni- One of the great ironies of the discovery, Smrekar ates are scheduled to move in by the first week of and project manager for the building. Auditorium,” added Marian Inova, manager of JPL’s of both the M3 and Cassini spectrometer teams. ties with Carle and Rob Green that include interest ex- noted, is that several of these craters were found in the Overall, the facility’s efficiency measures include October. Television Operations Office. “We’ve also saved energy For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the pressed by both the India Space Research Organization vicinity of 1976’s Viking 2 lander, which had an arm that enhanced wall and roof insulation and window-shad- The next groups to move in, said Jones, will be, in by using multi-view monitors in the auditorium control Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon in June and the Japanese Space Agency in a next-generation dug down into the soil looking for ice. “We realized from ing devices. Compared to similar structures, Wager order, the Soil Moisture Active and Passive Mission, booth instead of individual monitors for each camera 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with instrument capability,” Webster said, adding that JPL is looking at the distribution of ice in these craters that if said, a 50 percent water reduction in landscaping and planning to propose a similar instrument on NASA’s Ju- Viking 2 had dug down 6 inches deeper, it should have Juno, NuStar, Space Interferometry Mission Lite or input.” comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft, which JPL directed to a 30 percent water use reduction is expected for the a 2005 comet encounter for the Deep Impact mission, piter Europa Orbiter mission in 2025 to look at the shell found ice,” she said. Astrometric Observatory, and Grail. Perhaps more reminiscent of a theater than an au- building. Also, the structure well exceeds standards not only confirmed the Cassini and M3 findings, but also of Europa that is believed to be made up of water ice. “We would have seen the potential for the development The six-story building will be completely occupied ditorium, the new facility is also cutting edge in many by early December, Jones said. Maximum occupancy set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating expanded on them. Jessica Sunshine of the University for life,” she added, “and I think we would have gone other ways. A noticeable improvement, Inova noted, is Ice on Mars Continued from page 1 back to Mars sooner than we did.” Indeed, JPL’s Path- is 620 in offices and workstations, with about 100 and Air-Conditioning Engineers for energy perfor- of Maryland, Epoxi’s deputy principal investigator and a that for high-definition content with a 16:9 aspect ra- scientist on the M3 team, said Epoxi data “unequivocally An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed finder landing in 1997, more than 20 years after Viking people per floor. mance (25 percent below requirements) and lighting tio, the center projector throws out an especially big, confirms” the presence of both water and hydroxyl and apparent cratering that occurred after an image of the touched down, was to be the next Mars visit from Earth The 193,491-square-foot Flight Projects Center is power density (24 percent below requirements). And impressive image. The 14-foot screen and 10,000-lu- reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity but did represent the first in a progression of rovers that a testament to energy efficiency and a salute to the 95 percent of construction waste has been recycled. during at least some portion of the lunar day. to study such a fresh impact site prompted a look by the continues to the present day. Un i v e r s e 4 Pasadena, CA 91109. CA Pasadena, Drive, Grove Oak 4800 Laboratory,Propulsion Jet the of Education and Communications of Office the by published is Universe FOR ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED ADS CLASSIFIED TO ACCESS FOR ATJPL’ s universe@jpl..gov B N http://dailyplanet David Hinkle David Audrey Steffan Audrey JPL Photo Lab Photo JPL Photography Production Design Whalen Mark Editor news onlie rief ews us E-mail

JPL RETIREES: JPL Dave Doody

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