GUELPH – The work of a Canadian research team is playing a key role in NASA’s latest mission on Mars, providing clues about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
Headed up by Dr. Ralf Gellert, physics professor at the University of Guelph, the team has designed an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS), essentially an “onboard chemical element reader” that is analyzing the planet’s history.
The APXS is one of ten instruments onboard NASA’s rover Curiosity, officially called the Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile science lab researchers hope will provide clues about the suitability of life on Mars and pave the way for further human exploration.
Curiosity launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 26, 2011 and landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. NASA’s mission is scheduled to last one full Martian year, the equivalent of 687 Earth days.
Since landing on Mars, the APXS has been examining the chemical elements of Martian rocks and soil samples.
The Guelph research team includes Gellart as principle investigator, along with physics professor emeritus Iain Campbell, research associate Nick Boyd, graduate students Glynis Perrett and Scott van Bommel, and post-doc Irina Pradler.
After witnessing Curiosity’s landing on Mars from Pasadena, California, the team spent three months at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before returning to the University of Guelph where they run APXS operations from a specially-equipped room on campus.
“This is the biggest research venture in the University of Guelph’s history, drawing worldwide attention to Guelph,” said Campbell.
The APXS works by bombarding Martian rocks and soil with alpha particles and X-rays, then studies the properties of the energy emitted from each sample.
Back on Earth, the research team will examine those properties to learn more about the history of the sample, how it formed and if it was ever altered by water.
The Guelph-designed APXS, roughly the size of a soda can, has many improvements over previous versions. Whereas previous rovers were only able to take measurements at night, the APXS mounted on Curiosity’s robotic arm will take measurements day and night, thanks to its next-generation cooling system.
The chemical composition of rock and soil samples can be analyzed in two to three hours, compared to five to ten hours previously.
“The rovers have answered a lot of questions, but they’ve also opened up new questions,” said Gellert, adding that the Curiosity rover was designed to pick up where previous NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity left off.
“The science that we will be able to produce in the later days of the mission will be spectacular,” said Boyd.
And this excitement goes well beyond the research team. Over 40 “Mars Parties” across the globe, including one in Toronto, cheered on Curiosity’s landing in August.
A Twitter account for Curiosity, which shares photos and commentary on the latest Martian “treats” the rover has sampled, has over 1,200,000 followers.
The Canadian Space Agency has invested $17.8 million for APXS development and operations. The success of the mission has been celebrated with national pride at the CSA.
This is the first time that Canada has been a part of investigating the surface of Mars, and only the second time the CSA has been involved in a Mars landing mission.
“In 2008, Canadians celebrated as NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mission marked the first time we, as a country, landed Canadian technology on the surface of another planet,” said president of the CSA, Steve MacLean. “Mars Science Lab is another first for Canada: the first time we reach out and ‘touch’ Mars, since APXS will investigate the planet’s surface.”
With files from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency
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