NASA to Announce Huge Mars Scientific Discovery

By Christopher Waldeck, News Editor

NASA has been conducting an ongoing exploration of Mars. However, NASA has announced that they have made a major science finding during this exploration and this Monday, Sept. 28 at 11:30 AM they will be making this announcement live from the James Webb Auditorium in NASA headquarters in Washington. The announcement will involve many participants from NASA and the public will also be able to participate by asking questions through the hash tag #ASKNASA during the briefing.

News conference participants will be: 

Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters

Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta

Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology

Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson

Recent missions to Mars have included the Mars Odyssey orbiter entering Mar’s orbit in 2001. During this missions, the Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected significant amounts of hydrogen in the upper regolith on Mars. It is believed that this hydrogen contained large deposits of water ice. This information would lead to much public speculation about the planet being suitable for possible life. This was followed by the Mars Express mission of the European Space Agency in 2003 that wasn’t heard from after being released in 2004. It was declared lost, but recently rediscovered in 2015. The cause of it’s demise was attributed to failing to fully deploy it’s solar panels and antenna.

Later missions came after the inception of the Mars Science Laboratory. The Mars Science Laboratory mission was launched on November 26, 2011 and it delivered the Curiosity Rover, on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012. It is larger and more advanced than the Mars Exploration Rovers, with a velocity of up to 90 meters per hour. Experiments include a laser chemical sampler that can deduce the make-up of rocks at a distance of 7 meters. This is useful for examining the surface of Mars and the overall climate of the martian planet.

With so much exploration and discovery regarding the martian planet one has to wonder what the new scientific discovery is. It's especially intriguing that NASA is allowing the public to tweet and ask questions during the briefing. This could be a great way for NASA to tap into a mainstream audience of science lovers or because the discovery is related to a hot topic of discussion regarding Mars.