A University of Iowa associate professor was given annual, prestigious award.
By Travis Coltrain
In September, NASA awarded Jasper Halekas, a University of Iowa associate professor of physics/astronomy, an Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
Halekas won his award for his exceptional contributions to MAVEN using a Solar Wind Ion Analyzer. MAVEN stands for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission.
The award is given by different NASA centers every year; this one was awarded by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. People working on projects associated with the centers can turn in nominations for the award.
So far in 2016, NASA has awarded only seven Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medals.
Halekas was nominated through the Goddard Space Flight Center because the center that is most closely associated with the MAVEN mission.
Halekas said MAVEN revealed evidence that there could be a lot of liquid water on Mars. This includes features that look like there could have been flowing water, standing water, and even large bodies of waters. However, on present-day Mars, there is no water.
He said there are many possibilities on where this water could have gone. It could have soaked into the surface, or it could have evaporated.
Mars is cold and dry, with an atmospheric pressure different from Earths, making the temperature on the surface below freezing.
“So the big question is, how did we go from what looks like it could’ve been a warmer environment to the cold, dry place we see today?” Halekas said. “All that atmosphere, all that water has to go some place; where did it go?”
MAVEN’s mission, using the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer instrument, hopes to answer that question.
The instrument is basically a camera that takes pictures of charged particles. Its aim is to see how many of them there are and where they are going. Halekas said they want to measure the solar wind.
“Studying these waves is important because these large amplitude waves can contribute to particle energization and ultimately to atmospheric escape at Mars,” said Suranga Ruhunusiri, who works on the MAVEN mission. “Revealing the mechanisms responsible for atmospheric escape at Mars is one of the primary goals of the MAVEN mission.”
The MAVEN team believes the solar winds are one of the main energy sources that may have been responsible for stripping the atmosphere of Mars away into space. By measuring this wind, he said they can begin to understand if the water was pushed out into space.
By understanding this, we can better understand how Earth is changing. Halekas said there is a lot of evidence that Earth has changed similarly to Mars and Venus, although it is closer to Venus.
“We’d like to understand both end points and how you get to them,” Halekas said.
MAVEN’s mission can help us learn more about Earth by comparing changes on Earth to the changes on Mars.
“The MAVEN mission is important because it helps us to understand more about what conditions in our Solar System were like in the distant past, how they have evolved since then, and how they may evolve in the future,” UI senior Erin Maier said.