Coming back down to Earth

PABLO — After three months of hard work at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., Tim Olson, Noel Stewart and Judy Hudgins - the trio of SKC representatives who had been working on the scientific and technical aspects of the Curiosity rover mission to Mars - are now settling back into a more normal daily routine and reacquainting themselves with ‘Earth time.’

The mission required that those working at ground control synchronized their biological clocks to coordinate with ‘Mars time,’ since the rover was only able to relay back information at a certain point of each Martian day.

Now, Olson, Stewart and Hudgins are regaining the oddly familiar sensation of Earth time, and are shifting (at least some of) their focus to other things.

Though physics professor Tim Olson finds himself back in the shadow of the Mission Mountains, his thoughts are still very much fixed on the goings-on back at mission control. Olson has dialed back his involvement with the rover to half-time, but he and other scientists still communicate with NASA remotely to guide the rover’s on-board camera systems.

For Olson, the euphoria from the night of the landing stands out as the highlight of the past few months- closely followed by his feelings of relief and elation upon discovering that all of the camera systems he had been working on survived.

Hudgins agreed that the landing was one of the most memorable moments in Pasadena.

“The event was exciting and scary at the same time,” Hudgins said. “(The landing) was intense. You could feel the emotional joy once the rover landed.”

Providing an update on the progress of the mission from both a scientific and a technical perspective, Olson reports that the operation has been “overall quite smooth.”

With lots of ground left to cover and lots of tests remaining on its to-do list, the rover has already made significant finds as it moves toward its destination in the Red Planet’s Gale Crater.

Olson says that one of the rover’s most significant discoveries to date has been finding conglomerate rock – rounded, worn rocks that are cemented together by finer sediments. Found amongst landforms reminiscent of an ancient river delta’s alluvial fan, the rock is surefire evidence of past stream flows across the Martian terrain.

“So that’s the first really definitive, no-doubt evidence that any Martian mission has discovered of flowing water. There’s been all kind of circumstantial evidence but this is the first time that we’ve seen it on the ground and it’s clear that it happened there,” said Olson.

But Curiosity is not done examining places on Mars that may have at one time supported water, and with it, life. Olson reports that the rover is making incremental progress toward a low spot in the crater where it’s likely that water had pooled at some point in Mars’ history.

“A lake environment is really the best place we could hope to look for a place that would’ve accumulated organic matter… where sediment is brought in and laid down,” says Olson.

The rover will also examine sedimentary rocks on a giant mound in the heart of the crater.

While some of Curiosity’s finds have come as a surprise, Olson was not surprised with the stellar performances from both Stewart and Hudgins.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised in how either student did,” Olson said proudly. “I offered them the opportunity because I thought they would do well and get a lot out of the experience.”

Hudgins, a 27-year-old Ronan native, parlayed her experience at JPL into an extended gig with the mission’s camera contractor, Malin Space Science Systems, and has stayed behind in California to work.

Meanwhile, Stewart, a 24-year-old from Browning, has returned to her classes at SKC with a newfound love for paleohydrology and other subject matter emphasized at NASA.

Stewart joked that her experiences at ground control “almost felt like watching Star Trek.” Now that she’s back home, it has begun to feel a little less like science fiction.

“The landing just hit me when I got home, after you take a few moments to reflect,” Stewart says of looking back on her three months with NASA.

“It really is a special feeling to know that you were involved,” Stewart adds.

The experience has not only bolstered her long-term career prospects, but has also given her a new level of respect and credibility from her peers in the present.

“I think I definitely earned some respect… and made [others] proud,” said Stewart. “I think it furthers the college as well,” she added.

Like Olson, Stewart, too, will continue to contribute to the mission, though also at a reduced level of participation.

To use an obligatory NASA pun, it appears as though Hudgins’ and Stewart’s time at the Jet Propulsion Lab will serve as a powerful launching pad for their future endeavors.

But for Olson, there’s still a lot to look forward to with the current mission, as he’ll be assisting Curiosity for the long haul.

“We’ll be doing this for a decade or more,” he says. Just to clarify, that’s a decade or more of Earth time