[meteorite-list] NASA Selects Scientists for Mars Rover Research Projects

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5748

NASA Selects Scientists for Mars Rover Research Projects
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 11, 2016

NASA has selected 28 researchers as participating scientists for the Curiosity 
Mars rover mission, including six newcomers to the rover's science team.

The six new additions work in Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 
Michigan and Tennessee. Eighty-nine scientists around the world submitted 
research proposals for using data from Curiosity and becoming participating 
scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates 
the rover. The 28 selected by NASA are part of a science team that also 
includes about 120 other members, mainly the principal investigators and 
co-investigators for the rover's 10 science instruments, plus about 320 
science-team collaborators, such as the investigators' associates and 
students.

An initial group of Mars Science Laboratory participating scientists was 
chosen before Curiosity's 2012 landing on Mars, and several of those scientists 
were selected again in the latest round. Participating scientists on the 
mission play active roles in the day-to-day science operations of Curiosity, 
involving heavy interaction with rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the mission for NASA.

The six participating scientists who are new to the mission are: Barbara 
Cohen, of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; Christopher 
Fedo of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Raina Gough of the University 
of Colorado, Boulder; Briony Horgan of Purdue University, West Lafayette, 
Indiana; Christopher House of Pennsylvania State University, University 
Park; and Mark Salvatore of the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Seven other newly selected participating scientists have participated 
in the Curiosity mission previously in other roles: Christopher Edwards, 
U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona; Abigail Fraeman, JPL; Scott 
Guzewich, Universities Space Research Association, Greenbelt, Maryland; 
Craig Hardgrove, Arizona State University, Tempe; Amy McAdam, NASA Goddard 
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Melissa Rice, Western Washington 
University, Bellingham; and Kathryn Stack Morgan, JPL.

Fifteen researchers who had been selected previously as Mars Science Laboratory 
participating scientists were selected again in this round: Raymond Arvidson, 
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; John Bridges, University of 
Leicester, United Kingdom; Bethany Ehlmann, California Institute of Technology, 
Pasadena; Jennifer Eigenbrode, NASA Goddard; Kenneth Farley, Caltech; 
John Grant, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Jeffrey Johnson, Johns 
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland; Richard 
Léveillé, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Kevin Lewis, Johns 
Hopkins University; Scott McLennan, State University of New York, Stony 
Brook; Ralph Milliken, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; John 
Moores, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; David Rubin, University 
of California, Santa Cruz; Mariek Schmidt, Brock University, St. Catherines, 
Ontario, Canada; Rebecca Williams, Planetary Science Institute, Madison, 
Wisconsin.

During Curiosity's prime mission, which was completed in 2014, the project 
met its main goal by finding evidence that ancient Mars offered environmental 
conditions with all the requirements for supporting microbial life, if 
any ever existed on Mars. In Curiosity's first extended mission, researchers 
are using the rover on the lower portion of a layered mountain to study 
how Mars' ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for 
microbial life to harsher, drier conditions. For more information about 
Curiosity, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl


Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2016-068