JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW Descent into a Frozen Underworld JPL tests robotics in ice caves near active volcano Mt. Erebus is at the end of our world -- and offers a portal to another. It's our planet's southernmost active volcano, reaching 12,448 feet (3,794 meters) above Ross Island in Antarctica. Temperatures at the surface are well below freezing most of the year, but that doesn't stop visits from scientists: Erebus is also one of the few volcanoes in the world with an exposed lava lake. You can peer over the lip of its main crater and stare straight into it. It's also a good stand-in for a frozen alien world, the kind NASA wants to send robots to someday. That's why Aaron Curtis, a post-doctoral scholar at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, spent the month of December exploring ice caves beneath the volcano. For several weeks, he tested robots, a drill and computer-aided mapping technology that could one day help us understand the icy worlds in our outer solar system. It was Curtis' seventh visit to Mt. Erebus, which he made on behalf of both JPL and the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory. He traveled with several colleagues who were studying everything from the age of the rocks to the composition of gasses emitted from the lava lake. Ocean worlds like Europa are sure to be distinctly more alien than Erebus. Europa's temperatures are hundreds of degrees below freezing; its ice is certain to be different than that of Earth's; its surface is bathed in Jupiter's radiation. But there are some similarities that make Erebus a good testing ground for future technologies. "We think some features of these caves are similar to what you might see on a moon like Europa," Curtis said. Aaron Curtis, a postdoctoral scholar at JPL, peers into the caldera of Mt. Erebus, an active volcano in Antarctica. Image Credit: Dylan Taylor › Larger view Frozen beauty For the ancient Greeks, Erebus was an entrance to the underworld. It's a fitting namesake: scientists have discovered that Mt. Erebus has its own underworld -- though one of stunning beauty. The volcano's gases have carved out massive caves, which are filled with forests of hoarfrost and cathedral-like ice ceilings. Curtis said the heat from Erebus keeps the caves cozy -- close to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) -- and drives warm gases out of vents at the surface, where they freeze into towers. Within the caves, the mixing of warm and cold air forms icy "chimneys" that reach toward the ground. While pursuing his doctorate at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Curtis wrote his dissertation on the formation of these caves. He said that in recent years, scientists have also discovered a diverse array of microscopic organisms living in their interior. These extremophiles, as they're known, suggest that life might be possible on distant planets with similar cave systems. Aaron Curtis, a post-doctoral scholar at JPL, in one of the Mt. Erebus ice caves. Image Credit: Dylan Taylor. › Larger view Tools for an Icy Moon Curtis joined JPL's Extreme Environments Robotics Group in 2016, where engineers are developing nimble machines that can climb, scurry and rove across difficult terrain. Aaron Parness, manager of the Robotic Prototyping Lab, said Mt. Erebus was a good testing ground for some of the robots and instruments in development. When a member of the group is conducting field research, they often test each other's work. It's part of the rapid design prototyping that steers the group's efforts. "Field testing shows you things that are hard to learn in the laboratory," Parness said. "We jump on those opportunities. Even if the prototype isn't ready to work perfectly, it doesn't mean it isn't ready to teach us lessons on how to make the next iteration better." Curtis tested several unique projects at Mt. Erebus. There was the Ice Screw End Effector (ISEE), a kind of ice drill designed for the "feet" of a wall-climbing robot called LEMUR. The drill would allow LEMUR to attach itself to walls, while also pulling out samples of the ice with each step. Future designs might be able to check for chemical signs of life within these samples. ISEE hadn't seen much field testing before this trip -- just the ice growing inside a fridge at JPL. "We're trying to get a feel for what kind of ice this drill works in," Curtis said. He added that ice can be plastic or brittle depending on different densities, humidity and other factors. The ice caves under Erebus proved to have much higher concentrations of air than expected: "The differences involved can be like trying to climb a marshmallow versus a light metal." Another test was for PUFFER, an origami-inspired robot that can sit flat during storage and "puff up" to explore a wider area. PUFFER has driven extensively around JPL, in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco and other desert environments -- but not on snow. Curtis joysticked the robot around using newly designed snow wheels, which have a broad, flat surface. Another tool that that could be helpful for future explorers is a structured light sensor used for creating 3-D cave maps. JPL's Jeremy Nash and Renaud Detry provided the sensor, which relies on computer vision to map the interior of a cave. Curtis said that ice is a hard material to 3-D model, in large part because it's so reflective. Light has a tendency to bounce off its surface, making it difficult for a computer to read that data and reconstruct a space. "Ice sparkles, and the sparkly crystals look different from each angle," Curtis said. "It's like a hall of mirrors." A helicopter brings in supplies to Lower Erebus Hut, a camp at 11,000 feet. The camp is considered the main base of operations that scientists work out of. Image Credit: Dylan Taylor › Larger view Adventurous Science Make no mistake about it -- a research trip to Mt. Erebus isn't exactly a vacation. Curtis and his colleagues faced three large blizzards during their trip, each lasting around a week. That led to travel delays when supply helicopters couldn't make safe passage. The team also dealt with limited energy in a region that experiences six months of night, blocking out sunlight for solar cells. Wind turbines on the volcano are the most common form of energy, though they face their own challenges: frost builds up on the blades, causing them to vibrate themselves to bits. But the chance to conduct research in such a desolate and awe-inspiring location is hard to pass up. "When I smell that hydrogen sulfide perfuming the minus-25-degrees-Celsius air, there's nowhere I'd rather be," Curtis said.

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW NASA, UCI Reveal New Details of Greenland Ice Loss Data from NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland campaign are dramatically increasing our knowledge of how the ocean is melting Greenland's ice sheet. › Read the full story A Valentine: From Cassini with Love The world has ridden along with NASA's Saturn spacecraft via its incredible images. Now the mission invites the public to share their own works of art. › Read the full story

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW NASA Studies a Rarity: Growing Louisiana Deltas A NASA study of two growing Louisiana deltas can help scientists better understand how coastal wetlands will respond to global sea level rise. › Read the full story NASA Receives Science Report on Europa Lander Concept A report on the potential science value of a lander on Europa has been delivered to NASA, and the agency is engaging the science community to discuss its findings. › Read the full story One Role of Mars Orbiter: Check Possible Landing Sites At this week's workshop about where NASA's next Mars rover should land, most of the information comes from a prolific spacecraft that's been orbiting Mars since 2006. › Read the full story NASA-Led Campaign Studies Hawaii's Iconic Volcanoes A NASA-led science team is exploring Hawaii's Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes from the air, ground and space to better understand volcanic processes and hazards. › Read the full story

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW NASA's Curiosity Rover Sharpens Paradox of Ancient Mars Fast Facts: › Curiosity rover findings add to a puzzle about ancient Mars because the same rocks that indicate a lake was present also indicate there was very little carbon dioxide in the air to help keep a lake unfrozen. › No carbonate has been found definitively in rock samples analyzed by Curiosity. › A new study calculates how much carbon dioxide could have been in the ancient atmosphere without resulting in carbonate detectable by the rover: not much. Mars scientists are wrestling with a problem. Ample evidence says ancient Mars was sometimes wet, with water flowing and pooling on the planet's surface. Yet, the ancient sun was about one-third less warm and climate modelers struggle to produce scenarios that get the surface of Mars warm enough for keeping water unfrozen. A leading theory is to have a thicker carbon-dioxide atmosphere forming a greenhouse-gas blanket, helping to warm the surface of ancient Mars. However, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, Mars had far too little carbon dioxide about 3.5 billion years ago to provide enough greenhouse-effect warming to thaw water ice. The same Martian bedrock in which Curiosity found sediments from an ancient lake where microbes could have thrived is the source of the evidence adding to the quandary about how such a lake could have existed. Curiosity detected no carbonate minerals in the samples of the bedrock it analyzed. The new analysis concludes that the dearth of carbonates in that bedrock means Mars' atmosphere when the lake existed -- about 3.5 billion years ago -- could not have held much carbon dioxide. "We've been particularly struck with the absence of carbonate minerals in sedimentary rock the rover has examined," said Thomas Bristow of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. "It would be really hard to get liquid water even if there were a hundred times more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than what the mineral evidence in the rock tells us." Bristow is the principal investigator for the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument on Curiosity and lead author of the study being published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Curiosity has made no definitive detection of carbonates in any lakebed rocks sampled since it landed in Gale Crater in 2011. CheMin can identify carbonate if it makes up just a few percent of the rock. The new analysis by Bristow and 13 co-authors calculates the maximum amount of carbon dioxide that could have been present, consistent with that dearth of carbonate. In water, carbon dioxide combines with positively charged ions such as magnesium and ferrous iron to form carbonate minerals. Other minerals in the same rocks indicate those ions were readily available. The other minerals, such as magnetite and clay minerals, also provide evidence that subsequent conditions never became so acidic that carbonates would have dissolved away, as they can in acidic groundwater. The dilemma has been building for years: Evidence about factors that affect surface temperatures -- mainly the energy received from the young sun and the blanketing provided by the planet's atmosphere -- adds up to a mismatch with widespread evidence for river networks and lakes on ancient Mars. Clues such as isotope ratios in today's Martian atmosphere indicate the planet once held a much denser atmosphere than it does now. Yet theoretical models of the ancient Martian climate struggle to produce conditions that would allow liquid water on the Martian surface for many millions of years. One successful model proposes a thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere that also contains molecular hydrogen. How such an atmosphere would be generated and sustained, however, is controversial. The new study pins the puzzle to a particular place and time, with an on-the-ground check for carbonates in exactly the same sediments that hold the record of a lake about a billion years after the planet formed. For the past two decades, researchers have used spectrometers on Mars orbiters to search for carbonate that could have resulted from an early era of more abundant carbon dioxide. They have found far less than anticipated. "It's been a mystery why there hasn't been much carbonate seen from orbit," Bristow said. "You could get out of the quandary by saying the carbonates may still be there, but we just can't see them from orbit because they're covered by dust, or buried, or we're not looking in the right place. The Curiosity results bring the paradox to a focus. This is the first time we've checked for carbonates on the ground in a rock we know formed from sediments deposited under water." The new analysis concludes that no more than a few tens of millibars of carbon dioxide could have been present when the lake existed, or it would have produced enough carbonate for Curiosity's CheMin to detect it. A millibar is one one-thousandth of sea-level air pressure on Earth. The current atmosphere of Mars is less than 10 millibars and about 95 percent carbon dioxide. "This analysis fits with many theoretical studies that the surface of Mars, even that long ago, was not warm enough for water to be liquid," said Robert Haberle, a Mars-climate scientist at NASA Ames and a co-author of the paper. "It's really a puzzle to me." Researchers are evaluating multiple ideas for how to reconcile the dilemma. "Some think perhaps the lake wasn't an open body of liquid water. Maybe it was liquid covered with ice," Haberle said. "You could still get some sediments through to accumulate in the lakebed if the ice weren't too thick." A drawback to that explanation is that the rover team has sought and not found in Gale Crater evidence that would be expected from ice-covered lakes, such as large and deep cracks called ice wedges, or "dropstones," which become embedded in soft lakebed sediments when they penetrate thinning ice. If the lakes were not frozen, the puzzle is made more challenging by the new analysis of what the lack of a carbonate detection by Curiosity implies about the ancient Martian atmosphere. "Curiosity's traverse through streambeds, deltas, and hundreds of vertical feet of mud deposited in ancient lakes calls out for a vigorous hydrological system supplying the water and sediment to create the rocks we're finding," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Carbon dioxide, mixed with other gases like hydrogen, has been the leading candidate for the warming influence needed for such a system. This surprising result would seem to take it out of the running." When two lines of scientific evidence appear irreconcilable, the scene may be set for an advance in understanding why they are not. The Curiosity mission is continuing to investigate ancient environmental conditions on Mars. It is managed by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Curiosity and other Mars science missions are a key part of NASA's Journey to Mars, building on decades of robotic exploration to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. For more about Curiosity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/curiosity Learn about NASA's Journey to Mars at: http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW Close Views Show Saturn's Rings in Unprecedented Detail Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris. › Read the full story New Planet Imager Delivers First Science A new device on the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii has delivered its first images, showing a ring of planet-forming dust around a star. › Read the full story

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW Storms Filled 37 Percent of CA Snow-Water Deficit The "atmospheric river" weather patterns that pummeled California with storms from late December to late January may have recouped 37 percent of the state's five-year snow-water deficit, according to new University of Colorado Boulder-led research using NASA satellite data. Researchers at the university's Center for Water Earth Science and Technology (CWEST) estimate that two powerful recent storms deposited roughly 17.5-million acre feet (21.6 cubic kilometers) of water on California's Sierra Nevada range in January. Compared to averages from the pre-drought satellite record, that amount represents more than 120 percent of the typical annual snow accumulation for this range. Snowmelt from the range is a critical water source for the state's agriculture, hydropower generation and municipal water supplies. To derive the estimate, the researchers combined data from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Aqua and Terra spacecraft; a computer model jointly developed by the University of Colorado and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California; and ground-based snow sensor data from the California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento. Snow-water deficit is the deficit in water stored in snowpack compared with the annual average water stored in snowpack before the drought began in 2012. On average, California experienced a snow-water deficit of approximately 10.8-million acre feet (13.3 cubic kilometers) per year during the drought years of 2012 through 2016. The total deficit over that five-year period is roughly 54 million acre feet (67 cubic kilometers). The recent storms appear to have reduced that total by roughly 37 percent in less than one month. Atmospheric rivers -- such as the so-called Pineapple Express phenomenon that affects the U.S. West Coast -- funnel large amounts of moisture out of the tropics and bring heavy rain and snow over short periods of time. In January, most of the higher elevations in northern California received more than 10 feet (3 meters) of snow in just over two weeks, with some locations receiving more than 20 feet (6 meters). "Early in the January storm cycle, lower mountain elevations received some rain, but the vast majority of the mountain precipitation has come as snow -- which is exactly the way we need this precipitation," said Thomas Painter, a snow scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and principal investigator of NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory. "As snow, it releases to reservoirs and ecosystems more gradually and efficiently over the summer months." Noah Molotch, who led the new study, cautioned that there is still a long way to go before California makes up its snow-water deficit completely. Molotch is director of CWEST and a research scientist at JPL. "When the snow stopped falling five years ago, the state had to tap into its groundwater reserves to keep up," Molotch said. "One snowy winter won't be able to entirely reverse that, but there is, at least, some cautious optimism." Molotch indicated that, with the much-needed snow, the recent storms also brought some flood risk. "The concern moving forward relates to what happens with the weather for the rest of the winter," said Molotch. "Reservoirs across the Sierra foothills are now relatively full. If we get another intense atmospheric river with warmer air temperatures, that could lead to melting of the snowpack, and the risk for rain-induced flooding is considerable." "The start to winter has been the best California has seen since 2011 and gives water managers hope for relief from what has been a historically dry five-year period," said David Rizzardo, chief of Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting for the California Department of Water Resources. "The valuable data gathered by the CWEST and NASA Earth science teams gives the California Department of Water Resources a broader sense for how much water is being stored in our snowpack, allowing us to fine-tune vital seasonal runoff estimates, which are used by water managers and reservoir operators across the state." The California Department of Water Resources will release the results of its most recent snow survey on Feb. 2. Final data will be available at that time.

 

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JPL News - Day in Review

 

DAY IN REVIEW A New Test for Life on Other Planets A simple chemistry method could vastly enhance how scientists search for signs of life on other planets. The test uses a liquid-based technique known as capillary electrophoresis to separate a mixture of organic molecules into its components. It was designed specifically to analyze for amino acids, the structural building blocks of all life on Earth. The method is 10,000 times more sensitive than current methods employed by spacecraft like NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, according to a new study published in Analytical Chemistry. The study was carried out by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. One of the key advantages of the authors' new way of using capillary electrophoresis is that the process is relatively simple and easy to automate for liquid samples expected on ocean world missions: it involves combining a liquid sample with a liquid reagent, followed by chemical analysis under conditions determined by the team. By shining a laser across the mixture -- a process known as laser-induced fluorescence detection -- specific molecules can be observed moving at different speeds. They get separated based on how quickly they respond to electric fields. While capillary electrophoresis has been around since the early 1980s, this is the first time it has been tailored specifically to detect extraterrestrial life on an ocean world, said lead author Jessica Creamer, a postdoctoral scholar at JPL. "Our method improves on previous attempts by increasing the number of amino acids that can be detected in a single run," Creamer said. "Additionally, it allows us to detect these amino acids at very low concentrations, even in highly salty samples, with a very simple 'mix and analyze' process." The researchers used the technique to analyze amino acids present in the salt-rich waters of Mono Lake in California. The lake's exceptionally high alkaline content makes it a challenging habitat for life, and an excellent stand-in for salty waters believed to be on Mars, or the ocean worlds of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa. The researchers were able to simultaneously analyze 17 different amino acids, which they are calling "the Signature 17 standard." These amino acids were chosen for study because they are the most commonly found on Earth or elsewhere. "Using our method, we are able to tell the difference between amino acids that come from non-living sources like meteorites versus amino acids that come from living organisms," said the project's principal investigator, Peter Willis of JPL. Key to detecting amino acids related to life is an aspect known as "chirality." Chiral molecules such as amino acids come in two forms that are mirror images of one another. Although amino acids from non-living sources contain approximately equal amounts of the "left" and "right"-handed forms, amino acids from living organisms on Earth are almost exclusively the "left-handed" form. It is expected that amino acid life elsewhere would also need to "choose" one of the two forms in order to create the structures of life. For this reason, chirality of amino acids is considered one of the most powerful signatures of life. "One of NASA's highest-level objectives is the search for life in the universe," Willis said. "Our best chance of finding life is by using powerful liquid-based analyses like this one on ocean worlds." Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

 

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