Searching for life

As NASA's Spirit rover relays information back to Earth from the surface of Mars, several IU professors will be right there to receive it. Geology Professor Lisa Pratt is the director of a NASA Astrobiology Institute research project that includes four other faculty members.\nPratt and fellow Geology Professor Edward Ripley head the scientific area of the IU-based project, while Ruth Droppo, Douglas Pearson and Michael Jasiak work more on the digital media end of the operation. \nWorking from Bloomington, Pratt and Ripley have been studying mines in South Africa and Canada to try and simulate some of what occurs on the Martian subsurface. They will then analyze the information sent back from the Mars rover and attempt to detect signs of life.\n"Our role is to look for isotopic signatures, which can indicate past life," Ripley said. "Microbacteria reduces sulfur from sea water and can then be incorporated with iron to make pyrite...The samples are returned, the pyrite can be analyzed and then determined whether bacteria was there."\nThe Mars rover will be on the planet for about 90 days, but the studies are scheduled to last up to five years. NASA will fund the studies at IU with $5 million over the five year time frame.\nThe studies done by Pratt and Ripley will be interpreted into graphic images by the other three members of the team. The five-man IU team will also be working in conjunction with scientists at Princeton University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Toronto as well as Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest and Lawrence Berkeley laboratories.\n"We all have ideas, and the resources at IU are very strong, but we have still yet to meet," Droppo said. "We will be meeting as a group this weekend in Dallas."\nThe Spirit landed Jan. 3 after a seven-month journey. Its twin rover, Opportunity, is scheduled to reach the opposite side of Mars and land on Jan. 25. Spirit landed in Mars' Gusev Crater, where the large amounts of open area offer plenty of room for the roamer to maneuver.\n"NASA's hope was to try and find water," Ripley said. "This may be the place where it may have been preserved."\nThe work being done by IU scientists may be a small percentage of the overall mission, but nearly 80 percent of the research done for the rover mission has come from university professors and students said Ron Greeley, an Athena Science Team member from Arizona State University. Greeley is working with several other scientists from multiple universities at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. \n"All those working on the mission are a part of the Athena package, and they sign agreements to collaborate together so it is contractually set," Greeley said. "Most teams are very collegial so there is a common interest and objective."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.