Working from Pasadena, California, the team will guide the rover to collect soil material and powdered rock samples using its robotic arm to gather, filter and transfer them into the rover's analytical system. Kah and other scientists will then use an instrument capable of detecting both organic molecules and the isotopic signatures often left in rocks by microbial metabolisms.
NASA's Curiosity rover is scheduled to land on Mars Sunday. Then, the work will begin for two University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professors searching for potentially habitable environments on the red planet.
Linda Kah and Jeffrey Moersch, associate professors in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, are an integral part of the NASA team working on the rover.
The Curiosity rover is looking for clues to whether the Martian surface has ever had an environment capable of evolving or potentially sustaining life. Critical evidence may include liquid or frozen water, organic compounds, or other chemical ingredients related to life.
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