The recent successful landing of NASA’s Spirit Mars Exploration rover had a deep impact on planetary science at UCLA and around the world.

“The Spirit rover provides a real sense of vicarious exploration,” said David Paige, a professor in the UCLA Department of Earth and Space Sciences.

“We’ll be able to follow the rover as it tours its landing sites almost as if we were on Mars right along with it.”

UCLA scientists have been active in the exploration of the red planet and have frequently collaborated with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“It’s a pretty exciting time to be a part of Mars research,” said Michael Mischna, a graduate researcher working with Paige.

In 1999, Paige became the first non-NASA scientist to control the landing of the Mars Polar Lander, which was to explore the Martian climate.

The 1999 mission failed and was assumed to have crash-landed on the Mars surface.

But fortunately, planetary scientists are not easily discouraged due to the importance of their research.

“Mars research holds a tremendous amount of value since Mars is so similar to Earth, geographically,” Paige said.

The window of opportunity to launch a spacecraft toward Mars occurs every two years.

There is currently a multitude of other projects waiting for these windows, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is due to launch in 2005.

The Orbiter will be equipped to take high-resolution images of the surface of Mars and will also be able to make other measurements of the structure of Mars’s geology.

Another upcoming project is the Mars Science Laboratory, due to launch in 2009. The movable geology lab with have roving capabilities and will be equipped with instruments to study the geology of Mars.

Paige will propose designs for instruments in this lab in addition to addressing the scientific goals and research procedures that the equipment will hopefully accomplish.

UCLA scientists like Paige also evaluate data from orbiting NASA probes such as the Mars Global Surveyor, a spacecraft launched in November 1996.

The Surveyor currently remains on the Martian surface and continues to send back images and data as it searches for evidence of Martian ground ice or other traces of water.

Such data can be utilized by many Mars scientists, including Mischna, whose research focuses on the migration of water over time on the poles of Mars.

UCLA has remained active in many aspects of Mars exploration including the design of instruments that will measure the weather and water in the atmosphere at landing sites. This will help in determining where rovers should land and what sites are more likely to contain traces of life.

“Space exploration is a little thrilling,” Mischna said.

“I think there’s a general excitement about space programs and I feel like I got a little inside edge on rovers,” Mischna said.

The research of graduate student Jean-Pierre Williams studies the possibilities of early magnetic fields on Mars as well as the fire-scaled layering in rocks and geological formations, which could show how life could have been harbored on Mars.

“It’s interesting to make a planetary comparison of how planets work and it helps to provide perspective into how planets evolve,” he said.

Paige is excited about the possibilities for the future as UCLA, JPL, and NASA work together.

“In the near term, we’re very interested in learning about the history of water. It’s very interesting to learn about the history of water and the climate of Mars,” Paige said.

In the future, he hopes to utilize this data in order to progress to where people can someday permanently inhabit Mars.

“There’s a whole progression of exciting things there,” Paige said.