Moon 3-D

Interview with Jim Bell. Mars 3-D

Where do you see the future of Mars exploration headed?
It's a very exciting time for the exploration of Mars-in fact, for the exploration of the solar system in general. For Mars, a new rover will be launched in late summer 2009 to expand the discoveries made by the current rovers, and then a new orbiter will be sent in 2013 to study the atmosphere in more detail. More rovers and landers may get sent later in the decade-Mars is a big and diverse place to study. Beyond these missions, the next step will be a robotic sample return mission or missions - hopefully in the 2020s - so that we can study the surface materials in great detail. And beyond that, well, I think most of us believe that human missions will be necessary to truly advance Mars studies to the next level. That will be expensive and dangerous, however, and there are still some technical problems to solve, so that might be 20, 30, or more years off. Still, it's exciting to think about reaching for that goal.

How did you decide to become a planetary scientist?
I loved space and astronomy as a kid. I remember watching the Apollo astronauts on the Moon and the first Space Shuttle launches. I had a telescope that I'd take outside to view the night sky as often as I could. It was really captivating. I also loved geology - rocks and minerals and such. When I got to college and learned that I could combine both of those loves and study geology and minerals on other planets - WOW. I was hooked.

Which is better - robotic or human missions?
Not a fair question! Each is good for different reasons-robots for basic discovery and characterization, and humans for trying to put the puzzle pieces together to figure out what's out there and why. The way to do space exploration best is not robots OR humans, but robots AND humans.

Are we currently losing the space race - is China catching up?
Well, there really is no space race right now. There was a race to the Moon in the 1960s, and the U.S. won. Today, however, while there are a lot of countries expanding their involvement in space exploration, including China, there's no real sense of a "race" that I'm aware of. In fact, in my field, I see an awful lot of cooperation among many of these countries. I'd like to see it be a cooperative, multinational adventure, not a competitive one.

What are we gaining from all of the stunning 3-D Mars images from the Rovers?
As I describe in the book, there are both engineering and scientific uses of the 3-D images. From an engineering standpoint, 3-D helps the rover drivers decide where to steer the rover to avoid obstacles or to get the vehicles into tight spots that the scientists think could be most rewarding. From a science perspective, 3-D helps us know the sizes and shapes of rocks and other features and measure their distances, so we can piece together the geologic history of an area. But there's another reason that 3-D is useful as well: the photos are beautiful!

Are we close to finding out if Mars was previously habitable?
We're so close that we're already there! Both rovers have found evidence that Mars once had liquid water on and near the surface, at least in those two landing sites, and orbiters high above have found evidence for other such sites as well. We know there were heat sources (volcanoes, impact craters, geothermal), and suspect that there were organic molecules on Mars early on, just like on the early Earth. So the ingredients were all there to call many places on the planet "habitable" from our perspective. However, it was habitable long ago. We don't know exactly how long ago (we suspect 3-4 billion years ago) or for how long. Those are key questions that future missions are aiming to try to find out. Biologists, as well as astronomers, are very interested in the answer!

We're excited for Moon 3-D. What can we expect?
Moon 3-D taps into a great online archive of 3-D images from NASA and other space agencies to give you the experience of being there on the lunar surface with the Apollo astronauts, or of flying above the Moon in a spacecraft in orbit. Some of the views of the stark, airless lunar landscape are truly stunning - it really helped me realize why so many of the astronauts who went there were overcome with emotion (and still are to this day) from the experience. Between the photos and the accompanying essays, I'm hoping to re-generate interest in the beauty and science of our nearest celestial neighbor.