Tufts researchers looking for evidence of life on Mars

By Mark Pratt, Associated Press Writer | September 3, 2007

SOMERVILLE, Mass. --Scientists have found life in some of Earth's most inhospitable places -- in the superheated waters near deep ocean vents; buried beneath polar ice; and in the hottest, driest deserts.

So why not in the minus-50 degrees Celsius environment on Mars?

A team of researchers led by Tufts University chemistry professor Sam Kounaves is working with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to try to find out.

Kounaves is the lead scientist of the mission's wet chemistry investigation designed to find evidence that Mars once did -- or perhaps still can -- support microbial life. And while he's been preparing for the mission for 10 years, he'll have to wait a bit longer for the real work to begin. The lander -- launched in early August -- won't land on the red planet's frigid north until sometime next May.

When it does, the lander will dig about a meter deep in the Martian permafrost to scoop up tiny samples of dirt and ice, then add water, and analyze the mixture in four specially designed minuscule beakers that Kounaves calls "chemistry labs in a tea cup."

"This is the first time wet chemistry will ever be done in the history of Mars missions," said Leslie Tamppari, the Phoenix project's scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We're hoping that it will tell us something about the history of the soil and ... whether the environment was ever conducive to life."

Kounaves says his team is looking for organic compounds, specifically sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and other chemicals -- all "essential for life as we know it."

"We haven't found any on previous trips to Mars, but we only looked on the surface. Now we're digging down to where there might be some," he said.

The experiments also may be able to tell scientists whether there were ever any standing bodies of water on Mars, Tamppari said.

The wet chemistry investigation is just one aspect of Phoenix's mission, which also includes heating soil and ice samples, examining soil under a microscope, monitoring the weather and photographing the surrounding landscape.

The $414 million project, involving more than two dozen co-investigators and their support teams, will land at a site farther north than any previous Mars landing, where temperatures hover around minus-50 degrees Celsius.

"That's a pretty extreme environment," Kounaves said. "But there are some extreme environments here on Earth that life has evolved into."

The researchers hope their findings may help pave the way for human missions to Mars. A better understanding of the soil's chemical properties would make it easier for mankind to plan for a Mars landing.

"We need to know what the chemistry of Mars is, because as an exploring species we are going to go there, and we can't go to a place that is lethal," Kounaves said.

Seeing all the work and research blaze its way into the sky on Aug. 4 at the start of its 422 million mile journey made it all worth it for Jason Kapit, a member of Kounaves' team. Kapit, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Tufts, started working on the project three years ago as an undergraduate.

He entered college interested in studying theoretical physics, but wasn't satisfied.

"In theoretical physics, you can work your whole life on a theory, just to have someone prove you wrong," he said. "This is the opposite of that, because you can build something and then see the results right before your eyes."

Most members of Kounaves team went to Florida to witness the launch, an experience kind of like watching a child you've raised go off on their own. Indeed, the project has developed over 10 years for Kounaves.

"Nobody slept the night before. It was the most incredible moment of my life," said research technician Kalina Gospodinova, who has been working on the project for about a year. "I'd seen a shuttle launch, but when you have such deep involvement, it's totally different."

Like many little boys, Kounaves once dreamed of being an astronaut and visiting Mars.

"It didn't work out that way, but it almost worked out," he said. "As someone pointed out to me, this is actually going there, just in a different way."