DOVER—Hours after the Curiosity Mars Rover made its flawless landing on Monday, a sleepless Delaware State University professor said the mission will determine whether life can exist on the Red Planet, as well as offer exciting new insights that can be translated into tests that will detect cancers sooner.
Noureddine Melikechi, dean of DSU’s College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology, compared the touch down in Gale Crater to hurling an object from New York City to Dover and “landing on a dime.”
Dr. Noureddine Melikechi explains how DSU technology used on Curiosity can produce benefits beyond exploring Mars.
Dr. Noureddine Melikechi explains how DSU technology used on Curiosity can produce benefits beyond exploring Mars.
Melikechi and DSU researchers developed lasers that will begin blasting rocks on Mars on Aug. 18. The luminous vapors and particles the Rover retrieves will provide knowledge on the chemical content of Mars and its atmosphere that will answer two probing questions.
Has life ever existed on Mars? And could life exist on Mars in the future?
“Now that we have landed, the science begins,” he said at a campus press conference. “Planet Mars is now a laboratory for us. As the rocks burn, we discover quite a lot.”
Curiosity touched down precisely at 1:31.54 a.m. Monday, noted Alton Thompson, DSU provost, who noted that elated National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists at the California Institute of Technology were attired in T-shirts of colonial blue, a DSU color.
“Our research and science at Delaware State has elevated this university,” he said.
There was jubilation in Dover in the wee hours, as well, with DSU administrators and staff texting back and forth until 2 a.m. Melikechi still had not been to bed when the press conference began at 10 a.m. Monday.
The 154-million mile voyage to Mars took eight and a half months. The $2.5 billion mission was eight years in the planning and will last one Martian year, the equivalent of 98 Earth weeks.
Melikechi said the feat was especially impressive because much of the landing technology could not be tested in Earth’s atmosphere.
The temperature on Mars ranges from -130 degrees to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists are interested to learn if there is liquid water in this extremely cold environment, a key component in sustaining life. Rocks also will be analyzed for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals that are needed to make an inhabitable environment.
Another concern is radiation. Are levels too high to sustain life? Or can scientists overcome that challenge?
“Can we design something that a human being can wear and visit some day?” Melikechi asked.
DSU and other area officials discuss the significance of DSU’s role in the Curiosity rover mission on Mars.
DSU and other area officials discuss the significance of DSU’s role in the Curiosity rover mission on Mars.
People on earth can expect to benefit from medical knowledge gained through space exploration and laser technology. Already, Melikechi has developed and licensed a technique for detecting early signs of epithelial ovarian cancer (See previous coverage here). The Algerian-born physicist received the 2012 Delaware Bio Award for Academic Research from the Delaware BioScience Association.
This year, the state has committed $10 million toward construction of an Optics Research Facility at DSU.
Melikechi expects that experiments on Mars will produce key knowledge in developing tests for biomarkers of various cancers, allowing doctors to identify cancer through simple blood tests when the disease is in its earliest, most curable phase.
“We are going to learn a lot from Mars in terms of how we are going to analyze the blood,” he said.
