1961 Magazine Fall 2016

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
MISSION CONTROL:
How do you select where the Mars Rover goes, how do
you select its missions?
DR. JIM RICE:
It’s fun! You get up there in front of scientist and
engineers and present what you think is the best site
for the mission and science objectives. You sort of
have some guide lines because there’s engineering
constraints in terms of altitude or how rocky and
dusty it can be or slopes and things like that. So you
have to be within your constraints because you have
to get your mission done safely, successfully or you
don’t have a mission to do anything with. So that’s
the first priority.
Then you start trying to find areas on the planet that
satisfy those requirements but also have great science
to yield specific instrument package on the Rover and
that’s a lot of fun. You get up there and you’re going
to get grilled. You, kind-of, have to have thick skin.
Ultimately you want to find the best place to go and
the process works pretty well. It takes a while, it’s
not one meeting that decides, it goes over a period of
years. Eventually sites get widdled out, narrowed down
to a handful. I first went to the meetings when I was
in grad school back in ‘94/’95. I was just honored to
present and I’ve been involved in every Mars mission
landing site ever since. I love it.
MISSION CONTROL:
What would you say the greatest geological thing you’ve
found on Mars?
DR. JIM RICE:
That’s tough, but I guess the one I would say is when
I did my PhD Dissertation back in the ‘90’s, the idea
of bodies of water, lakes and even oceans; That was
controversial. It’s hard to believe but back in the
‘80’s/’90’s the idea of bodies of water on the surface of
Mars was so controversial there was only a handful of
us that even talked about that at conferences. People
thought we were nuts; you were kind-of ostracized.
To me it was so simple: water runs downhill and it’s
going to pond in a low area. If there’s gravity, that’s
just what’s going to happen, but that whole thinking
about Mars, it was so not there when I started out.
I remember when I went to a conference when I was
working on my Master’s degree, it was the Lunar
Planetary Science Conference. That’s in March every
year and it’s the international biggest conference of
the year. My advisor said you’ve never been to this
conference I’ve got to prepare you because it’s going
to be brutal. People can be brutal. So be prepared
for a bomb being thrown at you. He was right but I
remember it was really cool. A paradigm shift started
happening and to be involved in it from the very start,
that was worthwhile; And then flash forward a number
of years, opportunity landed on Mars. We rolled into
a crater and sure enough right there in front of us, we
now know, were dried up lake beds. And to be on the
mission that basically nailed that down, it was a neat
completion of a circle from proposing these things,
to talking about them in my dissertation when it was
very controversial when most people wouldn’t touch
it with a 10 foot pole and then being on the team that
found the proof of the first lakebeds on Mars…..that
was pretty fulfilling time.
77
1961 Magazine Fall 2016