By Sanne van den Tol
UCR Class of 2016
Coming up on the 10th anniversary of the first successful U.S. rover to land on Mars, 
the past missions have led to surprising scientific discoveries as well as fodder for the hope that humans may one day walk on Mars. In 2004 the rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars to skim the surfaces for evidence of water, on a mission that was supposed to last 3 months. Although Spirit broke in 2009, Opportunity is still looking, and has occasionally been successful in finding important minerals. For the past two years, Opportunity has been accompanied by another Mars rover: Curiosity.
Curiosity landed on Mars on the 5th of August, 2012. It is not only much bigger than Opportunity, it’s also equipped with about ten times the scientific instruments, and instead of Opportunity’s solar panels, Curiosity is powered by a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator, so sand storms or a lack of sun do not affect the ability of the rover to function.
It is well known that Mars’ environment is not favorable to sustain human life, as it has little atmosphere to separate its surface from space, temperatures vary widely (seasons can vary by more than 100C), there’s no water, and there is only a third of the gravity of Earth. Curiosity’s main goal, however, is to find evidence that Mars once did have environmental conditions that could support life. It’s supposed to do this by finding “building blocks of life”, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphor. Moreover, Curiosity is just like Opportunity, looking for carbon and water, with the purpose of uncovering the unknown history of Mars.
One of the sites where Curiosity is going to be sent to is the Mawrth Vallis to find clay minerals, which could indicate that there was water. Opportunity has already found clay minerals, but these came from a very acidic aqueous environment. Two other sites Curiosity will be sent to are the Holden Crater, and the Eberswalde crater, which both have a surface that suggests it was eroded by water. Another goal of Curiosity is to characterize geology, which could be uncovered in the Gale Crater, the crater Curiosity landed in. This crater has many layers, including mineral and clay layers, suggesting water may have been present. This was also the site of Curiosity’s more exciting finds, for a little over a year ago, Curiosity found sediments in the Gale crater that came from an aqueous environment. This find was of great importance because it contained “building blocks of life” (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen and phosphorus), suggesting extremophiles (organisms that can live in extreme environmental conditions) could have lived on Mars.
Curiosity’s last goal is to prepare for human exploration, which is also why Mars is so fascinating to scientists, for as far as we know it’s the only other planet in the solar system that could be made habitable for humans, or that could have had life forms on it. Although the exploration of Mars has only lasted for the past ten years, there is still much scientific progress that has to take place before humans on Mars are even a possibility, as the environment is very hostile and unsuitable for humans to survive in. Despite the many obstacles, the possibilities are endless and are sure to include even more impressive prospects a decade from now.
Sanne van den Tol, class of 2016, is a Science major from Halsteren, the Netherlands.
