Mars has been a mystery to Earthlings for centuries, with many questions remaining despite years of exploration — but a woman from Mount Airy is among researchers hoping to get some answers about life existing there.
“Our understanding of Mars has changed dramatically,” Rachel Harris, Ph.D., said during a presentation Tuesday at a Rotary Club of Mount Airy luncheon meeting.
Harris is a 2010 graduate of Mount Airy High School, where she was the valedictorian of her class, a Morehead scholar and a standout softball player.
After receiving an undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Wellesley College in the Boston area, she earned advance degrees in geosciences at Princeton University and is employed by Harvard University in its Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
The Mount Airy High grad’s work in the field of biology also has been coupled with an interest in outer space. This has included an internship opportunity with NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) at the agency’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in California, beginning in 2012, among a long list of academic credentials.
Her Rotary Club audience Tuesday at Cross Creek Country Club included some young local students who were accompanied by Dr. Travis Reeves, the superintendent of Surry County Schools.
“I wanted to instill in the young people here today that Mount Airy can take you places,” Harris — the daughter of Todd and Betsy Harris — told the attentive assemblage. Todd Harris is Surry County’s register of deeds and a former member of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.
The younger Harris used a PowerPoint presentation to chart the history of Earth’s infatuation with Mars — and whether life has existed, or possibly can thrive, on the Red Planet that has been the focus of numerous science-fiction novels and movies.
That possibility gained momentum through discoveries many years ago of what appeared to be canals on Mars, and one later astronomer’s belief that new ones were appearing which suggested the presence of life.
This set the stage for the infamous “War of the Worlds” radio drama by Orson Welles in 1938 that caused widespread panic due to listeners believing the story line of the fictional broadcast which included Martians invading New Jersey.
During her presentation Tuesday afternoon, Harris detailed the many missions involving exploratory crafts being sent to Mars — “with an 80% failure rate,” she said, due to incidents such as crashes or being destroyed upon launch.
Experiments during the Viking mission in 1976, for example, proved “ambiguous” as far as life on the planet that is one of Earth’s closest neighbors, leading to a “Dark Ages” period from 1976-96.
“But in 1996, that all changed,” Harris said of the discovery of a small Martian meteorite containing minerals that could only have developed with the presence of good water. That captured the attention of the public, along with microbes also found which indicated possible life forms.
“Again, we still don’t know to this day what this means,” the special speaker acknowledged.
However, it fueled further interest by NASA in desiring to return to Mars.
The research effort is now in the Sample Return Era, which began earlier this year.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover touched down safely on the planet in February and is seeking signs of ancient microbial life as part of the ongoing quest to explore its past habitability.
The rover has a drill to collect core samples of rock and soil, which will be stored in sealed tubes for retrieval by a future Mars mission in order to transport them to Earth for detailed analysis.
Harris said during her presentation that it is a dream of hers to be able to do research on those samples once they return.
Exploring the Red Planet can help scientists learn about major shifts in climate that can drastically alter other planets.
After Harris’ presentation, new Rotary Club President Tonda Phillips said it represented a “proud” moment for the community to have one of its former students involved in such research.
While the Rotary organization is focused on local, national and global programs to make life better for people, Phillips said that scope might need to be expanded to outer space based on what she heard Tuesday.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com