Curiosity on Mars
Kristen Miller '06 with NASA's Curiosity rover
Kristen Miller ’06 will return to Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to present geologic and geochemical evidence that suggests Mars formerly hosted a habitable environment. Miller recently completed a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) working on mineral/organic interactions in collaboration with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. Her lecture, “Curiosity on Mars,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the Stern Center Great Room.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater in August, 2012. Its mission was to assess the past and present habitability of Mars by analyzing the sediments deposited in the crater for certain geochemical and mineralogical properties.
While at MIT, Miller collaborated on several projects involving organic geochemical analysis of fossils, but her main focus was providing scientific support for the Mars Science Laboratory Sample Analysis at Mars instrument team. She conducted experiments using Mars analogue soil in order to better understand the possible carbon source for organic compounds detected on Mars. The results of this work have been published in Science and the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. For more information, call 717-245-1875.
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Published February 14, 2015