[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 1 - 09:58:07 ]
Good Morning! Today's chat with Mars scientist Ken Edgett will begin at 10 am, Pacific. Have your quetions ready!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 2 - 10:04:17 ]
Good Morning and greetings from sunny San Diego, California! February is an exciting time here at Malin Space Science Systems, as we gear up for the day when the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) camera will be turned on again, and we can begin the Mapping Phase of the mission. Instruments will turn on in late February, there will be some period of calibration in early March, then 3 weeks of "contingency" observations before the High Gain Antenna on MGS is deployed around the end of March. If all goes well with the antenna, the Mapping Phase of the mission begins in April. Finally, we will start getting the kinds of data that the science teams have been planning and dreaming about since 1985!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 7 - 10:12:13 ]
RE: [AlexM-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] I have been studying Mars. How do you get trained to have a job like yours?
That's a great question. I have been interested in Mars since I was in 4th grade. The Viking landers showed that Mars was covered with lots of ROCKS, so I decided to become a geologist. I went to college and studied geology. But you woudlnt have to be a geologist, there are also astronomers, physicists, chemists, biologists---all kinds of sciences involved with studying Mars.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 8 - 10:12:59 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] Hi all! My name is Miguel and I'm from Portugal. It's my first time here. Congratulations for all of you who made possible this kind of activities.
Welcome Miguel! We're very happy that you're joining us today all the way from Portugal! How did you become interested in Mars?

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 9 - 10:13:35 ]
RE: [mrsmcd/samanthadanielle-mrs.mcd] What inspired you to work on the Mars project?
I have always been interested in Mars, since I was in 4th grade and wrote stories for my spelling class about "Joe the Martian(TM)". Then the Vikings landed on Mars, and I thought it was SOOO COOOL that I just KNEW I had to be a part of Mars exploration.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 10 - 10:14:12 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] Hi all! My name is Miguel and I'm from Portugal. It's my first time here. Congratulations for all of you who made possible this kind of activities.
Hello, Miguel. I am so glad you can join us!

[ Miguel-Miguel/GIRA - 11 - 10:15:15 ]
well, I'm an astronomy student at Oporto University, I'm the co-founder of an organization that promotes astronomy (I'm 20 years old and 6 of them were spent studying and divulgating astronomy) and I'm the volunteer coordinator of The Planetary Society in Portugal, so, the planetary exploration (specially Mars) always kept my attention.

[ AlexM-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade - 12 - 10:16:41 ]
have you been studing Mars? Do you have info on Mars? What do you do in your job? Did you find life on Mars?

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 13 - 10:18:03 ]
I have been studying Mars as a scientist since I started training around 1986 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. Then I went to Arizona State University and was a student there until 1994-- got a Masters and a PhD there. My job is FUN! I get to help decide what the Mars Global Surveyor camera will take pictures of!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 15 - 10:19:14 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] one question to Dr. Ken: does already exit or will be a future reality the utilization of video images aboard spacecrafts??
I am not sure what you mean about utilization of video images aboard spacecrafts. Can you clarify the question?

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 18 - 10:21:42 ]
RE: [RICKMSNIXONS-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Have you found any signs of life on Mars?
Not me, personally! Actually, thus far no one has found any solid evidence for life on Mars. There was some work a few years ago by a group at the Johnson Space Center that are studying meteorites from Mars, and they claimed to be seeing evidence of fossil micro-organisms. However, over the past 2 years, this theory has been taking a beating from other scientists. I do not know how this story will ultimately "pan out". Did these folks find evidence of Martian life? Time and more careful study will tell.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 20 - 10:22:50 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] well, is it going to have videotapes of Mars? :))
Right now there is no specific plan to send a video-tape recorder to Mars. However, we can take pictures of Mars (these are digital, sent by radio) and feed these into a computer to make a simulated video pan across a given landscape. This has already been done, many times.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 24 - 10:25:17 ]
RE: [AndrewMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] How are asteroids formed into planets?
This is an interesting question. The asteroids that we have in the solar system today are basically the left-overs that didnt form into planets back when the solar system was still young. BUT, it is thought that planets formed by "accretion"--that is, by collision or "coming together" of many smaller objects like asteroids and comets. To be honest, all of the details of how this process works are still being studied--some things are known, and many are not. Science is about questions, and doesn't always have answers.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 28 - 10:26:31 ]
RE: [mrsmcd/tekele-mrs.mcd] What other planets are study projects?
People are studying ALL of the planets. There is a spacecraft on its way to Saturn, called Cassini. There is one already orbiting Jupiter, called Gallileo. There is one that completed a survey of Venus in 1994, called Magellan. There are plans in the works for new spacecraft to go to Mercury and Pluto.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 30 - 10:28:57 ]
RE: [KevinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Do you know when they will be able to send people to mars?
The question of sending people to Mars is really about the WILL to spend the MONEY. We already know HOW to send people to Mars, and we have had the technology since the 1960s. But a lot was happening in the world in late 1960s and early 1970s that led the United States to decide to stop sending people to the Moon, dismantle the program, and forget about sending humans to Mars. Now, almost 30 years later, people are again talking about putting people on Mars, and Presdident George Bush in 1989 set a goal of July 20, 2019--the 50th anniversary of the first people on the Moon. Is the U.S. (and other countries) on track for this goal? Hard to say. For the next several years, we are building a big huge space station, intstead.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 31 - 10:29:26 ]
RE: [mrsmcd/jessica-mrs.mcd] What is the favorite part of your job?
Getting new pictures from Mars. Each new picture is like a birthday present.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 32 - 10:29:54 ]
RE: [mrsmcd/jessicamerideth-mrs.mcd] Have you been in or involved with an Apollo movie?
No, but I have seen some of them.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 33 - 10:30:57 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] ok...another question: what is, in your opinion, the best picture taken of another planets? and, by the way, what is your favourite planet, in terms of visual appearance? (sorry fro my grammar errors)
This is a tough question. I think I am partial to the color pictures of the landscape taken by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers. These pictures inspired me when I was a kid to go on to become a planetary scientist.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 37 - 10:35:23 ]
RE: [DanielleMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Are there planets beyond pluto?
There are DEFINITELY planets beyond Pluto--they are orbiting other stars. We humans have only just begun to discover the planets orbiting other stars...and this has only being going on for the past six years or so. This is a very exciting time to be alive. As for more planets in OUR Solar System--the current thinking is that instead of more planets beyond Pluto, there is a vast region of icy bodies similar to Asteroids-- and this region is probably Bigger than the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and it is called the Kuiper Belt after the guy who first theorized its existence in the 1940s and 1950s. We have found some of these objects, and we suspect there are many more. NASA wants the US Congress to fund a mission to study Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects starting in year 2000. The spacecrat wouldnt get out there unitl sometime like 2017 or so...

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 38 - 10:36:30 ]
RE: [JustinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Will the astreroid belt ever go outside of the outer planets?
WHile many asteeroids are concentrated in orbits between Jupiter and Mars, there are also many that have elliptical orbits and cross Earth's orbit, even Venus and Mercury's orbit. There are also asteroids that are trapped in the same orbit as Jupiter, and there are asteroids out beyond Jupiter. It's awesome!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 40 - 10:38:42 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] If in fact Mars, Europa and other planets/moons have oceans (no matter what are made of) bellow their surfaces, what are the major difficulties to take pictures of it?
Good question. The term "ocean" probably isnt appropriate to any of these bodies. Callisto and maybe Ganymede have recently beenproposed to have brine (salty water) in there interiors, but it might behave more like magma (molten rock) on Earth... on Europa, this might be true, too. To get pictures othe "ocean" on Europa would require landing, drilling, and maybe putting a submarine down there. But the ice might be 100 kilometers or more thick! As for Mars, if there was ever an ocean, it is GONE now. Mars is DRY.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 42 - 10:39:04 ]
RE: [DanielleMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Are they going to name the planets outside of pluto?
You know, it is possible that people already have named them. I am really not sure.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 43 - 10:39:55 ]
RE: [KevinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Do the planets beyond pluto have suns?
The planets that orbit other stars do have suns. Those suns are the stars around which the orbit. Our sun is a star, too. Somewhere out there, someone might look up at night and see OUR sun as a star in THEIR sky. AWESOME, huh?

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 45 - 10:40:53 ]
RE: [JustinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Do planets ever blow up?
I doubt it, except in Star Wars and "Hardware Wars" ("Basketball is such a peaceful planet")

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 46 - 10:41:40 ]
Does anyone have Mars questions?

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 49 - 10:42:36 ]
RE: [JanMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Who discovered the red spot on jupiter?
I don't know. The first astronmers to look at Mars with telescopes were in the 1600's. One of them probably had a telescope powerful enough to see the red spot. I don't think it was Galileo.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 51 - 10:43:31 ]
RE: [ValerieMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Who first discovered mars?
As far as we know, humans have been on this planet for about 3 million years. Since Mars is visible to the naked eye ("hey Beavis, he said Naked"), the first humans would have discovered it.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 55 - 10:47:52 ]
RE: [ValerieMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] What happened to the pathfinder from last year?
Even though Pathfinder was solar-powered, it had batteries that keep it "alive" during the night. The battery could only be recharged so many times. Eventually, the battery couldnot be recharged, and the lander "died". This was in late September 1997. The rover, Sojourner, was still functioning, but without the lander, the poor little thing could not communicate with Earth. Both are still sitting on the Ares Vallis flood plain, waiting for some day maybe hundreds of years from now when someone visits.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 58 - 10:49:47 ]
RE: [DanielleMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] How did the cydonia region form? :)
Cydonia is a region on the edge of the martian cratered highlands of northern Arabia. West of Cydonia is a broad, low plain called Acidalia. Cydonia, lying between them, has many thousands of mesas, buttes, and massifs (hills) composed of the same rock as in Arabia. Faults and erosion have caused the highlands rock to break apart and make this landscape. It is very similar to what you would see in Monument Valley of the Navajo Nation, on the boarder between Utah and Arizona.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 60 - 10:50:28 ]
RE: [RickMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] How big is the pathfinder?
Pathfinder was small enough to fit in your classroom. You are probably taller than Pathfinder was wide. The sojourner was also small, about the size of a laserprinter.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 61 - 10:51:15 ]
RE: [SarahMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Will the olympus mons ever errupt?
Maybe. We don't know for sure how old it is or when it last erupted. So far with the new camera on Mars Global Surveyor, it looks to me like Olympus Mons is pretty old--i.e., I havent seen any new, fresh lava flows. So maybe it is extinct now.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 62 - 10:51:48 ]
RE: [AndrewMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] How wide is the mariner valley?
Pretty wide. It is about 3000 miles long and at its widest point maybe 1000 miles wide (but the width varies a lot).

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 64 - 10:52:57 ]
RE: [JustinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Can planets ever vary from their orbit?
The orbits of each planet does vary a little bit all the time. The effects of the gravity of other planets and even passing stars can cause very slight changes in the orbital path.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 65 - 10:53:16 ]
EVERYONE: There are 10 minutes left in today's chat with Ken...

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 67 - 10:54:54 ]
EVERYONE: How did you like today's chat? Please let us on the Quest Team know how the chats are going for you. Fill out a short survey at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys Thank you :-)

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 69 - 10:55:23 ]
RE: [NeilMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] If the mariner valley is 3000 miles long, how does it fit when mars is only 4200?
I am not sure what the 4200 is...is that the diameter? Because the circumference would be much bigger. The Valles Marineris does stretch approximately east-west across about 1/5th of the planet's circumference.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 71 - 10:56:48 ]
RE: [MacMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] If the olympus mons ever exploeded would it cause the atmosphere thicker?
This is a great question, and one that many scientists have been looking at since the volcaones on Mars were discvoered in 1972. There is much discussion about the possiblitty that eruptions of the volcanoes would put enouogh extra gas in the atmosphere that the atmosphere would be temporarily thicker. This could cause the climate to change, perhaps--some suggest--allowing liquid water or snowfall.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 73 - 10:57:57 ]
RE: [KevinMsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] What was the latest discovery from mars?
The most latest discoveries haven't been reported yet. The scientists find something important, then write a paper, then it gets reviewed and published. Many of the most exciting results get published in SCIENCE and NATURE. There is a rumor going around that there will be some excting news about Mars in the near future.

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 74 - 10:59:10 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] If Mars would be closer to the Sun, would be possible to have life??
Maybe. But Venus and Mercury and closer to the Sun, but have no life because Venus has a HOT and THICK atmosphere (and no water) and MErcury has almost no atmosphere, the surface is Really HOT during the day, and REALLY COLD during the night. Earth is in a zone where it is just the right distance from the sun and just happens to have the right mix of water, volcanism, etc. for life to exist.

[ MsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade - 75 - 10:59:45 ]
Our entire class wants to thank you for the wonderful experience that has made our unit on planets so exciting. We all have been reading along. Ms. Nixon's 5th grade class, Pinole, California

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 76 - 11:00:43 ]
RE: [MsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Our entire class wants to thank you for the wonderful experience that has made our unit on planets so exciting. We all have been reading along. Ms. Nixon's 5th grade class, Pinole, California
Thank you so much for being here today and for all the excellent questions. Exploring the solar system is an exciting thing to do, and a very human activity (to see what is out there!). Thanks and take care!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 78 - 11:02:02 ]
RE: [MsNixon-Ms.Nixon/fifthgrade] Our entire class wants to thank you for the wonderful experience that has made our unit on planets so exciting. We all have been reading along. Ms. Nixon's 5th grade class, Pinole, California
Ms. Nixon, thank you so much for joining us today! We're really happy that you and your 5th graders participated! Be sure to fill out the chat survey (URL listed above) when you have a chance. Join us again!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 79 - 11:02:33 ]
RE: [Miguel-Miguel/GIRA] Congratulations Dr. Ken for your good work. It was a pleasure to "be" here with. When do I have the pleasure to chat with you?
Thanks Miguel for your questions. I am sure Sandy will have me CHAT here again soon! Take care!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 80 - 11:03:04 ]
EVERYONE: It't time for Ken to get back to his real work, so we'll end the chat here. Thanks for your questions and please join us again!

[ KenEdgett/MarsScientist - 81 - 11:03:27 ]
Everyone, I have really enjoyed chatting with you today, and I hope we can do it again, soon. The Mars Global Surveyor mission has some exciting days ahead in the next few months. THIS is an EXCITING TIME to be alive! Take care, all!