[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 4 - 09:22:30 ]
Welcome to another Mars Millennium QuestChat! Our resident Mars expert today is Dr. Mary Urquhart at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mary is a planetary scientist who is especially fond of Mars. Currently, she does computer modeling of Mars temperature measurements. Be sure to read Mary's profile before coming to the chat room: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/team/urquhart.html. The chat will begin at 11 am, Pacific (2 pm, Eastern). "See you" soon :-)

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 7 - 09:25:25 ]
TEACHERS: Be sure to check out Mary's "K-12 ONLINE EDUCATION & OUTREACH" web site. She has several sets of classroom-related, standards-based materials about Mars, physics, Saturn, scale in the solar system, comets and many other Web resources, including her NEW Deep Space 2/Mars Microprobe Mission lesson plan. The URL is: http://lyra.colorado.edu/sbo/mary/

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 10 - 09:57:30 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] Hello Sandy! I am glad the chat room is open early. I have to leave to teach and cant stay for the chat but I really wanted to send some questions to Mary! I could have filled the hour myself with questions but I will send just a few! :-)
Hi Michelle! It's great to see your name in an SSO chat room again :-) I've missed having your great questions so I'm really glad you're going to leave some today :-) Go ahead and send them and I will post them during the chat...

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 11 - 11:03:17 ]
Hi Everyone. I'm here and I'm looking forward to answering your questions today!

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 13 - 11:09:54 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] Hello Mary! Thank you so much for chatting today. Are you doing any computer modeling related to the warming of Mars Polar Lander descent engine? I am referring to the potential problem mentioned in the latest MPL status report. Are you a part of the team mentioned in that report? If yes, could you elaborate? I am sorry that I will not be able to participate live today because I teach a class at this time.
Hi Michelle. No, I'm not on the Mars Polar Lander Team. I have heard of the problem, but I can't give you any more detail than was in the MPL status report. Sorry...

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 16 - 11:11:26 ]
RE: [AlexKristie] Mary,Hello where are you???!!!
Hi Alex and Kristie. I'm here. Do you have any questions for me?

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 21 - 11:14:19 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] I work with many students who have a variety of learning disabilities. For some, reading in high school is still a struggle. What advice can you give to these bright students who have huge challenges in an academic setting?
The best advise I can give is to not give up when challenges become frustrating. I know it can be very hard, and very discouraging, but the rewards of making it through the difficult times are worth the trouble!

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 25 - 11:17:31 ]
RE: [AlexKristie] How does the probe work????
Hi Alex and Kristie. That's a very good question, and my answer would depend on what you mean. The probe is designed to be very tough, and with very few moving parts, so that it can survive an impact at about 450 miles/hour (or 720 km/hr). You can learn more at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds2/.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 26 - 11:20:59 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] Did your learning disability cause you difficulties through high school and college or were you able to compensate at an early age?
My learning disablilty did cause me trouble in high school and college, and especially graduate school. I learned to compensate fairly well in elementary school, thanks to my therapist, but my difficulties never completely went away. I still have problems when I am under a great deal of stress, and I don't do as well as I should on timed exams.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 27 - 11:24:05 ]
RE: [AlexKristie] What kind of rocks are on mars??????
Another great question! Most of the rocks on Mars are believed to be a type of rock called basalt. Basalt is common on the Earth in places like the ocean floor and volcanic islands like Hawaii. Basalt also has a lot of iron in it and can turn red, like rust.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 29 - 11:26:45 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] Once you receive a doctorate, do you still take other courses to keep learning? Do you ever take classes in areas besides science? If so, what other things interest you academically?
I haven't had a chance yet to take any more classes. I just completed my doctorate a few months ago. I am interested in many other topics, however. Most are science related, but I also have interests in philosophy, linguistics, and pre-college education.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 31 - 11:30:26 ]
RE: [AlexKristie] Are you doing any medical tests on mars on our bodies??
Not your bodies, certainly! :-) No. Some people are planning experiments that will tell us how the environment of Mars might effect our bodies if we visited there. Some of those experiments will go to Mars in 2001.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 33 - 11:32:24 ]
Hey Stephanie, welcome :-) It's great to "see you" again!

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 35 - 11:37:21 ]
RE: [MichelleMock/CoronaCA] When reports mention the polar ice cap shrinking or melting, we often envision melting ice and resulting water. Isnt the polar ice cap of Mars dry ice? When it shrinks, what does it leave behind? When dry ice *melts* on earth, it lets off a type of *steam* or *smoke*. What happens in the Martian atmosphere as this occurs and what is the surface temp during this shrinking process?
The seasonal polar caps on Mars are mostly dry ice, but they do have water ice and dust in them, too. Neither dry ice or water ice will melt on Mars, but will go straight from a solid to a gas (called sublimation), like dry ice does here on Earth (the smoke you refered to). In some years, at least, both water ice and dust are left in the polar regions when the dry ice sublimates. This forms layers called the polar layered deposits that are seen in both the north and the south. Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Microprobes will arrive on these polar layered deposits near the south pole. Because the Mars atmosphere is very thin and mostly carbon dioxide, the freezing and sublimation of carbon dioxide (called dry ice when frozen) can have a great effect on the amount of gas in the atmosphere.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 38 - 11:44:27 ]
RE: [Stephanie/Edmonton] What sort of electronics/computers are on the probes?
They're miniaturized electronics. Inside the tiny forebody of the probe (about the size of toilet paper roll), there is a tiny circuit board, two temperature sensors, an accelerometer, a tiny laser, and more. I'm a planetary scientist, not an engineer, so the best place for you to find more information would be the Deep Space 2 Web page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds2/.

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 39 - 11:48:10 ]
RE: [AlexKristie-Alex_Hutchins] Is there life on mars???
Yet another great question. No one knows. If there is life on Mars to day, or more likely, if there was life in the distant past on Mars, it would be tiny microbes like bacteria. We wouldn't be able to see any "martians" without a microscope. Some scientists think that tiny ancient fossils of life on Mars have already been found, but not everyone is sure. Finding fossils to small to see without a microscope in the few meteorites we have from Mars is very hard, especially because the fossils would be very old!

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 40 - 11:52:52 ]
RE: [AlexKristie-Alex_Hutchins] What are the temperature ranges near the equator and at the poles?
Just like on the Earth, the temperatures on Mars will vary with the season, the time of day, and from place to place. At the poles the temperature can be -120 degrees Celcius or colder (that's colder than -200 F!) during the winter. At the equator, temperatures during the day can rise to above freezing.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 42 - 11:57:01 ]
EVERYONE: There are about 10 minutes left in today's chat with Mary. If you have anymore questions you'd like answered, send them NOW!

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 44 - 12:03:22 ]
Please let us know how we're doing with our chats by filling out a short survey at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys. Thank you!

[ MaryUrquhart/PlanetaryScientist - 45 - 12:05:04 ]
Goodbye, Everyone. I enjoyed chatting with you.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 46 - 12:08:14 ]
EVERYONE: It's time to let Mary get back to work, so this is the end of our chat today. This chat will be available in the archive later on today. Be sure to check out our chat schedule for the rest of November at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/chats/sched2.html