September 24, 2003

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-0836) 

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(Phone: 650/604-5026/9000)

Juan Bautista Rodriguez
Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain
(Phone: 011 34 91 520 1938) 

RELEASE: 03-304

WEBCASTS FEATURE SCIENTISTS ON A MARS MISSION

NASA and Spanish scientists, who are developing ways to drill into 
Mars in search of underground life, will take part in eight 
worldwide, educational webcasts from their project site near Spain's 
Rio Tinto River from Sept. 29 to Oct. 15.

NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC) scientist Carol Stoker will kick off 
the webcast series on Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. EDT with a talk about the 
Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE). According to 
Stoker, mineral deposits like the ones the MARTE project is drilling 
into may also be found in the Martian subsurface.

"Searching for subsurface life in the Rio Tinto system can be viewed 
as a learning experience to teach scientists and technologists how to 
search for life in the subsurface of Mars," explained Stoker, 
principal investigator of the three-year experiment. 

Scientists and engineers from NASA, U.S. universities and the Spanish 
Centro De Astrobiología (Center for Astrobiology) hope to show how 
robot systems could look for life below Mars' surface. Scientists 
believe liquid water may exist deep underground on Mars. "In addition 
to looking for evidence of subsurface life, we hope MARTE inspires 
students to pursue careers in science and engineering," Stoker added.

"What's different about this course is that it offers real-time 
transcription in both Spanish and English. So far, this has only been 
done before with the French in 1998," said Mark Leon, deputy chief of 
the ARC education office, which organized the programs. "Not only do 
we have a live webcast, but we have live captioning," Leon said.

NASA will show lectures by Stoker and other scientists with subtitles 
in both English and Spanish. The Internet lecture series has been 
structured as a three-week, NASA subsidized, interactive course. The 
series, called NASA Robotics for Research and Exploration, is worth 
one unit of college credit at San Jose State University, San Jose, 
Calif. 

San Jose State University students enrolled in the course will be able 
to ask questions using Internet chat technology. Members of the 
worldwide Internet audience may monitor the lectures live through the 
program Web site.

The other lecturers and their topics are:



Ricardo Amils of Spain's Centro De Astrobiología -- biology and 
microbiology at Rio Tinto and the role of iron in biology 
Todd Stevens of Portland State University, Portland, Ore. -- 
subsurface life 
David Fernandez Remolar of Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Tecnica 
Aerospacial (INTA) -- geology of the Rio Tinto region 
Brian Glass of ARC -- issues and challenges for robotic drilling 
Javier Gomez Elvira of INTA -- down hole instrumentation for Mars and 
the borehole inspection system 
Kennda Lynch of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston -- searching for 
life on Mars and sample handling 
Victor Parro of INTA -- instrumentation and searching for life on Mars 

NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets 
program is funding the project. The Spanish contribution to the 
project is supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia, 
Comunidad de Madrid and the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica 
Aeroespacial.

Educational webcasts enable students to watch live video courses, 
listen and interact in real time with experts participating in the 
programs. The schedule for the lectures is accessible on the Internet 
at: 

http://robotics.nasa.gov/courses/fall2003 
and
http://www.cab.inta.es (en español)

For information about NASA Education programs on the Internet, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

	
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