NASA Invites You Along for the Ride

Man has always been fascinated with space. In terms of public sentiment NASA has fallen a long way from the heights it enjoyed during the Apollo era. Private projects like the X-Prize Foundation have won media coverage and public following through open competition with the ultimate goal to create a commercial space program. Despite a decrease in public sentiment NASA has had major success stories like the Mars Rover project. The question facing NASA is how to better engage and involve the public in exploration.

I sat down with NASA scientist Scott Maxwell who is the Mars Rover Drive Team Lead to discuss ways NASA can engage the public, a subject he is speaking on at Gnomedex.

How did you get involved with the Mars Exploration Rover project?

I was getting my masters degree in computer science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign when I was recruited to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). I had always wanted to work in space exploration but it seemed to me that type of work was something other people got to do. In my head there was this wall and I was on one side and the people on the other side of the wall were the ones who got to work in space exploration. It wasn’t until I actually had the job at JPL that I realized there wasn’t any wall at all. What separates you and completing that goal you have isn’t an imaginary wall but simply the strength of your desire to go after that goal.

Once I arrived at JPL, I was hired in to work on the software we use to analyze data that comes back from a number of different spacecrafts. I then got involved in a project that was basically a replay of the Mars Pathfinder mission with the Sojourner rover. I was referred by a colleague to be part of the project which ended up ultimately getting canceled but evolved into the Mars Exploration Rover mission. I sort of went along for the ride.

What was the mission goal for the Mars Rover project?

The overarching goal of the mission was to continue the exploration for signs of life on Mars. Specifically the rovers Spirit and Opportunity went to Mars to attempt to find evidence of past liquid water on the Martian surface, the idea coming from the one example we know of, life on Earth, where water is always necessary for life. We are trying to put together a series of planks that hopefully lead up to a story of past life on Mars. Answering the question, yes or no, was there life on Mars. Of course, either way we answer that question has profound implications. If there was life on Mars that is very exciting because the idea of other life out there would have significant implications. If there wasn’t life on Mars that would also be exciting because we could better answer the question of why not, why did form on Earth but not on Mars?

Both rovers have found signs that there was indeed liquid water for extended periods on the Martian surface. Today, 4 1/2 years into their 90 day mission, they are continuing to explore Mars and to add to the scientific treasure trove of information they have been collecting since the day they arrived.

It must be nerve-racking to work on a project that you send into space with the hope that the equipment will still work when the craft gets to its destination despite the numerous things that could go wrong.

That’s certainly true. If you’ve seen any of the news coverage when we get data back from any spacecraft which has landed successfully and is transmitting data; well, people are just jumping in the air and cheering and clapping each other on the back. There’s good reason for that. For instance, someone in my role can invest 4-5 years of their life in rover mission working on it day and night; skipping vacations at times; making all kinds of personal sacrifices in order to complete a project. There comes a point where literally in one minute you will know whether all of those years of work are going to be successful or are going down the tube.

Certainly one characteristic of working in the space program in general is that it does have the same kind of downsides as any other job but the upside is tremendous. We have a saying in this business, “When we have a product launch, we really have a product launch”.

Being there to see the spacecraft you worked on put into a rocket and blasted up into space towards another planet is mind blowing. It’s the kind of stuff I used to fantasize about as a little kid. I never thought it would be my life and now the fact I’m getting paid for it is just unbelievable.

With all of today’s science fiction, how do you deal with people’s sometimes unreasonable expectations when it comes to the type of life they expect you to find?

In some sense finding any sign of life anywhere in the solar system other than on Earth would be tremendously exciting. We don’t have any kind of measure how common life is throughout the universe. The only thing we really know for sure is there is one place, one little planet where there is life and it’s ours.

When you look at the numbers and you kind of have some understanding of how life works it seems certain that it must be elsewhere. But we don’t know when or if we will ever find other life. Even if we found just one example, anywhere. Even if all we found was one tiny little microbe on Mars we would know so much more than we know now. We would learn so much about what kinds of life are possible, where life can be found, what it takes to sustain it. It would completely revolutionize our understanding of the universe that we live in.

What steps does NASA take to ensure that spacecraft we send don’t carry microbes from Earth on it?

Well we would like to find life on Mars but we don’t want it to be life we accidently sent there on our own spacecraft. We don’t want to contaminate another planet.

NASA has very stringent planetary protection requirements about the degree to which spacecraft have to be cleansed of earthly life and contaminants before they can be sent out into space. Both rovers had to be very thoroughly cleansed to get rid of any possible microbes that might be sent there.

One of the philosophical concerns we have is that suppose life on Mars existed and we sent the rovers carrying bacteria that somehow managed to take root on Mars and wipe out that native life. As a scientific matter that would be horrible but even more so as a philosophical matter that would be horrible. We don’t want to inadvertently commit genocide against the only other life we might find in a universe. For all those reasons we have very strict requirements to prevent contaminants from being on anything we send to the surface of another planet.

Obviously one of the appeals of other planets is resources. What about the concept of terraforming Mars?

Terraforming would present enormous engineering challenges for us that we don’t know how to solve. It is certainly a very exciting possibility because having other planets to live on at least increases the chances of humanity surviving in the long-term. There would be a lot of advantages to it but we really don’t know how to do it yet. Our very best bet is to take better care of the planet that we are on.

There is some work going on in direction of putting people on Mars. NASA is undertaking a project called Constellation which will return us to the Moon and may eventually put people on Mars. But even with that project NASA is not thinking about terraforming or colonizing Mars any more than in the 1960s they were thinking about colonizing the Moon. At this point the focus is on simply getting people there.

So now that you’ve gotten the rover to Mars what do you do for an encore?

Right now I’m going to try to see Mars Rover project all the way to the end. I have however been working on other projects including Phoenix and doing work on the Mars Science Laboratory which is the next rover-like mission to Mars.

I’m also working on project called ATHLETE which is a very exciting lunar proposal where we would basically be taking a 12 foot tall, six legged, metal robotic spider on roller skates and putting it on the moon. The purpose is to help astronauts get around and build habitats and complete work that requires mobility. So I am still living my dream by getting work on projects with some amazing people.

How have the explosion of social media and the rapid exchange of ideas impacted what NASA is doing?

Well that is actually what I’m going to Gnomedex to talk about. So far NASA’s communication with the public in terms of space exploration has really all been one-way. NASA has been sending information out to the public but there hasn’t really been any way in which we’ve tried to make it a two-way conversation. Social media could make it possible for a member of the public who wants to communicate with exploration team instance to find some way to do so.

My goal is to find methods for people who have a high level of interest to actually ask questions and participate in the mission. Of course they will need to be able to pass through certain gates and they have certain levels of skill. I think there is a tremendous untapped possibility where we can make space exploration work so much better by bringing the conversation to people who would otherwise never have direct access to it.

Personally I’m very excited about this possibility. I remember myself as a kid watching little black-and-white TV reports about the Voyager mission and what if I had been able been to look at some of the science from the Voyager mission and maybe discover something that no one had ever discovered thereby contributing to the mission in that way.

As a government entity can NASA be agile enough to take advantage of those types of recommendations?

It certainly will be a challenge. I don’t think that NASA institutionally really understands how to do this. But I do think that the rewards from that type of collaboration would be tremendous.

Part of NASA’s responsibility is to engage the public in space exploration, to communicate back to the public what it is we found and what we have been able to do. I think it is a natural extension and generalization of that mandate to bring the public in and enabled them to actually be part of the mission itself. To go along for the ride in a brand new way.

I know that there will be problems: the volume of suggestions we would get, the fact that there would be plenty of kooks, and the challenge being how to keep the noise from drowning out the signal. How do we make it a useful experience and not discourage people who might be interested in participating but are unable to get through. I think there are some definite management problems involved but that’s the kind of thing we hope to get feedback on from conferences like Gnomedex.

How realistic is it that NASA will listen to the information they get with the inherent institutional bureaucracy?

NASA justifiably thinks of itself as engineering elite. While that is true, there are still people outside of NASA who might be able to contribute and see possibilities that we haven’t seen. Maybe they can help solve problems that can only be solved by throwing a lot of time and manpower at the problem but NASA doesn’t have the time and manpower to take on. Why not create some kind of forum where we can post that type of problem and receive feedback. Maybe some random kid in Virginia with spare time on his hands will put his head down take a few weeks and solve it for us. Why can’t we do stuff like that? There is no particular reason why we can’t do it, it is simply that we aren’t thinking in those terms yet because the possibilities that social media brings to the table are so new. But if there is any organization in the world that should be taking advantage of such new technologies to fulfill its mission, it is NASA.

Is there pressure to better reach out to the public because of the success of XPrize?

It’s not because of pressure that we are looking to do this. NASA as an institution is just waking up to the possibilities of social media. The way XPrize will help is that they create ways to engage new parties to contribute towards exploration. Xprize is about building up a commercial space exploration capability that doesn’t exist yet.

While it’s very valuable and could contribute to the NASA mission it’s still not the kind of thing that the normal person can get involved. For instance Jane Smith who lives in Alabama, who is an extremely bright person and is brilliant in math still doesn’t have a way to fulfill her passion and participate in space exploration. The amateur astronomer in the backyard who has the time and interest to contribute still can’t contribute to something like Xprize even, because there is a financial and resource barrier. The kind of thing I have in mind is to truly allow the public to be part of space exploration.

What would your ideal feedback system look like?

In the case of the Mars Rover operation we have two kinds of timelines that go on.

We have the tactical timeline where every day we are putting together the next day’s worth of planning for the rover. That’s very intense, focused and time driven. I don’t think that there is a real way to engage the public in that portion of the operation.

We also have this other timeline going which is the strategic timeline. It is planning for events weeks and months down the road while looking back at data we have gathered to better understand the challenges we are facing. For example, let’s say a rover is heading over to a crater and when we get there we need to decide whether to try exploring in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction taking into account the slope. It’s answering that kind of question that is part of the strategic timeline.

Sometimes it’s answering questions like: let’s look back over the lifetime of the mission and see how the rover has handled traveling over soil as opposed to on rock because we know we will be going over this mixture of soil and rock coming up and we don’t really have a good prediction for its performance but we’re going to need to know that in a few weeks. So let’s take some time to mine data we have so we can make the right decisions.

One way this vision of mine might work is something like Yahoo Answers. NASA could post questions explaining that we have this item here and we would like to be able to do this with it over there, how do we do it? And users could pick up this problem and help us find answers. It allows us to find people to work on tasks they happen to be good at or have the time and knowledge to tackle. Tasks that would benefit from having more people working on them.

What about international contribution?

What is important is that the analysis is done and done well. If it happens to be done by somebody Australia who wants to contribute it makes little difference.

Exploring space isn’t something just America does anymore. It is something that the world does. The rovers themselves have scientific instruments on them they were contributed by other countries. There are very few space exploration projects anymore that are purely American. We had to seek out a level of international cooperation.

Why not reach out to a country that doesn’t have a space program but whose people still have the enthusiasm for exploration and allow them to participate?

With NASA’s budgetary issues why not corporate sponsorship of NASA’s programs?

As an institution NASA is allergic to that.

My personal feeling is that we should be more open to it but I do understand where the concerns come from and I don’t see a good solution to concerns around corporate sponsorship. Obviously the question is one of ethics and of tainting scientific results.

I remember a story in the Onion where the title was something like “Coke sponsored Rover finds evidence of Dasani on Mars”. Although funny that’s exactly the kind of thing we would like to avoid.

The nature of science is to tackle uncertainty. How do you deal with questions where people do not have content scientific hypotheses and are seeking absolutes?

I have people in my family, for example, that ask me whether or not there is life on other planets. I tell them that nobody knows. We haven’t found any yet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t any. It’d be very exciting if we found some and it’d be disappointing but still very interesting if we didn’t find any. Sometimes the best answer is that I don’t know and in fact nobody knows. That’s what’s exciting about exploration.

With a foray into social media maybe we can go a step further and say here is how you can help answer that question. Today nobody knows but maybe tomorrow we will know. Thanks in part to you.