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University of Hawaii & The Mars Rover
#1
The other day TomK mentioned one of the researchers working with the Mars rover was an old friend.  She teaches at U of Hawaii, along with others at Manoa who are part of the Perseverance rover team.  They are in the Geophysics & Planetology Department, so I’m interested in whether there will be any parallels noted or discovered between the Martian geological landscape and Puna.  

The rover landed successfully yesterday, and has sent back several photos from the surface, as well as one taken from the lander just a few feet before wheels on the ground.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists watched as the most sophisticated rover ever sent to Mars successfully landed on the red planet via NASA TV. Now they will start operating scientific instruments to search for signs of ancient life. 

Sarah Fagents, a researcher at UH Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and volcanologist with the Mastcam-Z camera team, 
Shiv Sharma, HIGP researcher and co-investigator on the SuperCam instrument team, 
Francesca Carey, a HIGP graduate student, and other UH scientists and graduate students.

Using scientific instruments, UH scientists will search for signs of ancient microbial life, characterize the planet’s geology and climate, and collect carefully selected rock and sediment samples for possible return to Earth by a future mission.

UH scientists will be operating the rover around Jezero Crater, roughly a 6-mile region for the next two years, to search for clues about past life on Mars. 


http://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=11167

Photo before landing:
https://twitter.com/nasapersevere/status...18240?s=21
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#2
Volcanic or sedimentary?  That is the question
https://twitter.com/nasapersevere/status...17568?s=21
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#3
Lots of volcanic deposits have the look of sedimentary.
Puna:  Our roosters crow first!
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#4
A Parker School graduate checks in with Big Island students about his work on the Mars rover:

One of the scientists who helped land the Perseverance Rover on Mars spoke with current students at his high school alma mater on the Big Island about the mission.
Dr. Jesse Tarnas, a Parker School alumnus, works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a member of the science team for the Perseverance Mars rover mission. 
As a member of the NASA rover science team, Tarnas played an active role in collecting and interpreting the new surface data from the rover to help determine the best ways to traverse the red planet.
He worked in creating a path that would allow the rover to easily navigate the terrain and potentially find evidence of fossilized life.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/04/03...r-mission/

Maybe when he’s done on Mars he could work on traversing the obstacles in the Puna Kai Shopping Center parking lot?
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#5
UH researcher Sarah Fagents, working with the Mars rover team posted this recently.  Intriguing!

The composition and fine-scale structure of the deposits, once we measure them, could contain information on the surrounding watershed and the lake environment at the time of deposition. Beyond the delta deposits, we see the rim of Jezero crater rising up in the distance. I particularly like this image because I feel the delta beckoning us closer to decipher the history of Jezero’s watery past and to seek evidence of microorganisms that could once have inhabited the crater lake.

https://mastcamz.asu.edu/galleries/delta...vorites%2F
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