In December 2008, NASA's Phoenix Lander
touched down near the edge of the Martian northern polar ice cap.
Nestled amongst multiple experiments to measure atmospheric
composition and image the surface was a robotic arm which was used to
scoop up chunks of the Martian soil and deliver them to a series of
chemical analyzers. The discovery of perchlorate (ClO4) as the
dominant salt in the Martian soil ranks among the most surprising
planetary science discovery of the previous decade.
In this presentation, Mark Claire will
talk about why salts are interesting to planetary scientists and
astrobiologists, and will discuss ongoing attempts to understand the
Phoenix results. In the context of understanding Mars, we will focus
our discussion on one of the most Mars-like places on Earth - Chile's
Atacama desert. Our interdisciplinary conversation will include
modeling of the atmospheric chemistry above the Atacama, ground truth
obtained during a 3 week field excursion in May 2010, and will be
interspersed with thoughts on politics, fertilizer, and pollution.
Mark Claire is a NASA/NAI Postdoctoral
Fellow at the University of Washington.