UA researcher chosen for new NASA project

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat UA research associate Ralph Lorenz was selected to work on the science team for the $2.8 million Mars Micoroprobes Project. The microprobe will ride piggyback on the Mars 98 Lander mission scheduled to launch in 1999.

Like a detective, Ralph Lorenz, an associate research scientist at UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, is seeking clues to Mars' apocalyptic decline.

"I've always liked the notion of exploration," he said.

NASA on Wednesday chose Lorenz, 28, to join the science team working on the $2.8 million Mars Microprobes Project - a new experiment that will ride on the Mars 98 Lander mission scheduled to launch in 1999.

The Mars Microprobes Project will be the second scheduled launch in NASA's New Millennium Program designed to test new technologies for future space missions.

"We don't know where all the water went on Mars," Lorenz said. "One idea is that it's hidden in the subsurface areas near the poles."

To help determine if water-ice exists beneath the polar surface, NASA is pinning its hopes on new instruments that can withstand extreme heat and a subsequent high-velocity impact with the martian surface.

"Nobody wants to use a new technology unless it can be used safely," Lorenz said. "The main goal is to put instruments on a planet in a rather violent manner and show that they still work."

Shortly after the lander enters Mars' atmosphere, the probes, each equipped with a protective ceramic shell, will detach from the lander's exterior and plummet to the surface at a speed of 400 mph.

Upon impact, the protective shells will shatter and each probe will then separate into two sections connected by a short cable. One section will stay above ground while the other will penetrate to a depth of two meters into the martian soil.

Lorenz said the success of the experiment hinges on where the probes impact the surface.

"If these things hit some solid lump of granite - it's all over," he said.

If the soil is too loose, Lorenz said, the penetrating section of the probe may bury itself too deeply and snap the connecting cable.

The instant it hits the surface, an impact accelerometer in each probe will sense changes in soil density such as layers of frost, dust or gravel. Each will then use a miniature soil-sampling device and a tiny laser oven to analyze the soil for water or other volatiles.

The information gathered by each probe will then be transmitted to an orbiter and relayed to scientists on Earth for analysis.

Lorenz's work will focus on the impact accelerometer. To prepare for the mission, he plans to fire test models of the probes into sand-filled buckets to get an idea of how they will perform on the martian surface.

"Somebody once said that being selected for a mission like this is kind of like being selected for a mission in 'Nam," he said.

Previously, Lorenz worked with UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Professor William Boynton on a set of miniature soil-analyzing laser ovens for the Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor package also included on the Mars 98 Lander.

Prior to that, as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, he designed and built the impact penetrometer for the Huygens Probe aboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft launched in October.

Lorenz has come a long way since his days as an undergraduate student at the University of Southhampton, England, where he once designed and built a raft out of 256 beer cans.

"There's been a little of me that's always liked messing with hardware and making things work," he said.

As a teenager, Lorenz wanted to be an astronaut but has traded those dreams for other scientific pursuits. The new generation of unmanned planetary probes, Lorenz said, will be the next best thing to actually being there.

As one of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's youngest scientists, he looks forward to future discoveries in the new era of space exploration.

"Trying to understand how the planets work is a pretty privileged way to make a living," Lorenz said.

Ralph Lorenz's personal home page is at http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rlorenz/ and the Mars Microprobes Project Web site is at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds2/