- From the Brock News
When the Perseverance rover lands on Mars today, Mariek Schmidt will be ready to search for signs of ancient life — albeit from millions of miles away.
The Earth Sciences Professor at Brock University in St. Catharines is a participating scientist with the NASA Mars 2020 Mission scheduled to land at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on Thursday, Feb. 18. This will be Schmidt’s third Mars rover mission.
Supported by the Canadian Space Agency, Schmidt will represent Brock and is one of 13 participating scientists who were chosen for the role from 119 applicants.
Perseverance will collect rock and soil samples for eventual return to Earth by 2034. The rover is fitted with seven key instruments, each with their own team to facilitate their use. Participating Scientists propose ways to use the instruments for their own research and data collection.
Schmidt will focus on using an instrument called the PIXL.
The Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer used to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials.
“It measures elemental compositions of very small spots (100 microns across) along a grid on the surface of a rock or soil,” said Schmidt.
Understanding the composition of a rock is critical for determining mineralogy and understanding textures.
“I’ll be looking at dust on the surface of rocks,” Schmidt said. “I’ll be trying to remove the dust and understand how dust influences the chemistry that is measured in order to get at a dust-free rock composition.
“The PIXL is a step up from other similar instruments because it is able to deliver micro-texture information about the distribution of elements. The one downside is it takes a longer time to perform a scan.”
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Mariek Schmidt, Brock University Earth Sciences Professor, is a participating scientist with the NASA Mars 2020 Mission scheduled to land at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
