This time it was Dr. Joel Levine, who spent 41 years at NASA as Senior Research Scientist in the Science Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center and as Mars Scout Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He also was appointed co-chair of NASA panel on the Human Exploration of Mars-Science Analysis Group.

Upon his NASA retirement in 2011, Levine joined the Faculty of William & Mary as Research Professor in the Department of Applied Science. He was also appointed a consultant to NASA Engineering and Safety Center.

Dr. Levine received NASA’s award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement and the NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Award. He was selected as Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist, in 2017.

In his lecture, Dr. Levine noted, the United States is planning a human mission to Mars, that may begin as early as 2035.

The journey will take seven months and over 250 million miles each way.

“There are several reasons for sending humans to Mars,” Levine said. “Including scientific exploration of Mars, national prestige, the development of new technologies, and to develop the new generation of U.S. scientists and engineers.”

Levine explained, the Earth, Mars and the rest of the Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago. In its early history, Mars looked very similar to Earth. Both planets were covered with liquid water in the form of oceans, rivers and lakes. And both planets had a thick atmosphere. About 800 million years after the Earth was formed.

Over the next 3.8 billion years, the first microscopic forms of life on Earth evolved into increasingly more complex and diverse forms of life eventually evolving into human species.

While life on Earth was becoming more complex and diverse, Mars was also changing. Mars lost much of its atmosphere and lost all of the liquid water on its surface.

Today, Mars is totally devoid of all liquid water and has a very thin atmosphere. Does the catastrophic transformation of Mars over its history portend anything about the future of Earth?

“When life first formed on Earth, some 3.8 billion years ago, Mars looked like Earth with abundant liquid surface water and a thick atmosphere,” Levine said. “Did life also arise on Mars in its early history, as it did on Earth? If so, is there life on Mars today? How does this life look like? What mechanisms and processes caused Mars to lose much of its atmosphere and all of its liquid surface water? Could this mechanism and processes change the Earth in the future?

“These are some of the questions that humans on Mars will attempt to answer as they explore Mars that could not be answered using non-human, robotic missions to Mars.”

Dr. Levine is one of the most knowledgeable experts on dust on the Moon and Mars. The Moon dust became a very significant and serious problem for all Astronauts that landed on the Moon. And Mars is also a very dusty planet with localized, regional and planetary scale dust storms. Dr. Levine extrapolated the experience the Apollo Astronaut had with dust on the Moon to the problems the future Mars astronauts would have with dust on the surface and atmosphere on Mars.

I asked Dr. Levine, in his view, what would be the impact of the potential colonization of Mars, on the inhabitants of planet Earth?  

“When humans arrive on Mars,” he said, “humans will become a two planet species and extend the presence of humans throughout the Solar System should anything happen to the Earth in the future.”

      

Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com