Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Central Florida professor, students work with Phoenix Mars Lander
By Vanessa Bernstein
Central Florida Future U. Central Florida
June 12, 2008

Many NASA scientists were tense as the Phoenix Lander entered the Martian atmosphere May 25 because of the millions of dollars and countless hours lost in the 1999 crash. However, University of Central Florida professor of physics and astronomy Dan Britt was not quite as anxious.

"I had the advantage in that I was going to end up with another piece of stuff that I built on Mars whether it crashed or not," Britt said. "I wasn't as worried as many people, and I was excited that it was coming down."

Britt spent many hours in a Math and Physics Building's laboratory designing instruments to send to Mars.

When the Phoenix touched down on Mars, it was carrying color-calibration targets created by Britt and two former UCF students, Tim Werhner and Jeff Hoskins.

The color-calibration targets are about the size of hockey pucks and are equipped with colored gel chips and magnets to repel dust. These targets are essential for the camera to accurately depict color on Mars.

With Mars' chilly temperature, little atmosphere, dusty conditions, harsh ultraviolet light and pressure that is one-tenth of 1 percent of that on Earth, it's difficult for technological equipment to stay intact, and it also makes it hard to interpret color in photographs.

He said the sky casts a yellowish glow that also makes color interpretation difficult. He explained that the "red planet" is actually yellowish orange. However, his color calibration targets are designed to overcome all the harsh conditions on Mars to keep our color perception of the photos "on target."

Britt said the targets were fairly inexpensive to manufacture, but the research cost about $100,000.

Though the development of the device was done at UCF, he tested it at the Kennedy Space Center in a chamber that imitates the conditions on Mars. His device has held up, and the color photographs from Mars prove it.

"It's amazing that it works at all," Britt said. "It's on another planet. It's a really cold, really harsh environment."

This is not Britt's first invention to land on Mars -- it is his fifth. He has contributed camera and color technology to other missions to Mars, including NASA's 1999 Mars Polar Lander, which crashed and was destroyed.

"[The crash] was very disappointing, but that's the chance you take," he said. "It's not bad that four out of five work."

Many were tense as the Phoenix entered the Martian atmosphere, because of the millions of dollars and countless hours lost in the 1999 crash. However, Britt was not quite as anxious.

Britt said that he thinks the lander will find "lots of water on Mars." He said that this might have further and more significant implications concerning the past, present and future existence of life on Mars.

He even discussed the possibility for human life on Mars in the future. Some may think this is taking a page out of a science fiction novel, but Britt said that terraforming, or making a planet like Earth, may be possible on Mars - the planet most like our own.

Some Americans do not understand spending billions on the space program, especially in economically difficult times. Britt said that it is important to look beyond that.

"That kind of exploration changes the context in which you live," he said. "It can make your world a much different place. If you want to be in the forefront of what's happening in the world, you need to be involved in exploration … not just physical exploration, but all levels of scientific exploration."

Since politicians influence the funding of the space program, the upcoming presidential election may be important to determine the future of NASA projects. Britt doesn't think so. He said that NASA projects have been funded by the government for more than 20 years. He doesn't think anyone will change that.

He said that the international nature of the space program is vital. Nations that would not be able to have a space program on their own, like Denmark, which provided the magnets in the color calibration targets, are able to participate.

Perhaps even more important to his research has been the support of UCF.

"The university has been very supportive. This is a great environment to do research," he said. "The administration believes in making it very easy to make proposals. They're very supportive in getting projects started. "

Britt's next project includes more calibration targets. He is discovering how color behaves under florescent light on other planets.

"It's a lot easier to identify materials [on other planets and the moon] if you know they fluoresce," he said.

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