NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- Kate Harris, a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has not been to Mars – but she can still give a pretty good estimation of what it’s like to explore the red planet.

She’ll do just that at 7 p.m. Monday (Jan. 12) at UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center North Gallery Theater. The lecture is free to the public.

Harris, a junior biology major, spent the first two weeks of 2003 working at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, a simulated Mars habitat established by the Mars Society to promote and prepare for manned exploration of the planet. She’s also the founder of SpaceTalk, the first student organization at UNC devoted to space exploration.

"For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of becoming an astronaut and exploring Mars," said Harris. "In an age when it seems like everything has been seen and done before, space remains vast, mysterious, alluring and unknown."

In Utah, six-member crews worked in the Mars analog environment for two weeks at a time. In addition to studying the region’s geology and biology, crews maintained the habitat’s life-support systems and greenhouses, went on extravehicular activities and regularly reported their findings to a mission control center. The setting was designed to be as realistic as possible.

"We could not exit the habitat without spacesuits and going through the airlock," said Harris, who was responsible for daily communication with mission control while in the Utah simulation experience. "Once outside, we couldn’t take off our gloves or facemask."

The suiting-up process took 30 minutes, she added: "The novelty of wearing spacesuits wore off quite quickly – they’re awkward, restricting, stuffy, dirty and clumsy. In other words, they’re a lot like real suits. However, the suits reproduce the restrictive conditions that an astronaut in a real spacesuit experiences."

All communication with "Earth" had an imposed 45-minute time delay to mimic the limits of communication that actual astronauts on Mars would likely experience. Aside from communication, her chief responsibility entailed sampling local microbial wildlife.

"By studying the sometimes bizarre life that thrives in extreme environments on Earth, scientists gain insight into what life elsewhere in the universe may be like."

The NASA rover Spirit’s recent photographs taken of the Mars surface have stirred imaginations worldwide. Robotic exploration has brought promise and excitement, but Harris said she believes manned missions hold the key for the most significant scientific advances.

"The best way to find life there is to send human scientists who can apply lifetime experience, insight and human ingenuity to the task," said Harris. "And if we don’t find life on Mars, there’s still an entire universe out there with billions of other star systems to explore."

Speaking of exploring, Harris plans to travel to Antarctica in fall 2004 to perform research with Ohio State University scientists in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. Her previous travels have included Mongolia, where she lived in a yurt in spring 2003; and the Bornean rainforest, where she once spent a summer.

To read Harris’ journal of her Mars Desert Research Station experience, complete with photos of the habitat and equipment, click on www.genmars.com/desert. For more information on the SpaceTalk and Morehead Center public lecture series, click on www.moreheadplanetarium.org.

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Note: Contact Harris at kjharris@email.unc.edu.

Morehead Center contact: Elizabeth Rose, (919) 843-7952 or ecrose@email.unc.edu