Planetary Geologist

Background Information

Dr. Deborah Bass works at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she is the Deputy Science Team Chief for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project. Dr. Bass works to ensure that the software tools and processes are designed to maximize the science return of the mission. She will help coordinate science team staffing during landed operations, as well as design commands for the different cameras on the rovers. Dr. Bass received her PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles, and her science expertise focuses on Mars polar geology, with an emphasis on water transport in and out of the polar regions.

Mars Exploration (General)

I study water transport in and out of the martian north polar region. While there does not appear to be any liquid water currently on the surface of Mars, there is actually a decent amount of water ice in the martian soil (like permafrost on Earth) as well as condensed at the poles in the form of polar caps. Along with my colleagues, I've been studying the way water condenses on ice covered regions and how it is distributed between the surface and the atmosphere. These days, I've been focused on understanding the very thin water ice clouds that move around the north polar region.

2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission

I work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the Deputy Science Team Chief for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. I am trying to make sure that the way we are going to operate the rovers on Mars' surface will get us the most science possible. Right now I'm working to train the rest of the science team on the software that's been designed especially for this mission. Once MER arrives at Mars I will act as a go-between for the science team and the engineering team, making sure that the measurements they want to make get properly implemented in the commands sent to the instruments. I also get to put together the spacecraft commands that direct the cameras on the rover.

A lot of what I do every day is coordinate information between different people. I talk to the scientists to understand what they want. Then I talk to the software developers and the hardware engineers to make sure that things are going to be built so that the scientists get what they want. And I sit in a lot of meetings where decisions are made about how we are going to do things when we get to Mars. I never know what challenges are going to face me each day when I get to work--we say that we are "fire fighters" in a way, because what we do is deal with the little brush fires that spring up each day. It is very fast-paced and exciting work.

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