[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 3 - 09:31:08 ]
Welcome to today's first Space Scientists Online chat with Aerospace Engineer AND Planetary Scientist Kelly Snook! The chat will begin at 11 am, Pacific (2 pm, Eastern).

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 5 - 09:35:02 ]
For people who can't make it to the chat room during the scheduled chat time, but who want to submit questions, go ahead and send them now and I will post them during the chat. Please note: Your questions will not show up in the chat room until the chat begins.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 8 - 11:07:17 ]
hi everybody! i'm here and i'm ready to chat with you! fire away with your questions.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 14 - 11:12:28 ]
HI EVERYONE: This is your friendly NASA Chat Moderator Sandy. I'm running this chat in the "moderated mode" today because there are so many questions already in the queue-50- and we've only just begun!!! This means that your questions will not appear in the chat room until I post them. I will post questions 5 at a time and post new ones as Kelly answers them. Thanks for your patience :-)

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 15 - 11:13:18 ]
RE: [DeaganPatrickCandace] Why does Mars have ice caps?
mars has ice caps because the planet gradually cooled down as it lost its atmosphere, over a period of billions of years, so now it is colder than the earth. but just like the earth, it is tilted on its axis, so it has seasons like we do. we think mars originally had liquid water on the surface, but as the planet got colder, a lot of that water got frozen into the poles and stayed there.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 16 - 11:14:56 ]
RE: [EstherJanelleAmy] Is there really metal in space?
yes! there is lot of it! some of it is in pure metal forms, and some of it would require lots of mining.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 20 - 11:19:01 ]
RE: [MelissaofMrsCosbysclass] Will the sun ever warm Mars enough?
i like the questions about mars! the sun could warm mars more if there were more of an atmosphere. there is enough now that when there is lots of dust in the atmosphere, mars gets warmer. we could put things in the atmosphere to help the sun warm it up.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 21 - 11:19:55 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] When is the next manned flight to mars?
good question! the next manned flight to mars would be the FIRST manned flight, because we've never sent a human to mars. i would like for it to be soon, but it might take a long time. it could happen as soon as 2020, but it may even be later than that!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 26 - 11:22:14 ]
RE: [ChrisfromMrsCosbysclass] Do you have a landing sight for the first manned mission to Mars?
not yet! lots of people have proposed different sites for different reasons. some people want to go to the big canyons, some people want to go to craters. others want to go to places where they think there used to be water. we are still trying to agree on a place to land the next lander in a couple years! it will be a while before they agree on a human landing site!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 27 - 11:23:37 ]
RE: [NickyJuliaMarkWhitneyLauren] How was Mars formed?
many people would like to know the answer to this question. we think that mars was formed much like the earth and other planets, and that is that they began as dust and small rocks that clumped together and attracted more rocks and dust until they were big bodies in orbit.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 32 - 11:25:21 ]
RE: [DeaganPatrickCandace] Why does Mars have dust storms?
this is one of my favorite questions! mars has dust storms because the planet is covered with dust. when the wind gets strong enough, it kicks up a little bit of dust, and then that dust heats up the atmosphere because it absorbs radiation, and then that causes there to be more winds, and sometimes this process of more dust and more wind and more dust accelerates until the whole planet is having a dust storm! also on mars there are dust devils, or little tornados of dust that put more dust in the atmosphere and feed dust storms.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 33 - 11:27:22 ]
RE: [EstherJanelleAmy] Are there life forms or fossils of aliens on planets in our solor system?
well, we dont' have any evidence for it yet, but many people think that there could be, and we are looking for it! the two most probable places for life in this solar system are mars and europa (a moon of jupiter) because they have the two main ingredients needed for life: water and organic material.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 34 - 11:27:34 ]
EVERYONE; A REMINDER-- PLEASE do not resend your questions!!! I have everyone of them-- there are 70 questions for Kelly in the queue right now! She is only one person and is typing as fast as she can :-)

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 35 - 11:29:07 ]
RE: [MattKeaganBrianneJohn] Why is the red spot a storm?
much of what you see on jupiter in its stripes and spots could be called "storms" because they are features of the gasses on jupiter. i am not an expert on jupiter, but i think jupiter is mostly gas!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 41 - 11:31:27 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] Whill there ever be a colony on mars?
oh boy, i hope so! personally i think there will! i would love to be a part of it! there is a lot that needs to happen before then, but i'm pretty sure that someday there will be.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 45 - 11:33:20 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] would we be eating the same food on mars as we would on earth if there was a colony
hmm that depends a little bit on the food you eat here on earth! :) i eat at taco bell alot and i'm pretty sure there won't be taco bell on mars for a long time. we will be able to eat anything we take with us, and anything we can grow there, so we will probably eat a lot of vegetables and food that has been freeze dried, so that we can get as much food that weighs as little as possible onto the spacecraft and in the habitats.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 46 - 11:34:40 ]
RE: [MelissaofMrsCosbysclass] Why did scientists decide to put a colony on Mars, And why on Mars?
well, mars is a very interesting place scientifically because it is so similar to the earth. we have not yet decided to put a colony there, but it is one place that we're looking at very seriously because there is much to study there. also, mars is one of the easiest planets to get to, because it is so close to us, so it's one of the cheapest places to go from earth, besides the moon.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 47 - 11:35:51 ]
RE: [ChrisfromMrsCosbysclass] Will we need to have better technology to get to Mars and stay on Mars?If yes what technology would we need
good question! we could go to mars safely using the technology we have now. we have enough rocket techonology and life support technology to make it possible. of course, advances in propulsion, life support, and advanced studies in human interactions during confinement would greatly improve the quality of life and the quality of a mission to mars.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 48 - 11:37:41 ]
RE: [MelissaofMrsCosbysclass] Will we get to hear music on Mars and C.D players and the radio or the t.v. from Mars?
most likely the music you'd here if you were on mars would be the music you take with you. you would be allowed a certain number of personal items to bring. probably you wouldn't get to just listen to music from mars because scientists and engineers would need the bandwidth of the communication lines for important mission-related purposes. you would probably be allowed to watch newscasts sometimes from earth, and speak to family members, but listening to music radio would probably have low priority.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 54 - 11:40:25 ]
RE: [DevinEliDavid] How cold can Pluto get?
boy, you know, i don't know the exact temperatures, but VERY VERY cold. one of the important skills to learn is how and where to look up information when you don't know it. the temperature of pluto is a good example of something that i would look up if i wanted to know it! all i know is that it's 3,666,000,000 miles from the sun so it must be very cold!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 55 - 11:42:00 ]
RE: [ChrisfromMrsCosbysclass] If you melted the ice caps on Mars why does it turn from ice right to water vapor?
the water turns from ice to vapor because the pressure on mars is so low that liquid water cannot exist. this is a property of fluids that you will learn in thermodynamics classes. for liquid water to exist on Mars, we would have to somehow create an atmosphere that was thicker so the pressure would become high enough. this would be possible to do, over time!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 56 - 11:43:21 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] Is there a way to get artificial gravity on mars?
not really, but we wouldn't need it very much on mars, probably. Mars already has about 38% of the amount of gravity we have here on earth, which is probably enough for humans and plants to function. but we could create artifical gravity on the way to mars in space by spinning the transfer vehicle spacecraft.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 57 - 11:44:36 ]
EVERYONE: There are about 15 minutes left in today's chat with Kelly and still about 40 unanswered questions in the queue. I'd like to recommend not sending in anymore questions so that Kelly has an opportunity to answer the ones you've already asked! Thanks for your help :-)

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 58 - 11:44:41 ]
RE: [MelissaofMrsCosbysclass] Is there proof of life on Mars that happened a long time ago
well, scientists are debating this. the closest thing we have to proof is some evidence that *could* be evidence of life, which scientists found in an asteroid on earth that came from mars a very long time ago. but so far there has been no direct or conclusive proof of life on mars. we are still looking for it!!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 59 - 11:46:02 ]
RE: [MelissaofMrsCosbysclass] Will there ever be an actual life on Mars
hmm, "ever" is a long time. i would say that the most probable way for life to get on mars is for us to take ourselves there and live there! there are other possibilities for life to get to Mars, but they would probably take much longer and are less likely.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 60 - 11:46:35 ]
EVERYONE: We on the NASA Quest team could use your help. Please fill out a short survey when this chat is over and let us know how we did today. This will help me in offering you the best space science chats possible! The url for the survey is: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys Thank you!!!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 61 - 11:47:41 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] how would gravity effect our bodies on mars?
this is something that we don't know yet, because we haven't had time to study it. there have been no extended studies on the effects of 1/3 earth gravity on human bodies. this is one thing that the scientists aboard the space station will hope to begin to learn. the russians on their space station did quite a lot of research on the effects of microgravity (almost zero gravity) on human bodies, but these effects are much different than simply reduced gravity like you'd find on the moon or mars.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 69 - 11:49:51 ]
RE: [NickyJuliaMarkWhitneyLauren] How much air pressure is on Mars?
there is about 1% of the air pressure as on earth. not much!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 72 - 11:50:24 ]
RE: [NickyJuliaMarkWhitneyLauren] Why is Mars red?
mars is red because of small amounts of iron in the soil! essentially it's rusty!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 73 - 11:51:37 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysClass] what is your job like?
my job is super-fun. i spend some time sitting at my desk, either writing computer programs to study the planets, or i write e-mails to co-workers around the world, planning new missions to study the solar system. i also have lots of opportunities to travel to other countries, to attend confereneces and to work with other scientists.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 74 - 11:53:11 ]
RE: [NickyJuliaMarkWhitneyLauren] Could I survive on Mars for a couple weeks?
that depends on what you took with you! :) you could survive a lot longer than that if you had proper protection from the harsh environment on mars. you would need a cozy pressurized habitat, and plenty of food and water, some good air to breathe, and protection from radiation. you certainly couldn't just take a tent there and go 'roughing it'!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 75 - 11:53:52 ]
RE: [RachelAbbyLindsey] Is Saturn really tilted?
yes!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 76 - 11:55:12 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] why is mars so popular
mars is popular because it is fabulously glamorous. it has all the makings of a good home for humans, it is close, it has the possibility of once having had life, it can teach us a lot about Earth, and it is just simply beautiful to look at. it is a realistic dream for us to go there, so i would say that's why it's so popular.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 77 - 11:56:24 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] what do you like most about mars?
i like it because i can imagine myself going there and exploring it, so it seems real to me.

[ Sandy/NASAChatHost - 78 - 11:56:45 ]
EVERYONE: THERE ARE ONLY 5 MINUTES LEFT IN TODAY'S CHAT WITH KELLY :-( She will answer 5 more questions (from the queue) and that's it for today.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 84 - 11:58:21 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Do you work in a cubicle?
nope, i am lucky enough to have my own office. at the moment, my office even has a window and i can look out on the runway and see astronauts landing and taking off in their little personal jets!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 85 - 11:59:09 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Are you teming up with the Russians?
yes! i often get to work with not only russians, but scientists and engineers from many other countries. i even get to work with the United Nations office of outer space affairs, to try to use space for the benefit of all mankind.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 86 - 11:59:58 ]
RE: [MichaelfromMrsCosbysclass] What research would you do on mars?
i would like to dig down under the surface of mars in places where there might have once been a lake or ocean and look for evidences of life!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 87 - 12:00:43 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Could you clean the atmosphere on Mars?
well the atmosphere of mars is already pretty clean! in fact it's much more pure than the earth's atmosphere, because it is more than 95% carbon dioxide!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 104 - 12:08:49 ]
RE: [TomTimBrandon] How big is venus?
venus is 7,520 miles (12,100 km) in diameter, which is only a tiny bit smaller than earth.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 106 - 12:18:52 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] how long has mars been in the solar system?
mars and earth are thought to have formed around the same time, more than 4 billion years ago!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 107 - 12:28:51 ]
RE: [MattKeaganBrianneJohn] Why can't you see Jupiters rings?
just because they're far away and very faint. the spacecraft galileo, which was sent to jupiter, did see them! it found that the Jupiter's outermost ring is actually composed of two rings, one embedded within the other.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 108 - 12:32:24 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] How hard is the ice on Mars?
hard enough to make it difficult to mine it. i don't know whether it is much harder than ice you would find in antarctica. i think it is probably similar, but this is another question that i would have to look up the answer to, or i would ask a field researcher who has worked a lot with ice. sometimes the ice is frozen in the soil (called regolith), so it is ice mixed with dirt. also, there is water ice and there is frozen carbon dioxide, and both exist at the poles.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 109 - 12:33:56 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Will the flight require new technology?
new technoligies in propulsion would help the flight be faster and more reliable, and new technologies in life support might make it cheaper or more comfortable, but not too many new technologies would be required for a basic human mission to mars.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 110 - 12:35:52 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysclass] why was mars the planet choses to build a colony on?
humans have considered building colonies in many places: the moon, earth orbit, mars, asteroids. mars is one of the more hospitable places to have a colony, since it has an atmosphere and all the natural resources required to support life.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 111 - 12:39:10 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Who will people build the colony?
no one knows the answer to this for certain. i suspect that astronauts chosen specifically for this task will go to mars and will slowly begin to build up the basic infrastructure needed to support human life. little by little, each new facility will be built. much of it will be built ahead of time so that all that will be required is for them to put it in place and set it up. so i don't know exactly who or how they will do it, but it will probably take quite a few years!

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 112 - 12:42:30 ]
RE: [NickyJuliaMarkWhitneyLauren] Is there life on Mars?
we don't know yet! we're looking for it. if there is life, we are pretty sure that it's not life like us, but rather just very simple cells and organisms.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 113 - 12:44:35 ]
RE: [MichaelofMrsCosbysclass] What would they build a colony out of?
good question! in the beginning, most of the buildings and structures would probably be built ahead of time and taken to mars. but there is enough clay and dirt that houses could eventually be built out of local materials. other building materials and fuel could be manufactured at Mars.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 114 - 12:49:52 ]
RE: [ShellyofMrsCosbysClass] our class is doing a year long study on making suggestions for a colony on mars we are using our curricullum to enlighten us. do you have any suggestions for us?
my suggestion is to find out as much as you can about the surface of Mars and its environment and then really imagine you are there. try to take into consideration everything you possibly can, including how you might feel emotionally or psychologically about how different things would be there. the sun would be very small and the seasons would be twice as long. compare any experiences you might have had camping or traveling away from home, and combine those experiences with your knowledge of the mars environment. i think one thing that would be particularly interesting is for you to not imagine yourself as an adult on Mars but rather imagine yourself as you are right now, and include these thoughts in your report. eventually people will either bring kids to mars or have them while they're there, and i think that little research has been done on this up till now.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 115 - 12:55:25 ]
RE: [CharlesfromMrsCosbysclass] Is Mars like the moon?
in some ways Mars is like the moon. it's an extraterrestrial body in space, away from earth, and a lot of requirements for sending humans to the two places are very similar. they are both dry and dusty, and they both have less gravity and less atmosphere (the moon has no atmosphere and mars is much less dense) than earth. however, the moon is much smaller than mars, and does not share a lot of the characteristics that make Mars such an interesting place. mars is a much more dynamic place, with weather and geological processes, signs of past oceans and floods, and possible life. the moon was recently found to possibly have water in the soil, but much less water than on Mars. of course, the moon is much closer to us than Mars, but in relative to the distances between objects in our universe, they are both quite close. they are similar enough that if we are able to build a colony or base on one of them, it will prepare us well in many ways for building one on the other.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 116 - 12:57:36 ]
RE: [ChrisfromMrsCosbysclass] What materials will we use in school if they're different?
hmm do you mean school on mars? that is a good question. i hadn't ever thought of schools on mars. i imagine that computers will become more and more a part of education, whether on the earth or on mars. in the future there will be much better images of the planets, solar system, and universe, and the pace of scientific knowledge seems to be increasing. i hope that the materials used will improve and change as a reflection of this increased pace and will continue to make learning more and more fun.

[ KellySnook/Engineer&Scientist - 117 - 12:58:02 ]
it was great talking to you all! i'm sorry we didn't have more time, and please feel free to e-mail me if you ever want to ask more questions! my email address is ksnook@mail.arc.nasa.gov.