JUST RIGHT:

Something Bigger Than Life: Interview with Al Diaz: The next decade offers unique chances to do what might be called, comparative planetology. How is the Earth different from its neighbors and why? NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Directorate indicates that to do this hard work, the motivation follows from something bigger than life. (Michael Benson, Feb 16, 2005, Astrobiology)

MB: To what extent is the exploration of the solar system about discovering processes on Earth? For instance, taking information about the atmospheres of Titan, Mars, or Venus, and then using this larger context of the solar system to learn about atmospheric processes here on Earth.

AD: That's an excellent question, because what we're learning about earth science can be informed by our exploration of the solar system, as well as benefit our exploration of the solar system, in a far more substantial way than we've taken advantage of.

When you think about the kinds of issues that we're going to be dealing with if humans are going to go to Mars, many of them are the same kinds of issues that we've tried to deal with on the Earth. So we think that there's a lot of competency, capability, and a lot of tools that have been developed for earth science that we can apply to missions to Mars. We've already seen evidence of that.

In the case of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars landings, earth science-developed models were used to better design the second landing, based on the uncertainty in the density of the atmosphere.

I don't believe that would have happened 10 years ago, because the modeling hadn't reached that level, and people weren't as aware of the kinds of capabilities that the models could introduce. So we think there's a tremendous opportunity to integrate earth science and space science for the benefit of both. And that's what we're trying to do.

MB: What about vice versa. I mean, Venus has a runaway greenhouse. Mars has lost most of its atmosphere and is exposed to merciless ultraviolet radiation. We are in the middle...

AD: This is Goldilocks and the three bears.

MB: You mean, which bowl of porridge is just right...

AD: And Earth is just right. But why is it just right? Why is the water cycle on Mars apparently inactive? Why do we have a runaway greenhouse on Venus? And to what extent does that inform our understanding of what is happening on Earth, and where we might end up?

So does all science confirm the geocentric, or more accurately homocentric, Universe.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 16, 2005 6:06 AM