Arizona State University scientists announced a major find of salt deposits on Mars, giving researchers another chance to find life on Earth’s sister planet. But the news for researching the Red Planet is not all good. KJZZ’s Tony Ganzer explains.
Phil: “If you look through the discoveries that have been made in the last five years, every one of them makes Mars sound more like Earth, with wet environments, salt flats, and gullies, and wind storms…”
TG: ASU professor Phil Christiansen is the lead scientist working with the THEMIS camera, which spotted the salt. But his find was bitter sweet, because while the world heard about his find, he was fighting to keep the Mars program afloat.
TG: Some scientists are calling for a 50-percent budget cut of the program, to send missions elsewhere.
Phil: “A lot of it is Mars backlash, because we’re not talking about overall cuts to the program due to economy or anything else.”
TG: Christiansen says money would be reallocated to fund research of other planets in our solar system, if the cuts happen. And with Arizona ’s universities being such big players in Mars research, they would definitely feel the hurt.
Phil: “We’re very concerned those kind cuts would affect those here at ASU and the UA, I mean…people would lose their jobs if these cuts went through.”
TG: Christiansen says the Mars program is still producing great discoveries, even after many years. His project has been photographing the Red Planet for 7 years.
For KJZZ, I’m Tony Ganzer.