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TES Engineers Show Their Stuff

MGS Instrument Featured at Teacher Workshop by Hughes and Arizona State University

We were disappointed two and a half years ago when Mars Observer was lost. Our project, the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), was one of the seven instruments onboard the lost spacecraft. Months before the mission launched in September 1992, we had started an education outreach program to share the TES experience with teachers and students in Arizona. When we began the program, we realized it would have been really great if we had started it earlier, and given people a chance to see what goes into the building and testing of a spacecraft instrument before it gets launched. One of the positive things to come out of the loss of Mars Observer-- we now had the opportunity to share the process of putting together a TES instrument.

"Seeing is believing!" exclaimed a Santa Barbara teacher who was among the 35 K-12 teachers who came on Saturday in January to the new TES being manufactured for Mars Global Surveyor. The TES is being built by the Hughes, Santa Barbara Remote Sensing company in Goleta, California (just outside Santa Barbara) by a dedicated team of men and women. SBRS is a new name-- just recently they changed from SBRC, for Santa Barbara Research Center. SBRC built the original TES that was on Mars Observer; they also have a long track record of building infrared instruments for the Viking and Mariner Mars missions of the 1960's and 1970's.

The teachers who came to Goleta to see the new TES learned about the instrument and Mars Global Surveyor mission from the Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program and TES Principal Investigator, Philip Christensen of Arizona State University. The group learned that TES will be able to "see" infrared light emitted by Mars at wavelengths between 6 and 50 micrometers (a micrometer is 1000 times smaller than a millimeter). These observations will allow geologists like Phil Christensen to figure out what kinds of rocks and minerals are on the surface of Mars.


Geologists use minerals and rocks to interpret the history and evolution of a planet. For example, on Mars the detection of limestone (a calcium carbonate rock very common in the U.S. midwest and in Florida) might indicate that the Red Planet once had lakes or seas. Every mineral has its own unique infrared "color." By looking at the spectrum of infrared light emitted from the surface of Mars, the TES will obtain spectra that provide the information needed to figure out which minerals occur on Mars. Phil Christensen showed the educators who attended the workshop a variety of examples as to how scientists are already using infrared images of the Earth to decipher geologic history and infrared spectra to identify minerals.

Christensen told the group that he got the idea back around 1984, while he was a research assistant at Arizona State University, to propose the TES instrument to NASA for the Mars Observer mission. Christensen put together a team of scientists from around the country, and got them together with engineers at SBRS (then SBRC), because, when it comes to making infrared spacecraft instruments, he said, "they are the best in the business."

Christensen's science team included both geologists and atmosphere scientists. Besides looking at minerals, TES can take the temperature of Mars' surface, provide information about the temperature and pressure of the Martian atmosphere, help scientists figure out what the clouds (dust and ice) are made of, and monitor the seasonal changes in the polar ice caps. From the nearly 400 km orbit of Mars Global Surveyor, TES will have a ground resolution of about 3 kilometers.

After hearing about TES and Mars Global Surveyor, the teachers who came to Goleta for the workshop piled into cars and drove to SBRS for a tour. They were greeted by SBRS personnel George Cannon, Margaret Finlay, Marty Greenfield, Jeff Parker, Steve Silverman, Jack Weber, and Steve Young. The SBRS people took time out of their busy schedules (busy preparing the TES instrument for Mars!) to show off their work. For example, SBRS engineer Steve Silverman has played a key role in engineering the TES. When the group visited Silverman, he was standing next to the TES instrument, which was inside a Plexiglas chamber to protect it. Silverman and

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SBRS engineer Steve Silverman (right) explains Mars Global Surveyor's Thermal Emission Spectrometer. TES is inside the Plexiglas chamber (foreground).
Hughes SBRC Photo 96-1-103-14

Christensen, who have worked very closely on this and the earlier TES instrument, both looked like proud fathers introducing their new baby. One teacher noted that seeing the instrument and talking to the people involved with the project gave her a new "perspective on what a project such as this involves." Another remarked that it was a great opportunity "to see behind the scenes work."

Having Hughes SBRS open its doors and letting a group come in to see an actual instrument being prepared for flight to Mars was a rare and unusual treat. This point was not lost on the educators, one of whom remarked that it was great "to see so many people excited about the work they are doing." Another, who had traveled from Chandler, Arizona, to see the Mars Global Surveyor TES, said that she was "very impressed and very excited" and couldn't wait to share what she had learned with her students. Many teachers were surprised to learn how hard the SBRS engineers work-- sometimes 80 hours a week for a 40-hour paycheck-- because they are excited about the TES project and dedicated to delivering a quality instrument on time.

TES is scheduled to be taken to Denver at the beginning of April. It will be attached to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft at Lockheed-Martin in Denver. MGS will launch in November and reach the Red Planet in September 1997. The TES team will anxiously await the new data from Mars, and teachers and students around the U.S. will continue to be involved in the process.

Educators can request more information about TES and the Arizona Mars K-12 Education Program, by writing on school letterhead: K. Edgett, Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404. Also visit the WWW site at http://esther.la.asu.edu/asu_tes/.

--Ken Edgett
Arizona State University