MHS Team Spends Week at NASA Center Studying Mars
Students Enjoy “Trip of a Lifetime”
Medford High School physics teacher Michael Wadness and MHS 2008 graduates Ngawang Choney and Terence Tran along with a team of Tufts scientists spent a week this summer at the NASA Science Center in Tucson, Arizona, studying Mars as part of the Phoenix Mars Lander project. At left, Choney, Tran, and Wadness, left to right, stand in front of a working engineering model of the Mars Phoenix Lander. Courtesy photo.
– Allison Goldsberry
Following months of training and anticipation, Medford High School physics teacher Michael Wadness and 2008 Medford High graduates Ngawang Choney and Terence Tran spent a week in August at NASA’s Science Operations Center in Tucson, AZ, working with Tufts University scientists as part of the Phoenix Mars Lander project.
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission is studying the history of water on the Red Planet and is searching for complex organic molecules in the ice-rich soil of the Martian arctic. The Mission’s work is starting to bear fruit, as NASA announced recently that lab tests aboard the lander discovered water in a soil sample, touching off excitement in the space community as water is a critical element in supporting life.
“It was quite a phenomenal experience being immersed in the culture of science. Not only were the students part of one of the most fascinating investigations of Mars, the students were seeing a clear picture of what scientific knowledge represents and how it is developed,” said Wadness.
Arizona’s desert soil is believed to be similar to Martian soil, so the group spent some time on desert hikes collecting soil samples. Choney recalled the experience as one of her favorites of the trip.
“My favorite thing about my week was going into Sabino Canyon and taking our soil samples for a lab we were doing [and] seeing the great view of desert Arizona. Just imagining how Arizona is somewhat like Mars itself, very dry and rigid,” wrote Choney in her blog.
Tran also enjoyed collecting the soil and conducting tests because the students’ research was used by the NASA scientists, creating a unique and unforgettable hands-on experience for Tran and Choney.
“I was very pleased with the trip overall–honored that I was able to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I appreciated the fact that we were able to do real hands-on work at Mission Control…The beauty was that our data analysis wasn’t going to waste and was actually being considered,” wrote Tran in his blog of the trip.
The Phoenix Mars craft launched in August 2007 and touched down on Mars on May 25 of this year. The Medford High School team has been following Phoenix’s progress closely and went through “practice runs†with the Tufts team before coming to NASA. The Medford High team of Wadness, Choney, and Tran worked with Tufts chemistry professor Sam Kounaves, fellow Tufts scientist Suzanne Young, and other Tufts researchers in analyzing the Martian soil for signs of life.
Working on the Phoenix Mars project is quite an honor for the Medford High team, as it is one of only a dozen school teams selected by NASA from across the country.
Choney is heading to Emerson in the fall, while Tran is off to Tufts. Tran, who once dreamed of becoming an astronaut, plans on studying international relation and calls science “just a hobby.”
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