Curiosity Rover found that the radiation levels at the Martian surface are merely similar to that of low-Earth Orbit says a report in NBCNEWS.com
NASA's Mars rover has identified the initial radiation measurements on the Martian surface which makes it likely that astronauts can function on the Red Planet for a certain given time.
"Absolutely, astronauts can live in this environment," Don Hassler, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told reporters during a news conference Thursday, according to report published in NBC news.
Hassler is the point man of the investigation process and is undertaking Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector instrument, which is used in classify the radiation environment of the Red Planet. Hassler is helping scientists involved in the study to assess the planet's past and current ability of survival.
Hassler has been studying the radiation levels, which have been measured by RAD since the rover has landed on Mars in August. He adds that the radiation level at the surface of the planet Mars is about half as high as the radiation levels which were measured in the deep space during its nine-month journey to Red Planet.
The measures so far conducted by RAD are preliminary, Hassler adds, as it has just been three months while it's a two-year mission. Hassler and his team are focused on getting the hard numbers on the Martian radiation level at the earliest, says a report in NBC news.
"We're working on that, and we're hoping to release that at the AGU meeting in December," Hassler said, referring to the American Geophysical Union's huge conference in San Francisco. "Basically, there's calibrations and characterizations that we're finalizing to get those numbers precise. Over time, we're going to get those numbers."
Researchers have also learned the wind patterns and changes in the density of the atmosphere on a daily basis.
"If we can find out more about the weather and climate on present-day Mars, then that really helps us to improve our understanding of Mars' atmospheric processes," said Claire Newman of Ashima Research in Pasadena, California, a collaborator for Curiosity's Rover Environmental Monitoring Station instrument, in a report from NBC news. "That gives us much more confidence when we try to predict things like what Mars may have looked like in the past."
