Dr. Tanya Harrison

From Maya Wei-Haas and Michael Greshko, National Geographic:

NASA’s InSight Mars lander has recorded its first “marsquake,” making waves among Earthling seismologists tens of millions of miles away and kicking off a new era in our study of the red planet.

The faint signal, which came on April 6, is the first tremble that scientists believe comes from the Martian interior, rather than from surface forces, such as wind. But researchers are still studying the data to pin down the quake’s precise source.

…Regardless of what InSight finds, every bump and buzz it feels will add to our knowledge of the red planet, says Tanya Harrison, Mars scientist at Arizona State University. “It’s helping paint the picture that Mars is still an active place—and I think that’s a very different view than what we had even in the Viking days,” she says, referring to the 1970s missions that landed on the surface of Mars. “We’ve just been building incrementally onto this story.”

Read more: First ‘marsquake’ detected by NASA lander (National Geographic)

From Jake Parks, Discover Magazine:

Last June, space exploration enthusiasts from across the world collectively held their breath as a global dust storm enveloped Mars. They did so not because our view of the Red Planet’s surface was obscured, but instead because a go-kart-sized rover named Opportunity, which had been roaming the Red Planet for nearly 15 years, fell silent as the storm intensified. After eight months of fruitless attempts to resurrect “Oppy,” which was only slated for a mission lasting 90 days, on February 13, NASA scientists finally declared: “Mission complete.”

However, although Opportunity is now forever resting in peace, just before the massive martian storm struck, the tenacious rover managed to capture one final panorama of the Red Planet — and it’s glorious.…

…Despite the fact that Opportunity is clearly not a living creature, its official demise last month sent ripples of sadness echoing through the astronomical community. However, according to Tanya Harrison, Director of Research for the “NewSpace” Initiative at ASU and Science Team Collaborator on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity, the rover’s tireless efforts to explore the Red Planet will not soon be forgotten.

Read more: NASA Just Released One Final Panorama From the Mars Opportunity Rover (Discover Magazine)

NASA’s longest-running Mars mission may be on the chopping block.

While President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget request clearly threatened NASA missions like the jet-borne telescope SOFIA, another potential shutdown was tucked inside the request. Proposed cuts to the 2001 Mars Odyssey program would bring its budget to a scant million dollars a year, effectively terminating the mission. The budget request is just that, a request; Congress makes the ultimate decision about budgets and can choose to continue funding the mission. Nevertheless, the threat has Mars scientists anxious about the mission’s future.ADVERTISING

“I can’t think of any situation where you would say, OK, let’s just turn it off,” said Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist who studies Mars and has relied on Odyssey observations. “You never know what you’re going to find if you keep going with these missions.”

Read more: Is the end near for Mars Odyssey? Trump’s proposed 2021 budget could doom long-lived mission (Space.Com)

From Shannon Proudfoot, Maclean’s:

“Tanya Harrison was an undergraduate student when the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) named Opportunity landed on the red planet in 2004. She was studying astronomy and physics at the University of Washington at the time, and she hoped that in her future career, she might get to work on a rover like Opportunity.

The rover and her twin, Spirit, were designed for 90-day missions, collecting images and performing geological analysis on the fourth planet from the sun, but instead, Opportunity trundled along for an astonishing 15 years (Spirit’s mission ended in 2010).”

Read more: Opportunity, the overachieving Mars rover, finally says goodbye (MacLean’s)

From Alan Yu, NPR:

One year after Curiosity arrived on the red planet, the team at NASA marked the occasion by having the rover play a song to itself.…

…

Planetary scientist Tanya Harrison worked on Curiosity. She said people might especially identify with rovers, versus other robots like satellites, because rovers have ‘eyes’ and ‘arms.’

“You can think of it as something that is alive in some way and it’s acting as this emissary for us as humans on Mars, since we can’t get there ourselves just yet.”

Read more: All Things Considered: The Whyy – Is NASA’s Curiosity rover lonely on Mars? (NPR)