UC College of Arts and Sciences geology students Desirée Baker and Andrea Corpolongo are working on the NASA science team, using the rover and its helicopter sidekick, Ingenuity, to explore Jezero Crater near an ancient river delta that might hold clues of the first known extraterrestrial life.

UC associate professor Andy Czaja served on the NASA advisory board that picked where to send the rover for the best chance to find evidence of ancient life. Now he and his two students are members of the mission science team helping NASA explore the red planet to answer fundamental questions about the origins of life in the universe.

One fundamental task of the mission: collect rock samples on the Martian surface to bring back to Earth during a future mission.

Czaja, who studies Precambrian paleobiology, astrobiology and biogeochemistry, is one of 16 scientists around the world named in June to a new NASA science group that will plan how the global scientific community will share and study those samples. The team includes experts in geology, geochemistry, planetary physics and epidemiology, among others.

“Mars is at the frontier of science. I’m excited and honored to be part of it,” Czaja said.

Baker and Corpolongo work shifts as tactical documentarians, taking notes on daily decisions and their rationales to help the hundreds of other science team members stay informed and get back up to speed when they are not working. In particular, Baker documents decisions and discussions about an instrument called SHERLOC that uses cameras, spectrometers and a laser to search for signs of past microbial life on Mars.

“Each day on Mars is called a sol. For each day’s planning, we document what the pilot and scientists have in store for the next sol,” Baker said.

That team will set up a plan for two sols in advance if everything goes perfectly,” Corpolongo said. “Then starting each tactical shift, you look at the previous campaign implementation documentarian report to get that high level picture of what’s going on today.”

Typically, the rover’s itinerary and objectives go as planned, but when there are surprises or challenges, the campaign implementation team adjusts accordingly, she said.

“I call it a science party. It is hard for me to put into words how cool it is to be part of this international mission with eyes all over the world on it,” Corpolongo said.

Baker said after its historical flights proved successful, the helicopter Ingenuity is serving as an advance scout for Perseverance, helping to identify potential pitfalls and intriguing rocks on its designated route.

If Perseverance does find what looks to be tangible evidence of ancient life, confirmation likely will have to wait until a return mission to retrieve the samples the rover collects. These analyses are bound to reveal other surprises back on Earth.

“That’s one of the great things about sample return. You’re not just doing it to answer the questions we have today,” Czaja said. “There may be questions nobody has even thought of yet. The person who thinks of that question might not have been born yet.”

Perseverance has celebrated a series of successes from its launch to its touchdown on Mars seven months later via a Skycrane, a rocket-powered descent vehicle that lowered the rover to the surface via cables. Before the launch, NASA engineers described the spacecraft’s final descent through the thin Martian atmosphere as “seven minutes of terror.”

Czaja and other members of the science team tuned in to the JPL livestream to watch as they learned of the spacecraft’s fate, deploying its parachute, jettisoning its heat shields and lowering the rover by cables onto the Martian surface.

“Watching the landing, I remember being too excited to sit down,” Czaja said. “My heart was in my throat. Suddenly, a picture shows up of the underside of the rover and its surroundings on Mars.”

Perseverance was ready to explore.

“There is a really big question if we find evidence of ancient life on Mars. Is it the same as ancient life on Earth? Did life on both planets have the same origins?” Corpolongo said. “There are so many questions.”

In the first year of the mission, Czaja got a chance to name a geographic feature on Mars in accord with the naming conventions established for each mapped quadrant. NASA created a list of approved names associated with national parks around the world. One quadrant was associated with Verdon Natural Regional Park in France so Czaja named a ridge Mount Gourdan for a feature in the Alps.

“It’s been pretty exciting. When you’re working day to day, you lose sight of that a little bit. But when you step back, it makes you think, ‘This is really exciting,’” Czaja said.