Scientist setting his clock to Mars time

MISSION TO MARS

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES --- For scientists seeking to understand Mars, there will be hope in each scoopful of dirt.

In a sense, David Paige has been on Martian time for much of his life.

But now the UCLA planetary scientist is resetting his personal clock in earnest to the longer day and different seasonal rhythms of the fourth planet.

As the principal investigator in charge of the Mars Polar Lander's experiments using the Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor, Paige will be spending the next three months working on a Martian day shift that will run from about 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Pacific time.

Winter may be settling in on Earth's Northern Hemisphere, but the spring thaw is beginning on Mars.

"Everything is phased to the Mars clock," he said.

As Paige dodged between the computer terminals and ergonomic chairs in the newly furnished UCLA Mars operations center, his casual air belied the expectation in the room.

If the spacecraft --- scheduled to land Friday --- will be exploring new Martian terrain, the science team itself also will be entering its own new territory.

It will be the first time the science operations for an interplanetary mission of this scale will be housed at a university, not at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It is another example of how interplanetary missions are becoming more decentralized in the effort to lower the cost of exploring space.

All told, 132 scientists are involved in the lander experiments, and during the mission at least 75 of them are expected to be working in the UCLA center.

One end of the L-shaped center is dominated by a full-scale operating mock-up of the 1,270-pound lander in a 300-square-foot sandbox. Technicians will use it to rehearse complex maneuvers before committing the real vehicle on Mars to action. A color mural of Antarctica's dry valleys --- the nearest thing on Earth to a Martian landscape --- covers the walls behind the lander model.

The other end of the black room is occupied by a conference table long enough to seat 25 scientists and a wall of video projection screens that, come landing day, will allow them a picture window overlooking the Martian south pole.

"This is a scientific expedition very much in the spirit of exploration at the turn of the century, when people went to expand the limit of our knowledge," Paige said. "This is the first real, deliberate attempt to exploit the diversity of Mars. Each region has its own story to tell about the planet's history.

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