PROVO, Utah (AP)—
Researchers at the University of John Young are helping NASA
Sponsored project to measure the charge and size of dust particles on Mars.
BYU group is about to complete three-
Deseret News reports an annual project looking to learn about the impact of the red planet\'s climate and dust on materials sent to its surface.
According to Shiuh, the project started two years ago when NASA proposed a Mars dust analyzer to universities across the country
Hua Mujiang is one of the BYU professors and researchers in charge of the project.
\"Mars rover uses solar and solar panels to generate electricity when they land on Mars.
Dust sticks to these solar panels, reducing power generation, \"he explains, and the charge of the dust causes it to stick to the panel.
Researchers need to understand how dust particles affect instruments and life support systems on Mars in the future, he said.
He pointed out, \"in the future, we will send humans to Mars. Manned flights will require life support systems that interact with the atmosphere of Mars. We need to understand how dust particles affect these instruments and life support systems.
\"In order to achieve this, the BYU team has been producing labs-made Mars dust.
These charged dust particles are invisible in the eyes of people.
Printed circuit board and low
Noise charge and mass detection instruments are used to measure the charge and size of particles.
Co-chair the research project with Jiang was Professor Daniel Austin and Aaron Hawkins by BYU, as well as a research team for graduate and undergraduate students.
\"Working for NASA one day is one of my dreams.
I feel that working on this particular project in this lab helps me to achieve this, if I am doing it right, \"said Elaine Gustafson, a BYU PhD student in analytical chemistry.
NASA offered the team $640,000.
Jiang said this year\'s grant will end in the summer of 2020.
BYU is not the only university in the West to conduct Mars research for human exploration.
The University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratory are working on a research project to study the interaction of boron and rna in Martian groundwater.
RNA is a sugar that is a key component of RNA, a nucleic acid that exists in all modern life and is associated with more complex DNA.
