{"id":54079,"date":"2023-10-17T08:11:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=54079"},"modified":"2024-06-04T13:04:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T17:04:09","slug":"mission-about-mars-utc-geologist-presents-ideas-during-nasa-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/mission-about-mars-utc-geologist-presents-ideas-during-nasa-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission about Mars: UTC geologist presents ideas during NASA workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Junior

Junior Sam Doss-Watson, left, an environmental geology student, learns from Dr. Ashley Manning-Berg in her Grote Hall lab. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

Was there life on Mars?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question researchers like University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Assistant Professor of Geology Ashley Manning-Berg continually seek to answer.<\/p>\n

Early this semester, Manning-Berg was one of 32 early-career scientists selected to participate in a NASA workshop at Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., for what she called \u201can intense week coming up with ideas of how to look for life on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first NASA Astrobiology Mission Ideation Factory brought together early-career scientists\u2014including planetary geologists, geoscientists, chemists and biologists; people who have been on previous missions to Mars; and subject-matter experts from various fields to develop and refine ideas for an astrobiology-based future mission.<\/p>\n

The week was an eye-opening experience, Manning-Berg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably one of the best weeks I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she said. \u201cWe focused on extant life\u2014living organisms\u2014and we had no limitations. We just reached for the stars and took what we thought we could do without the consideration of funding and without the consideration of technological limitations\u2014and we ended up designing our own mission to Mars as groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all had our own little niche, but we all overlapped, making for really good conversations. At the end of the week, we actually got to present our ideas to NASA headquarters\u2014to people who make instruments for missions and people who look at missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Manning-Berg joined the UTC faculty in 2019 after spending one year as a visiting assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University\u2019s Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences department. She said she was selected to participate in the weeklong workshop based on research expertise that started during her undergraduate days.<\/p>\n

As a University of West Georgia student, she grew organisms in the geology lab and watched them die. During that process, she got an idea of how shapes would change as an organism entered or was preserved into a rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am interested in everything from dying to the time that we collect that organism,\u201d she explained. \u201cI should say I\u2019m not necessarily interested in what that organism is; I\u2019m more interested in how it interacts with its chemical environment. How does the chemistry of the environment interact with the microbes? How do the microbes interact with the chemistry or change the chemistry of the environment?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been working on this basically my entire career.\u201d<\/p>\n

After spending time as a research geologist in the Engineer Research and Development Center at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Manning-Berg received master\u2019s and doctoral degrees in geology from UT Knoxville\u2014where she focused on geochemistry.<\/p>\n

At first, Manning-Berg\u2019s research centered on the calcification of evaporates from a billion years ago, but she shifted her focus after seeing silicified microbial mats in the Angmaat Formation on Baffin Island in Canada while pursuing a Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are microbial mats that look like they were preserved yesterday. They\u2019re absolutely beautiful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Those mats contained silica, a compound composed of silicon and oxygen atoms and one of the most abundant minerals on Earth. Silica is a vital component in the Earth\u2019s crust and has numerous scientific applications due to its unique properties.<\/p>\n

Manning-Berg spent so much of her Ph.D. pursuit studying that mineral, she gained a nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was known as the \u2018Silica Girl,\u2019\u201d she said with a laugh, \u201cbecause silicification was something that was covered early\u2014from probably the late \u201980s to early \u201990s. We\u2019ve known about this process for a while, then everything just stopped. For my Ph.D. dissertation, I started to really investigate the extent to which these organisms are preserved in this type of rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so many questions at the end of my Ph.D. that I\u2019ve just run with that since then. I\u2019ve really started to investigate how the silica process is happening, how microbes interact together and how that chemistry might influence how they\u2019re preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now, she said, it\u2019s a big question because of Mars. Her research in understanding both the changes in morphology or shape and the chemistry \u201chas allowed me to be a part of the astrobiological community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we start to look at Mars for evidence of life\u2014at this point extinct life more so than extant\u2014we\u2019re starting to think, \u2018Hey, maybe silica could be a phase that\u2019s really interesting on Mars,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt exceptionally preserved microfossils on Earth from a billion years ago when Mars would have had water on the surface and would have behaved a lot like early Earth. Silica might be one of the minerals preserving organisms.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we think about life on early Mars, having the ability to overlay the chemistry on top of the morphology gives us a sense of … hope? I don\u2019t want to say \u2018security.\u2019 A sense of hope that could be signs of previous life on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the NASA workshop was a one-time-only fun exercise or the first step toward the next step isn\u2019t known right now, she said, but being involved in Mars research is what she wants to be doing.<\/p>\n

From Planet Earth, that is.<\/p>\n

Manning-Berg laughed and shook her head when asked if she wanted to participate in a mission to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am scared to leave the planet,\u201d she said, \u201cand the idea of going through the atmosphere is terrifying\u2014then landing on Mars would also be terrifying. So I\u2019ll just stay here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have plenty of friends who want to go to Mars. I will let them collect the rocks and send them to me or show them to me through a Zoom call from Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

Biology, Geology and Environmental Science at UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Geology Program<\/a><\/p>\n

How to Apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early this semester, UTC Assistant Professor of Geology Ashley Manning-Berg was one of 32 early-career scientists selected to participate in a NASA workshop at Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., for what she called \u201can intense week coming up with ideas of how to look for life on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1493,"featured_media":54083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7712,70,123865,61,48007],"tags":[117128,123380,123370,930,123368,123369],"class_list":{"0":"post-54079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-biology-geology-and-environmental-science","9":"category-college-of-arts-sciences","10":"category-faculty-and-staff","11":"category-research-academics","12":"tag-ashley-manning-berg","13":"tag-environmental-geology","14":"tag-mars","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-nasa-astrobiology-mission-ideation-factory","17":"tag-silica","18":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nMission about Mars: UTC geologist presents ideas during NASA workshop | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - 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