The Lantern

Issue date: 4/26/06 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Bryan Bullock OSU undergraduate Jeremiah Glascock is helping OSU researchers map out the planet Mars through satellite images.

While most students are still sleeping, one undergraduate student is on campus viewing images from Mars. For Jeremiah Glascock, receiving classified information from NASA is just part of the morning routine.

Monday through Friday he arrives on campus before 6:00 a.m. and downloads images taken by the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

Just a few hours later, in a room where a picture of a Martian crater covers the far wall, a team of seven people go to work. They use the images Glascock downloaded to create three-dimensional maps of Mars' desert-like surface.

"We use the images to look forward and backward to map out the natural landmarks to navigate the rovers safely," Glascock said. "One miscalculation on our part could result in it flipping over - and that's it, there's no one up there."

The completed maps are then used by NASA to calculate the rovers' movements for the next day.

Glascock, a father of two, learned about the job while taking a class last spring taught by Ron Li, the leading researcher on the team.

"He asked if there was anybody who wanted to help out, and I volunteered to take the position" Glascock said. "I do get paid, but it's not the best job for (a) student."

Waking up before dawn and having no opportunity to call in sick may not be appealing to all undergraduate students. The mapping process that takes place on campus begins with Glascock.

"If I don't show up they can't make the maps," Glascock said.

The information Glascock retrieves in the morning is not available to the general public.

"Because it's an ongoing mission the data is highly protected," said Leslie Smith, program associate for the project.

Though Glascock has only been working in the lab for about a year, Li and his team have been tracking the rovers since they landed in 2003.

The mission was originally scheduled to last 90 days, from January to April of 2004. Since that time, NASA has extended the mission twice.

"We are in extended mission, but as long as the rovers can do significant work, NASA will extend it," said Kaichang Di, research scientist for the project.

Besides creating maps, the team has also been a part of other projects, including initially locating the rovers.

"People wanted to know where the rovers landed," Di said. "It was a big question in the first few weeks."

Using satellite images and pictures taken by the rovers, the team was able to locate the machines, which both landed close to the equator on opposite sides of the planet.

Other work includes developing products for future NASA missions, such as new cameras and improved software.

Glascock's time on the project is coming to an end. The 29-year-old will soon graduate with a degree in geomatics engineering.

A small program at OSU, geomatics engineering has only about 12 students. About five students graduate from the program per year, said Carolyn Merry, chair of the civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science department, in an e-mail.

Glascock reflects positively on his time working on the Mars project.

"I've been lucky to have this opportunity," Glascock said. "I have learned a lot from participating in the research. All the graduate and Ph.D. students are a great group of people to work with and I have learned a lot from them."