Professor helps unravel the mysteries of Mars

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Nicholas Warner knows how to think about other worlds and their past as a planetary geologist who recently joined the faculty of State University College at Geneseo.

He speaks about his specialty with a sense of disarming casualness.

"I do mostly Mars. That's what pays the bills," said Warner.

But his dry sense of humor should not trivialize the respect he has gained as part of a group of scientists who are trying to unravel some of the mysteries of Mars.

Warner is becoming a go-to-guy when it comes to knowing about the surface of Mars — a planet that, on average, is 140 million miles away.

Warner recently received an almost $300,000 grant from NASA to help him continue his study of Mars' surface. The funds help support four to eight SUNY Geneseo students a year working as research assistants over three years.

They are looking at data compiled by NASA's Planetary Data System that could provide insight into dry river channels 3 billion years old.

"We are pulling data from the website and processing it so we can look at it," he said.

Prior to becoming an assistant professor in geological sciences at SUNY Geneseo, Warner spent 2 1/2 years as a post-doctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Warner has served as a project geologist for two Mars missions — including the InSight lander slated for launch in 2016.

His name is already on a host of articles in professional journals about Mars. Warner was one of the experts featured in a 2013 British Broadcasting Corp. radio special, A Trip Around Mars.

"He is a rising star just because he has done really good work and people respect it," said Matthew Golombek, a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Warner's adviser there.

Warner has proved especially skilled at combining the study of craters with imprints left by bodies of water on Mars to determine when water was last present in any discernible way.

THINKING EXTRATERRESTRIAL, STAYING LOCAL

A native of Castile, Warner developed an interest in space as a child in the early 1980s, watching images of the planets being beamed back to Earth by a Voyager spacecraft.

A Star Trek fan, Warner enjoys the world of science fiction, but martians have no place in Warner's quantitative research.

Warner earned his bachelor's degree in geology from SUNY Geneseo, and master's in geology from State University of New York at Buffalo.

"He's comfortable with the surface of big planets," said Tracy Gregg, associate professor of geology at SUNY Buffalo.

Warner then spent two years as an earth science teacher at Spencerport High School, before going on to earn a doctorate in geology at Arizona State University.

"My original plan was to be a school teacher," said Warner.

But Warner was encouraged by Gregg to continue with his research.

He conducts his research in a computer lab, often trying to make sense of the data beamed back from the four satellites orbiting Mars and two rovers on the planet.

Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Researchers have found evidence that seas, lakes and rivers once existed on the planet.

Most of the research has focused on water existing between 4 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, said Warner.

"Mars once had an atmosphere similar to ours, but it was thicker," said Warner

And that's when some simple forms of biological life might have existed — single-celled organisms, like bacteria, Warner noted.

Volcanic activity was a key component in creating an atmosphere and bodies of water during Mars' early years. The eruptions created water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide — resulting in a planet with a thick atmosphere.

"The atmosphere contains water vapor. If it gets thick enough, you will get that greenhouse effect," Warner said.

Bodies of water were created by rain and melting ice.

Warner's research has focused on mapping Mars' surface and determining when the planet lost its water and the effects of landslides on erosion.

An argument can be made, Warner said, that water existed until about 3 billion years ago.

Since then, polar cold set in that can give parts of Mars temperatures 100 degrees below zero. No discernible water exists on the planet, other than the polar ice caps.

The petering out of volcano activity led to the thinning of the atmosphere and drying up of the planet — with the cold that has stayed with the planet setting in.

Warner does not rule out the possibility that some form of simple biological life now exists far under the surface but leaves hope of little else because of the planet's cold.

Speculation is that a spacecraft carrying humans to Mars won't happen until the 2030s. NASA's unmanned Orion test flight Friday is a step toward this goal because, in the future, a jet-propelled Orion spacecraft could carry humans to Mars.

"Getting people to Mars could do a lot more than rovers because they're trained to be more efficient in collecting," said Warner.