Gulfport, Miss., Native Has Key Role in NASA’s Mars Mission; Next: Jupiter

Mar. 19–GULFPORT, Miss. — It might have been hard to envision back in 1958 that he would one day be playing a key role in the exploration of Mars.

But he is, and he’s loving it.

“You bet. This is a tremendous opportunity to see new worlds for the first time,” said Ron Greeley, a Gulfport native who was here this week visiting in-laws, Bob and Doris Moody.

Greeley, 64, is chairman of the Science Operations Working Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The science team is playing a key role in the Mars Exploration Rover program, telling the robots where to go.

The robot geologists Spirit and Opportunity have been astonishing scientists since January with images from Mars. The mission is designed to study rocks and soil for clues on past water activity.

“What we do is decide where it goes and what it’s going to do,” said Greeley about the team’s day-to-day involvement.

Greeley is a leading authority on planetary studies and has been involved in the Galileo and European Space Agency’s Mars Express missions.

Greeley is a regents’ professor of geological sciences at Arizona State University and director of NASA’s Regional Planetary Image Facility, also at Arizona State.

Since early this year he has been in Pasadena, where he works 12 to 14 hours a day on the Rover program.

Greeley graduated from Gulfport High School in 1958 and received his master’s from Mississippi State University in 1963. He earned a doctorate at the University of Missouri, then went into the military in 1967 and was assigned to NASA’s Ames Research Center near Mountain View, Calif.

He worked for NASA for 11 years, including the Apollo program. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books and 240 research reports.

Though he’s still working on the Mars program, he’s already involved in future missions. He’s among those planning for the mission to probe Europa and two other planet-sized moons orbiting Jupiter. The multibillion-dollar project represents a huge leap forward in technology for the space program.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission will use electric propulsion powered by a nuclear fission reactor. The orbiter will circle moons Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, to try to determine if they can sustain life.

“One thing my group did was make a strong recommendation to land a package on the surface of Europa,” he said, to gather close-up information, like the Mars rovers.

He hopes life will be discovered in the universe in his lifetime, though he jokes he may not be actively involved in the program by that time.

“This is a wonderful time in history,” he said.

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