When NASA’s newest Mars rover Perseverance was launched into space last week, Thomas Coohill, Ph.D., was paying very special attention.
The physics professor is one of a handful of scientists in the country serving on the mission’s sterilization team. His work with ultraviolet radiation – the major germicide used to break down microorganisms on Earth – is crucial to the success of the mission, which aims to collect core soil samples and store them until a future mission returns them to Earth. Coohill’s work will help NASA ensure the samples remain intact and don’t contaminate our planet.
“My guess is we will find something, and then we’ll finally know the answer to the question, is life only on Earth?” he said.
Coohill’s research attracted the attention of local media the day of the July 30 launch: News10, NewsChannel13 and the DailyGazette all interviewed him about his contributions to the mission.
Assisting Coohill this summer was CURCA scholar Gabriella Tamayo ’23. She gathered information about Perseverance and assembled a presentation that can be adjusted to fit the expertise of many different groups.
