Professor Jasper Halekas has been selected to serve on the National Academies of Sciences' Panel on Atmospheric Science and Space Physics, which will identify atmospheric science and space physics objectives for human exploration of the surface of Mars.
As one of four panels that will provide input to the steering committee of "A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars," this panel will specify how each identified science objective maps to the discipline’s decadal report or roadmap as well as to one or more of the objectives identified in NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives. The panel will identify samples and measurements needed to address the science objectives and how those may impact landing site selection criteria. The panel will identify research and technology developments that will need to be done in advance of three possible crewed missions to enable the science objectives, including any that could be done on the Moon.
The group will focus on several scientific areas, including Martian atmospheric structure and dynamics, water and CO2 cycle, dust storms, and long-term evolution of the atmosphere.
Halekas designs and builds instruments to measure charged particles in the solar wind and planetary environments, and utilizes these measurements to broaden understanding of the impact of the Sun and the solar wind on the solar system and its evolution. Halekas is a member of the MAVEN mission (instrument lead and co-investigator [co-I]), which will determine how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes to allow extrapolation backward in time.
He is also a member of the Lunar Vertex (deputy principal investigator), Parker Solar Probe (co-I), LuSEE (co-I), HelioSwarm (instrument scientist), and TRACERS (instrument lead and co-I) mission teams. Halekas has been awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award, multiple NASA team achievement awards, citations for excellence in refereeing, and the Collegiate Teaching Award and Collegiate Scholar Award from the University of Iowa. Halekas received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California Berkeley.