Originally Posted: August 10, 2021
Matthew Siegler works with other researchers as a member of NASA’s InSight and Perseverance missions on Mars
Matthew Siegler first got interested in space from watching movies like Star Wars. These works of science fiction convinced him at an early age that scientific advances would inevitably lead to a future where people could walk around on another planet.
He dreamed about making space exploration feel as real to others as it felt to him. He also drew inspiration from watching VHS tapes of Carl Sagan’s documentary series, Cosmos.
Now his imagination has morphed into actual scientific research. Siegler, 40, is a research associate professor at SMU and a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute. He focuses on exploring how the interior temperatures of planets change over time.
This helps scientists understand what differentiates Mars and other planets from Earth. He works with researchers and engineers from around the world as a member of NASA’s InSight and Perseverance missions on Mars.
NASA, he said, is “there to push the boundaries of what we know.”
Siegler’s main focus on these missions revolves around trying to measure temperatures beneath the surface of Mars.
“Heat flow is a super fundamental measurement,” said Sue Smrekar, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and deputy principal investigator for NASA’s InSight mission. “It gives you a sense of how geologically active you expect the planet to be.”
Scientists know that decaying radioactive elements, like uranium and thorium, generate most of the heat coming out of Mars today.
Measurements from InSight’s lander, which arrived on Mars in 2018, are helping scientists like Siegler see how those different elements are distributed throughout the layers of Mars — from the core to the mantle to the crust. READ MORE