George School Alum Takes His Research to Mars

Kevin Lewis, a George School alumni, is part of a team of scientists working on NASA’s latest Mars mission, the Curiosity rover. It’s safe to say that his career is reaching new heights.

One of about eighteen scientists, Kevin will conduct experiments and help with the daily operational duties of the rover on the surface of Mars. Having launched successfully over Thanksgiving weekend from Cape Canaveral, the Curiosity rover began a nine-month journey as the largest and most complex rover ever sent to Mars. After last week’s landing, the rover now begins a two-year long exploration of its landing site at Gale crater in search of past or present habitable environments.

“I hope to use the rover's instruments to investigate the history of climate change on Mars as recorded in the sedimentary rocks it will encounter,” said Kevin, who is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of geosciences at Princeton University.

The Curiosity rover team includes scientists from a number of international universities and institutions. The rover itself includes instruments designed to do both field geology and laboratory analyses, to determine the morphology, chemistry, and mineralogy of surface rocks and soils. It is operated from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“I am currently trying unsuccessfully to adjust to ‘Mars time,’ which involves working on an ever-shifting Martian schedule for the next ninety days,” said Kevin, who is currently working at the jet propulsion lab. “We work throughout the night because we want to be awake while the rover is asleep at sunset on Mars. A Martian day is twenty-four hours and forty minutes.  We plan what the rover will do when it wakes up, so we spend the night writing computer programs.”

While his current research has taken him far from home, Kevin attributes much of his success to his time at George School. He graudated from the school in 1999.

“I certainly wouldn't be here but for all of the outstanding mentors and friends I had while at George School,” he said. “I had excellent science and math teachers while I was there and a lot of the opportunities I had there prepared me for what I am doing now. George School was the beginning.”

Kevin went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from Tufts University, which is where his interest in Mars blossomed. He continued his education at graduate school at California Institute of Technology where he earned a Ph.D in Planetary Science.

In addition to his work on the Curiosity rover mission, Kevin is continuing his work on Venus, where he is studying the history of the planet’s crust and the lack of water on the planet.  

Follow Kevin’s research. http://www.princeton.edu/~kwlewis