Mars and beyond: In conversation with NASA’s Jaydeep Mukherjee

How did your journey with astronomy begin?
It started from the time I was a kid. I’ve always loved it. But you know where it started? It was right here at the (Nehru) planetarium, when Dr Venkat Vardhan was the director. he had a class in astronomy--an introductory class--and I took that class. But I’d loved astronomy way before that and it pushed me along. Then I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Physics from Mumbai University, St. Xavier’s College, after which I tried to get into astronomy here. But they said you have to be a very good student, and I was an average student. So I went to TIFR and they said no, and I said, “Forget it, I’ll go somewhere else.” I applied to other universities, and I got admitted to the University of Florida and that’s where I did my Masters and Ph.D. in Astronomy. 

But it’s basically my parents and another person, Dr Chatterjee--they were the only ones that said to do it. All my friends said don’t do it, because there’s no future in Astronomy. Now I tell them to look at me now. 

Tell me more about MAVEN mission, and what are the factors that would classify it as a success?
Well we’re trying to find out why Mars is what it is right now, because if you look at the atmosphere of Venus and the original Earth, it was like Mars. But something happened. The Earth actually had a very good atmosphere because there were volcanos, there were gases, there was a thick atmosphere, there was water. The Earth’s atmosphere has changed. But for some reason, the Martian atmosphere changed drastically. Right now it’s very, very dry. You go to Venus, and it has a thick cloud cover. It’s mostly acidic gases, but on Mars there’s just a very thin atmosphere.

We think there was flowing water on Mars, because there’s evidence of that. Not the presence of water but the evidence of flowing water. But it’s so dry now. So something happened to Mars, and most scientists believe that the atmosphere was stripped away by a stream of charged particles from the Sun because Mars lost its magnetic field. It cooled down. Earth has a magnetic field, so it protects us from the Sun’s charged particles. So what MAVEN is trying to figure out are the ways in which the atmosphere could have escaped. And if they find that out, it’ll be a great success, because--I’m not saying the Earth will be like that but--it’ll give us an idea of what could happen to the Earth if this happened.

The Earth has a magnetic field that seems to flip over a long time--hundreds of thousands of years. But when it flips, there’s a period of time when this magnetic field weakens. And when this happens, it gets exposed to the charged particles from the sun, and you might have problems. There’s no direct connection to the Earth, but this is just trying to find out what happened to the Martian atmosphere, because we want to find out whether there is life elsewhere. That is the underlying goal and this (mission) is one of the steps to finding that out. 

Did this drastic change in the Martian atmosphere happen quickly? Or quicker than expected?
No, this happened over a long, long period of time. Millions of years. Because it takes a long time for these gases to escape. 

How closely is NASA working with ISRO on understanding these Martian mysteries?
Think about when Chandra went to the moon. It had NASA instruments in it. There is no Indian instrument with MAVEN, nor is there any MAVEN instrument with MOM. But just about two months ago, the administrator of NASA and the administrator of ISRO signed an agreement to work together. Now it’s not that easy--it takes time--but they understand the fact that India is a very strong space-faring nation. And the only way to succeed is to work with them. So they have started working very closely. And we have seen that--in the US, a lot of the science and the engineering is done by Indians who have settled down there. So there will be big co-operation, and there has to be. The only way right now that we can explore is along with different nations. The budgets have become so big that there are problems in every nation, whether is the US or Japan. Unless you work together, you won’t be able to do this kind of exploration.

I can’t resist asking: what did you think of the movie Interstellar?
[Laughs] I love the movie, you know? It was a great movie. Sometimes a bit far-fetched, but you have to take into account the fact that it is realistic if you know that they’re talking about a fifth dimension. So when they’re talking about this fifth dimension, you can somehow look at things a bit differently, and that’s the trick. Also the person who was the advisor to Interstellar--his name is Kip Thorne--is a world famous black hole expert. He gave all of the advice, so it’s all right. But if you look at it the way we see it in three dimensions and (you know) time is the fourth dimension, then it doesn’t make sense. But they’re smart--they talk about the fifth dimension. And then those things can work. I think it’s one of the very few movies after 2001: A Space Odyssey, that is so scientifically accurate. Gravity wasn’t accurate at all. It was a great movie, but it wasn’t accurate. 

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