Interviewing a MAARBLE Scientist – September 2013
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Who is Who
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A Dream Becoming True
“I was always fascinated by how things work and this lead me to start my career as a physicist. As every child, I was interested in dinosaurs and space, and I literally had space shuttle wall paper in my bedroom. I am lucky enough to now have a career in space science.”
But this is not easy. It takes a lot of work to get a career as a space scientist. “You spend a lot of time studying as an undergraduate and then completing a PhD. These are times when typically you don’t have much money. Even at an early career stage as you start becoming a recognized scientist, salaries are not that high. But the reward from the research as one tries to discover something new, more than compensates the effort”, says Dr. Mann. “You learn that it is important to continue questioning what is around you and the importance of not giving up. You learn to focus on a specific goal and you learn to be dedicated in order to achieve this goal”.
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“If I was to give a piece of advice to a young scientist, I would say: do what you are interested in, because if you can find a job that fascinates you, when you go to work it won’t really feel like work. If you follow what you are fascinated in and do what you love to do, your performance will be better. Don’t be distracted by other things. Don’t necessarily follow the money or the current trends. And at the end it will work out for the best. Follow what you love!”
Climate on Earth, Debris in Orbit, Weather in Space, Life in the Solar System
Dr. Mann’s scientific interests involve near space and space weather, in particular the waves that are propagating around our planet, in the environment where satellites are flying. “You may think about it as waves in space breaking at the cosmic shore at the edge of the Earth”, says Dr. Mann. “One of the impacts of these waves is the acceleration of particles (electrons and protons) very close to the speed of light: like surfers sitting on top of ocean waves! A geophysical accelerator operating on a planetary scale (something like CERN on the scale of the entire planet). Absolutely fascinating!”he concludes. Radiation is the main concern in space exploration. These very fast particles have serious consequences for satellites because they can penetrate into the satellite electronics and cause problems with their operation. They also challenge operations in space in general, and can be dangerous for astronauts as well.
“Right now I am concentrated on space radiation around the Earth and on the physical processes that are operating there. But actually there are other planets in the solar system that have interesting magnetic fields interacting with the solar wind. Comparative planetology aims to apply the science of plasma physics around the Earth to more exotic objects in our solar system, and ultimately to the plasma universe”. The timeline for developing these missions is actually decades!
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One of the big challenges in science in general is climate change, a major threat to our future that we can’t ignore. “We can contribute to the sustainability of the planet from space by monitoring climate change: how the vegetation changes, how the permafrost lines are moving and also to monitor shipping in particular in the new zones where ice will melt”, says Dr. Mann.
Whether there is life in the solar system or conditions that may allow life on other planets or even other solar systems is always a main objective in space exploration. "It has now become a fascinating scientific target as we are exploring our solar system. Maybe life exists in places that we have never thought about, we see this even on our own planet, in very harsh conditions”, says Dr. Mann. And of course there are many technical challenges involving human activities outside the lower orbit in space, going to Mars or landing on an asteroid.
“It is interesting to think about space in an international context because it really doesn’t belong to anybody. If we pollute space everybody will be precluded from using space”. This is an important area, already active. There won’t be any new space treaties so everything is done on a consensus basis of all of the players involved. “I am involved in this activity under the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, serving as the co-chair of a Space Weather Expert Group with a colleague from Japan and looking at drafting guidelines for maintaining long term sustainability of outer space. Similar groups are working on creating guidelines to look at mitigating space debris. This is going to be very important for maintaining the use of space for everybody. It is an interesting, fascinating international endeavor”, concludes Dr. Mann.
A Brave New World
One thing that is very powerful about physicists is that they are not only experts in their particular field, but they are also trained to solve problems and this is a very valuable skill which can be applied across many disciplines. Even after that early period in the career of a scientist, there are still more challenges, given that space science is a very competitive field. “Fortunately one has learned other skills that create new perspectives. Even if you don’t become professor at a University you can work in space science. The number of people who are going to be employed in this field will increase in the future. Governments, commercial entities, businesses which are now operating spacecraft, are all looking into space to serve the needs of people on Earth. These include commercial service provision of communication systems and monitoring climate change and disasters for the benefit of humanity”, says Dr. Mann. “There is for instance the initiative called “The Other 3B”, a constellation of satellites launched by a commercial consortium to provide satellite-based communications (such as cell phones) for the developing world where infrastructure does not exist (Google is an investor in this project)”. The name “The Other 3B” stands for the other three billion people who do not have direct access to cell phone facilities or the internet, and similar services through a strong communication backbone. The project is going to serve the equator and +/- 45 degrees of latitude.
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President Obama has asked commercial companies to provide services for NASA’s facilities in lower orbit (in fact a private capsule has now docked at the ISS, so this is already happening). So these companies will step in and provide space services which in the past could only be provided by government agencies. “Many new services are going to be developed by these companies and we should be prepared for commercial activities such as space tourism. In fact, the first space tourists are to fly by the end of this year or early next year with Virgin Galactic, which has already flown the first test flight and landed the vehicle in the southern US”. So there will be economic benefit and thus the need for more and more people with expertise in the field of space science to meet the requirements of these companies. And there will be important economic benefit for those countries who can support an aerospace industry that can explore this opportunity.
“There is no question that there is a brave new world out there and a huge expansion in the field is expected. It is inevitable”, concludes Dr. Mann.
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“A lot of scientists would say that inquiry, research and discovery are part of what they are in a way. Trying to discover something new that nobody else has done before, is part of who you are. |
About MAARBLE
My expertise is on waves that are propagating around our planet. In particular the ULF waves, which propagate on the scale of the whole magnetosphere, the planetary-scale waves which are responsible for particle acceleration to close to the speed of light. My role in MAARBLE is to analyze these waves and to establish how much these waves are responsible for the particle acceleration right above our head. MAARBLE is fascinating for at least three reasons: 1) The science issue it addresses is very fascinating and was discovered unexpectedly while looking for cosmic rays at the beginning of the space race several decades ago. Nobody knows why this efficient particle accelerator is out there and why is it behaving this way? This is a fascinating physical problem which we do not understand. 2) A great science that has also practical consequences, because we want to understand what’s happening and then forecast space weather. We should not forget that we have only monitored 50 years of space weather so far. This is very short, so we don’t even know how bad space weather really can get. We have some evidence from the ground of very severe space weather phenomena on 1859. But we haven’t been able to monitor space weather long enough to understand how often such severe phenomena may occur, and how we may mitigate their effects on 21st Century technological infrastructure upon which we all increasingly rely. 3) MAARBLE gives us the opportunity to collaborate with scientists from different countries, who have complementary skills, different interests and mentalities. This is very attractive!
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Eleni Chatzichristou
MAARBLE Outreach Team
