Guitarist turned planetary scientist Lujendra Ojha on finding water on Mars

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 3 December 2015, and is being republished in light of new evidence found of an existing body of liquid water on Mars. The possibility of life on our neighboring planet Mars has fascinated us for decades now. Google ‘Life on Mars’ and apart from coming across countless documentaries exploring the prospect, you will also come across a David Bowie number from the 70s. The Martian, released earlier this year based on the book of the same name, also teases the possibility of living on the red planet. In fact, if you are into science fiction, here’s a list of 100 books related to Mars and life on it. Mars One is a program which is working on sending humans to establish a settlement on Mars from 2026 onwards. Clearly, there is a lot of interest with regard to the Red Planet. Nepal-born 25-year old Lujendra Ojha, a planetary scientist who is currently a Ph D candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology, is credited with discovering flowing liquid salt water on the surface of Mars back in 2011. The prospect of finding water on Mars does improve the chances of colonising the planet. But how long will it take? No one knows. Before he gives his TEDxGateway talk in Mumbai on 5 December, tech2 had a chance to speak with the scientist who likes to call himself ‘jack of all trades’. Your website shows a picture of you strumming a guitar on stage, but the profile we received mentioned the term ‘Planetary Scientist’. Tell us about this journey :) Well, music has always been a hobby of mine. I played music throughout my high-school and college. It is a passion of mine, and so is science. In the end, I chose science as a career path. Tell us about the Recurring Slope Lineae and how you came about spotting these Recurring Slope Lineae is the result of my undergraduate thesis. I was a junior (3rd year) in college when I discovered these features. I wrote an algorithm that was able to detect changes between images of Mars. The algorithm spotted these changes, and we studied intensively to understand what these features are and how they form on present day surface of Mars. How did you arrive to the conclusion that these shapes were related to presence of water on Mars’ surface? This was done via a technique called infrared spectroscopy. Basically, here is an explanation of spectroscopy: “Human eyes can see many colors: red, blue, yellow, etc. When we look at a leaf, it looks green to us; this is because a major compound in leaves called chlorophyll absorbs all the other color human eyes can see and reflects green color. This is essentially how spectroscopy works. We observe the surface of Mars in different colors, both in visible and infrared spectrum. The places where we see RSL on Mars, absorbed color at specific frequency when we know hydrated minerals absorb light. Based on this observation, we were able to conclude that water plays a key role in the formation of recurring slope lineae on Mars.” Does this discovery of water on the Martian surface mean that human habitation on the planet is not in the realm of sci-fi anymore? How has it improved the chances of habitation - of human or microscopic organisms? Human habitation is definitely possible on Mars. It is only a matter of time before it comes a reality. The real problem with human habitation is in terms of engineering and technical aspects. Life as we know it, requires water to survive, so this finding has increased our chances of human habitation and also raises the possibility of extant life on Mars. You are currently pursuing PhD at Georgia Tech, what are your future plans — will it be concentrated on your discovery and its after effects - a position in NASA; or do you have other plans? Future plan is to get a job, may it be NASA or some academic position. But the long term goal is to be involved in space research and exploration. We read online that you are also interested in studying earthquakes. With the tragic earthquakes that have taken place not only in your native Nepal, but also in places such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, could you tell us the kind of research that you are interested in, regarding quakes  We are basically trying to understand how landscapes change due to earthquakes. The seismically induced shaking causes mass erosion and landslides. We seek to explore the relationship between erosion and earthquakes to infer how frequent these earthquakes are in this part of the world. In one sentence, we are trying to explore how frequently in past these massive earthquakes took place. What are your views on the Mars One program. Do you think their goal is achievable by 2026? I am not sure about Mars one program. I hope they are successful. I wish them all the best. However, I am not sure if they have covered all the difficulty concerning long term human space travels. Given a chance to go to Mars, what are the first things you would like to do when there? Explore and seek signs of Martian life. Did Mars ever host life unique to Mars? Was there ever a second genesis of life in this part of the solar system. Lujendra Ojha is currently at the Earth and Planetary Science department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States.