Nathalie A. Cabrol
Expertise: Planetary Geologist
Expedition Role: Project Principle Investigator/Mars Paleolake Analogs
Affiliation: NASA Ames/SETI Institute
Who I am and What I Do
My name is Nathalie Cabrol and I am the Licancabur Project Lead. I am a planetary geologist specialized on the study of Mars and its ancient lakes. I am a science team member of the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers mission that will land Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in January 2004. I work at NASA Ames Research Center/SETI Institute in the Bay area in California. I came to the US almost exactly nine years ago now and I found it a great privilege to live in a country where dreams can become reality. I explained in great details last year my background and for those who are interested, they can find the information on last year’s website here.
Expedition role
When I submitted this project to NASA ARC two years ago, I could envision that it would be an exciting project. However, it has gone way beyond my expectations. It has turned out to become both a fantastic scientific exploration and a wonderful adventure. As the project lead, I designed this project and identified its goals and objectives. One of my roles is to make sure that we are staying on track in our investigation so as to reach our objectives but it is an easy task because I have a great team to support me. When I am not looking at the details on how to accomplish the project’s goals and making sure that everybody is happy and safe, I also have some science going on. I am particularly interested in reconstructing the history of the lakes by studying their geology and bathymetry and map the evolution of life in these environments. This mapping also takes me underwater as diving is sometimes the only way of reaching remote life habitats. Free diving (without tanks) at the lagunas led me to notice interesting physiological effects which I discussed with physiologists. The result is that this year we have a physiologist in our team and he will be acquiring unprecedented high-altitude underwater data in the summit lake by “wiring” us with small physiological data loggers. The irony for me as a scientist is that this time I will be the subject of the experiment…
What did you learn from last year’s expedition
From the science standpoint, we had tremendous success last year and our samples started to unravel life in these high-altitude lakes. One of the key observations was that rates of deformities and malformation are 10 times higher than in any other lakes. At such altitude, we believe that UV (solar radiation) --which are so intense there—are responsible. The lakes are shallow and life has no place to hide. We want to characterize the UV environment this year and we came back equipped with very “smart” dosimeters that will tell us everything and for several years…
I also learned that the Licancabur region and the Altiplano are definitely an incredible place to be. I called it “the Archean Park”. So many things remembered me of the description of early Earth and also early Mars and this is why we go there. The region holds clue to our own past and possibly answers to life elsewhere in the solar system and the universe.
From the human standpoint, last year was a unique experience. There is now a special bond between the team members who went there. For three weeks we lived and shared incredible experiences in a very extreme environment. It changed every single one of us and I believe for the best. We came back stronger in our mind and in our will to achieve things in our lives. I extend this feeling to our Bolivian friends who lived this adventure with us, at the refuge and up on the slopes of Licancabur. Everything we did could not have been possible without them. They are a part of our family of friends now and for ever. This is a very special feeling and like the rest of the team, I just cannot wait to see them again and hug them.
How will you use information from last year’s expedition to perform experiments for this year’s mission?
The samples we collected last year and the analysis we made helped us designing new experiments for this year. Some questions were answered last year but many more new were raised. The main difference with last year is that now we have a better understanding of the environment, some ideas about the populations of microorganisms living there. This is of tremendous help to continue our investigation. For instance, knowing some of the species, we will now be able to look into their DNA and see if they are experimenting mutations compared to similar species at lower altitude. Another example is that the analysis of the water chemistry at the summit lake seems to indicate that there is indeed a source of heat somewhere in the lake. This year we will dive and look for it. The information from last year is definitely helping us refining our experiments and in the long-range will help us answer our critical questions.
Career Journey
I detailed this journey in my last year’s biography so you can go to the 2002 expedition site and look at it. Having said that, an important event happened since last year. The landing site for the Spirit rover is the Gusev crater. This is a site that I have been studying with Edmond Grin for the past 13 years. We defended its chance during the landing site selection process for the MER mission and in the end it was selected as the landing site out of 185 candidates. Knowing that a NASA rover will be exploring it and that we will be able to actually see it from the ground thanks to the cameras onboard the rover is a privilege and a dream come true.
Growing Up
I was born and raised in France and came to the US in 1994. I am now a permanent resident and looking forward becoming soon a US citizen because this country has helped me make my dream come true and I will never work hard enough to repay for that. Being here is a privilege and I am thankful everyday of my life.
What made you study science?
Just looking around me when I was a kid and seeing the beautiful Earth and the night skies got me curious and I was always looking for answers to all sorts of “why” questions. I was a born naturalist and soon learned that science was the antidote to boredom. Today, I have some answers but a lot more questions and the most wonderful thing is that by studying at school I am now able to pursue my passion in my everyday life. Like some of my teammates, I was the kind who dismantled things to understand “how it works”. That was true for some of the dolls I got too (…) but I was definitely more interested in building all sorts of things and robotic systems with “Mechanos” than playing with dolls. Today, my toys are a bit bigger and actually some of them go to Mars to answer even more “why” questions…
Family, hobbies, interests, etc.
I am married to Edmond Grin, partner in life and in science at Ames and we enjoy exploring this world and others together. I do not have children but I like to think that I have thousands of them, those I can touch by the science I am doing and through educational activities that are a high-priority in my life. I enjoy every moment of being with children, students, teachers and the public in general, sharing the amazing worlds that surround us, starting with our own planet. I am an outdoor person and practice lots of mountaineering (who would have bet…) and free diving. Both activities have in common the wonderful peace, silence, and serenity they bring. I also love hiking and free diving because these sports are demanding and it is impossible to lie to yourself while practicing. They are real mirror to one’s soul.
Parting words for students or teachers
Often people say as you are making progress in life and going higher and higher that once are on top of the mountain, there is only one thing that can happen…being brought down. With time, I discovered that this is not true. There is in fact another way: make your mountain bigger and higher. This way, you’ll never stop pushing yourself, learning, and discovering. We set and create our own limits and if we wish, there are none. |
