• Question: how could you improve your research?

    Asked by Munir to Stephen, rochellevelho, Phil, Lucy, Hannah on 8 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Phil Sutton

      Phil Sutton answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Good question and there could be a range of things that would improve my research.

      1. Most of my work is theoretical in the sense I don’t need lots of money to do my experiments. Just some computers will do fine. Most beneficial would be more time to do the research. Unfortunately we don’t all get all of our time at work to do research, we do lots of other duties as well.

      2. Collaborating with the right scientists. Research is rarely done by a single person. Some of the most significant discoveries made are through large collaborative projects where many scientists come together with expertise in different areas.

      3. Lots of new spacecraft in various locations in the Solar System or Galaxy. In order for our theories to be tested we need to have some experimental data. In my research that experimental data comes in the form of observations of planets or astrophysical bodies. If I had spacecraft looking other planets we could learn so much more. If I could have anything to improve my research a space craft around some of the exotic new planets we have found around other stars. For example Kepler-16b (planet around two stars), J1407b (a ringed planet with a ring system 200 times bigger than Saturn) or HD 131399Ab (planet orbiting 3 stars).

    • Photo: Lucy Kissick

      Lucy Kissick answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      My research could be infinitely improved by going to Mars itself! Right now I have to make Mars-like conditions on Earth in the laboratory: use Earth rocks that are probably similar, and chemicals we probably find over there. But this will always be a poor comparison and any results can’t be considered absolute. Going to Mars and actually taking pieces of rocks that used to be on the floors of lakes, or in the walls of impact craters, or underneath volcanoes, would be better than the very best Earth simulation.

      This is why NASA spends so much sending rovers to Mars: it’s just so handy.

    • Photo: Hannah Sargeant

      Hannah Sargeant answered on 12 Mar 2017:

      I could improve my research by learning more about the south pole of the Moon. We are stuck because we want to learn more about the south pole by landing there, but we need to know about the south pole in order to land there. It’s quite tricky! Instead we have to make a lot of guesses. So it would be great if we could make some really good pretend soil, based on what we expect to find there.

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