Dr. Sue Smrekar is a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. She received her B.Sc. in Geophysics/Applied Math at Brown University and her PhD in Geophysics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Following a postdoctoral position at MIT working on Magellan data for Venus, she began work at JPL.
Her research focuses on the volcanism, tectonics and geodynamics of Venus and Mars. A particular focus is on how Venus and Earth evolved down such different paths, and how interior processes link to surface geology, the atmosphere, and long term habitability. The overarching goal of her research is to understand Venus’ geodynamic system: What are Venus’ dominant heat loss processes? What drives its volcanism and tectonism? What processes are active today? What is the role of volatiles? What caused Earth to develop plate tectonics while Venus’ young surface has been created by alternative processes? She has approached these questions via a combination of data analysis, modeling, instrument development and even a little field work.
A related focus is the challenging endeavor of measuring planetary heat flow. In situ measurements require accessing the subsurface to depths of several meters. Her initial investigations involved penetrators, ballistic devises that impact the surface at 100s km/hr. She was the Project Scientist for the (unsuccessful) Deep Space 2 (Mars Microprobe) mission, which intended to demonstrate this technology. Her next mission role was as the Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. She then served as Deputy Principal Investigator (DPI) for the Mars InSight mission, as well as DPI for the German Space Agency’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probes (HP3) on InSight. This experiment was a partial success, but did not achieve a sufficient depth to measure heat flow. She is co-I on the Blue Ghost mission to the Moon, which carried the LISTER heat flow device. LISTER reached a depth of 1 m, allowing for a reasonably well constrained heat flow measurement.
She is currently the PI for the VERITAS mission, an orbiter planned for launch to Venus in the early 2030s. The primary mission goals are to understand Venus’ geodynamics, the history of water, and to search for ongoing activity.