Arbi Karapetian

Arbi Karapetian
Languages	Amenian, English
Ethnicities	Armenian
Dialects	Persian Armenian
Spouses	Teni Karapetian

STARMUS VI: By studying Mars we learn about Earth – NASA engineer Arbi Karapetian

7 September 2022

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. STARMUS represents the dreams of the future man, it unites music, arts, science and engineering, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Section Manager of Flight Electronics Arbi Karapetian told ARMENPRESS within the framework of the STARMUS VI: 50 Years on Mars Festival in Yerevan.

“I was talking to my wife and I said ‘wherever the next STARMUS takes place, we’re going. STARMUS represents the dreams of the future man. It brings together music, engineering, arts and science. STARMUS is powerful,” he said.

Karapetian said that surely STARMUS will give new opportunities to develop science in Armenia. “This isn’t my first time in Armenia and it seems to me that our people are thirsty for science. I believe that science is in all of us, most importantly in children. I met children this morning in Masis, I could see their eyes shine when I was speaking about science, the universe and NASA,” Karapetian said.

Karapetian worked on developing the technical means in NASA’s launch of the Curiosity rover on Mars.

Speaking about the latest research on Mars, he said that all studies have shown that the Red Planet had water at some point in the past, but it is still unclear whether or not it harbored any form of life. In order to conduct studies they must transport Martian soil back to Earth – a project NASA is planning to start in 2028.

With planned launch dates for the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028, respectively, the samples are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033.

“What matters is that Mars is the closest planet to Earth. By studying Mars, we are learning about our own planet, its current condition can be our planet’s past or future, but at the same time, they are two different planets which could not be similar in any way in their developments. It is very interesting for us because we want to understand our planet, we want to understand where we came from, and studying Mars will greatly contribute to this,” Karapetian said.

Gayane Gaboyan

Source: https://www.armenpress.am/eng/news/1091907/

This article contains text from a source with a copyright. Please help us by extracting the factual information and eliminating the rest in order to keep the site in accordance to fair use standards, or by obtaining permission for reuse on this site..