Patricia Ann Straat

Patricia Ann Straat (March 28, 1936 – October 23, 2020) was an American space scientist. She was part of the labeled release experiment of Viking program and part of the infrared interferometer spectrometer and radiometer on the Mariner 9 mission. In 2019 Straat wrote the book To Mars With Love, which documented the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars.

Patricia Ann Straat
Born(1936-03-28)March 28, 1936
DiedOctober 23, 2020(2020-10-23) (aged 84)
Alma materOberlin College
Johns Hopkins University
Scientific career
FieldsAstrochemistry
InstitutionsNational Institutes of Health
ThesisCharacterization of a nitrate reductase from the chemoautotroph Nitrobacter agilis (1964)

Early life and education

P. Straat was born in Rochester, New York.[1] She attended Irondequoit High School.[2] Her parents were Marcelline and Harold Straat, and her father was an optical engineer.[3][4] She has said that she became interested in space as a child, and could name all of the constellations in her night sky by the age of 12.[5] Straat earned her undergraduate degree at Oberlin College, a liberal arts school in Ohio. She moved to Johns Hopkins University for her graduate studies, where she specialised in biochemistry.[1][6]

Research and career

Straat worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1968. Straat worked on molecular biology and enzymes. She said that the Moon landing reminded her of her childhood love for space, and began to consider changing career.[5]

A few months later, Straat was headhunted by Gilbert Levin, who had recently been successful in proposing an experiment for a NASA mission to Mars.[5] Straat was involved with the Viking Mission, and worked alongside Levin on the Labeled Release (LR) experiment.[7] In 1970 Straat joined Biospherics Inc, a spin-out company owned by Levin, where she worked as a biochemist.[1][8] Together they searched for organic gases in the Martian atmosphere.[8] She spent her first few years at Biospherics Inc developing science and hardware.[5] The Viking Mission landed on Mars in 1976, with the landed release mission starting ten days after Viking landed. The mission mixed small samples of soil from Mars with drops of water that contained nutrients tagged with Carbon-14 in a chamber. Measurements were then made of the atmosphere of the internal chamber: if they detected the evolution of radioactive 14CO2, microorganisms in the soil must have metabolised the nutrients.[5] When the soil sample showed positive results, and a heat-sterilised control sample returned negative results, the scientific community was surprised.[5] Straat and Levin believed that their labeled release results showed indications of microbial life on Mars.[8][9][10][11]

After a decade at Biospherics Inc, Straat joined the National Institutes of Health, where she held various leadership positions, including overseeing the referral section.[1]

In 2019 Straat wrote the book To Mars With Love, which documented the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars.[12] The journal Astrobiology described To Mars With Love as a “remarkable book, by a remarkable woman, about a remarkable instrument on the most remarkable mission ever to go to Mars,”.[13]

Selected publications
  • Levin, Gilbert V.; Straat, Patricia Ann (1977). "Recent results from the Viking Labeled Release Experiment on Mars". Journal of Geophysical Research. 82 (28): 4663–4667. Bibcode:1977JGR....82.4663L. doi:10.1029/JS082i028p04663. ISSN 2156-2202.
  • Levin, Gilbert V.; Straat, Patricia Ann (17 December 1976). "Viking Labeled Release Biology Experiment: Interim Results". Science. 194 (4271): 1322–1329. Bibcode:1976Sci...194.1322L. doi:10.1126/science.194.4271.1322. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17797094. S2CID 24206165.
  • Levin, Gilbert V.; Ann Straat, Patricia (1976). "Labeled release ? An experiment in radiorespirometry". Origins of Life. 7 (3): 293–311. Bibcode:1976OrLi....7..293L. doi:10.1007/bf00926948. ISSN 0302-1688. PMID 1012719. S2CID 27086535.

Personal life

Straat suffered from lung cancer. She died in October 2020, and was survived by her partner Mary Grande.[2]

References
  1. Patricia Ann Straat. OCLC 4779216758.
  2. "Patricia Straat (1936 - 2020) - Obituary". obits.democratandchronicle.com. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  3. "Obituary for Marcelline Straat (Aged 95)". Democrat and Chronicle. 13 February 2005. p. 32. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  4. "IRONDEQUOIT GENERAL DIRECTORY" (PDF). Library web. 1937. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  5. Moskowitz, Clara. "Looking for Life on Mars: Viking Experiment Team Member Reflects on Divisive Findings". Scientific American. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  6. "Alum discusses her work with space exploration". The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  7. "Dr. Patricia Ann Straat | The Space Show". thespaceshow.com. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  8. "Viking Lander Biology Data Restored by NSSDC and PDS". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  9. "Microbial life on Mars: The possibility must be considered". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  10. "Scientist-Turned-Professor Says Instruments May Bear Out His Finding Of Microorganisms On Mars". www.aero-news.net. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  11. "Did 40-year-old Viking experiment discover life on Mars?". phys.org. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  12. Keller, Mary Grace. "In search of life: Sykesville woman pens book on first NASA venture to land on Mars, 1976 Viking mission". baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  13. McKay, Christopher P. (1 April 2019). "Loving Mars: A Review of To Mars With Love, by Patricia Ann Straat". Astrobiology. 19 (4): 628. doi:10.1089/ast.2019.0122. ISSN 1531-1074. PMC 6459260.
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