BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The clock is ticking for solar system exploration.

Engineers in Greenbelt are putting the finishing touches on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Aerojet Corp. in Sacramento, Calif., is testing an abort system designed to protect astronauts during a launch mishap. And an inflatable moon base is being tested at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, for a year in the Earth’s most forbidding climate.

The drive to return to the moon and send human explorers to Mars is in full gear, and planetary geologists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel are poring over spectrograph data of the Red Planet, looking for sites for human exploration.

The list is down to six locations, said APL Geophysics Section Supervisor Olivier Barnouin-Jha, using data provided by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“We’re continuing to extensively map the planet as much as we can, both at high resolution and the global image,” Barnouin-Jha said.

Analyzing 544 wavelengths of sunlight reflected from the surface, scientists looked at the unique wavelengths — or signatures — of light reflected back by different minerals, according to the APL Web site.

Researchers have differentiated clay soils, water-bearing crystals and heavy iron deposits forged in periods of volcanic turmoil from the wind-blown dust and sands on the planet’s surface.

khille@baltimoreexaminer.com