Mars Rover Scientist in Plymouth

[Jon Hickman]

Thought this may be of interest for some of the west-side folks:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at Wayzata Central Middle School

The speaker will talk about his/her field of science for about an hour, including a question-and-answer time at the end. From 8:10-8:40 p.m., the speaker will be available for a roundtable discussion with students. The roundtable is intended for teens in grades 6-12 to be able to discuss the topic (or related career questions) in more depth, but younger students with great interest in the subject are made welcome.

Young Scientist Roundtable is funded in large part with grants from the General Mills Foundation and the Vernon James Pick Foundation, with further support from FilmTec.

Speaker: Dr. Steven Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University <http://www.astro.cornell.edu/people/fac ... ers_id=112>

Principal Investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/index.html> , Former Chair of the NASA Space Science Advisory Committee "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet" In January of 2004, twin robotic explorers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Expected to last for 90 days, the two rovers have now been exploring the martian surface for six years. Their objective is to search for evidence of past water on Mars, and to determine if Mars ever had conditions that would have been suitable for life. Spirit landed in Gusev Crater, a large impact crater in the southern highlands of Mars. Finding only ancient lava on the crater floor, Spirit drove a mile and a half to the base of the Columbia Hills, a mountain range near the landing site. There Spirit ascended Husband Hill, the highest summit in the range, finding strong evidence that the rocks were modified long ago by water. More recently, Spirit has found strong evidence for ancient hot springs on Mars. Opportunity landed on Meridiani Planum, a smooth plateau near the martian equator. In the first few weeks after landing, Opportunity found compelling evidence for long-ago water on Mars. This evidence included thick deposits of sulfate salts, concretions that precipitated from liquid water, and rocks that preserve ancient ripples formed when water flowed over sand. Opportunity has driven more than ten miles across the martian surface, and has recently explored Victoria Crater, a spectacular impact crater half a mile in diameter. To develop Spirit and Opportunity, a team of more than 4,000 highly motivated engineers and scientists overcame a host of technical challenges. The challenges were multiplied by an extraordinarily tight schedule that was driven by the motions of the planets. The talk will provide an up-to-date summary of the missions of Spirit and Opportunity, from their initial conception through their development, launch, landing, and operations on the surface of Mars.

[FF2Rydia]

Really sounds interesting!

[Wayne]

Dr. Squyres' 2005 book, Roving Mars, was fascinating. He was very candid in explaining the political, scientific and human interactions that had to come together to make the Spirit and Opportunity a reality. On TV, he has been a personable communicator. Should be good.