Hitchcock LECTURE SERIES

Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet

Steven Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University

May 02, 2011 — 2:10 PM
International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley
Pleae note early start time

Steven Squyres first lecture will describe NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. Topics will include the engineering challenges that had to be met in getting the rovers to Mars, as well as the scientific results obtained by both vehicles over more than seven years of exploration.

About Steven Squyres

Steven Squyres is best known for his studies of the history and distribution of water on Mars and the possible existence and habitability of a liquid water ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. His research focuses on planetary sciences, with particular interest on the robotic exploration of planetary surfaces, geophysics and tectonics of icy satellites, tectonics of Venus, and planetary gamma-ray and x-ray spectroscopy. Former Chair of the NASA Space Science Advisory Committee, Squyres has participated in a number of NASA's planetary spaceflight missions, including the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Magellan mission to Venus, and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission. Spearheading a team of over 3,000 people, Squyres was the principle scientist behind the $800 million Mars Exploration Rover Project (MER). He dreamed up the mission of exploring the Red Planet in 1987, and turned it into a reality by successfully landing the Rovers on Mars’s surface in 2004. In his 2005 book, Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet, Squyres presents an in-depth look at managing one of the most remarkable space missions of our time.

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