Steven W. Squyres-Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity andthe Exploration of the Red Planet

Summary: In January of 2004, twin robotic explorers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Expected to last for 90 days, their mission has now gone on for more than eight years. Its 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. To develop Spirit and Opportunity, a team of more than 4,000 highly motivated engineers and scientists overcame a host of technical challenges. These challenges were multiplied by an extraordinarily tight schedule that was driven by the motions of the planets. This 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. Steve W. Squyres is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His research area is in planetary sciences, with a focus on large solid bodies in the solar system such as the terrestrial planets and the moons of the Jovian planets. Squyres is principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER). He is the recipient of the 2004 Carl Sagan Memorial Award and the 2009 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Communication in Planetary Science. On October 28, 2010, Dr. Squyres received the 2010 Mines Medal for his achievements as a researcher and professor. Squyres has participated in a number of planetary spaceflight missions. From 1978 to 1981 he was an associate of the Voyager imaging science team, participating in analysis of imaging data from the encounters with Jupiter and Saturn. He was a radar investigator on the Magellan mission to Venus, a member of the Mars Observer gamma-ray spectrometer flight investigation team, and a co-investigator on the Russian Mars ‘96 mission. He is a member of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission to Saturn and was a member of the gamma- ray X-ray spectrometer team on NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission. Dr. Squyres’ research focuses on the robotic exploration of planetary surfaces, the history of water on Mars, geophysics and tectonics of icy satellites, tectonics of Venus, planetary gamma- ray and x-ray spectroscopy. Research for which he is best known includes study of the history and distribution of water on Mars and of the possible existence and habitability of a liquid water ocean on Europa. He received his B.A. in Geological Sciences and his Ph.D. in Astronomy (Planetary Studies) from Cornell University. The IMAX documentary film Roving Mars was based on Squyres’ book Roving Mars : Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet.