Steve Squyres
Steve Squyres
Steven W. Squyresis the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences 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. He is the recipient of the 2004 Carl Sagan Memorial Award and the 2009 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Communication in...
capability created display edge five high homes images laptop nobody screen standing stories
Nobody has the display capability in their homes you'd need to really see these images in all their grandeur. One panorama we created was 4,000 pixels high and 24,000 pixels around, and your laptop just can't display that. But on an IMAX screen five stories tall, you're standing on the edge of the crater. You're there.
hope survive winter
We hope to survive another winter on Mars.
course far five hills sit
Our requirement for how far we should be able to traverse over the course of the mission, was 600 meters. These hills are five times that far away. OK, so don't sit here and think, 'Oh, we're going to go to the hills.' We're going to go 'toward' the hills.
came clean looks opportunity spirit
Spirit is our tough, hardworking robot. Opportunity looks like she just came off the showroom floor, clean and pretty.
ancient explosions given happened hot past raining spirit stuff violent window wonderful
Spirit has given us a wonderful window into the very ancient past of Mars. It was a violent place, a place where meteorite impacts, volcanic explosions happened frequently, where hot stuff was raining from the sky.
bite landed opportunity waiting
That was waiting to bite us. If Opportunity had landed first, it would have had the same problem.
discovery driven speed survival travel
Our speed of travel is driven as much by survival as by discovery.
switched
It is a big step. We've really switched gears.
bedrock head heading home looking toward
For Spirit, we're going to head down the hill, looking for bedrock and heading toward Home Plate,
priority reach safe winter
For Spirit, the priority has been to reach a safe winter haven.
chance deepest entry fresh ground heat hole performed shield
For the scientists, it may be a chance to look at the deepest fresh hole in the ground that we'll ever see on Mars. ... For the engineers, it's an unprecedented chance to see how a heat shield performed during entry through the martian atmosphere. There's something for everybody.
mission today
Today is day 591 of our 90-day mission to Mars.
curious figure
We've been very curious to figure out what they are.
barely driving exposed found gotten ground hard leave parts region stuff summit
What we have found once we've gotten up into the summit region...the driving has gotten very, very good. The ground is hard here. There is not a lot of fine-grain stuff around. What there is piled up in drifts. This is because the summit region is exposed to the wind; it's very windy. In some parts of the summit region, we barely leave tracks.