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...
carefully compelling deciding downhill driving experience factor finding found geology good head learn loose move offers pace respect sand slower sort stuff targets truly uphill vehicle whereas year
With respect to how long it's going to take us to get down the hill, we don't have a whole lot of experience driving this vehicle downhill -- we've been going uphill for more than a year now. We're going to have to take it carefully at first and learn as we go. I think the deciding factor is going to be how good the geology is. If we're finding geology that offers truly compelling targets (for study) as we found on the way up, then our pace is going to be a lot slower whereas if it's a lot of loose sand and that sort of thing we'll be able to move through it a lot more briskly and head to the good stuff off in the distance.
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.
driving hang
We're also really getting the hang of driving in this terrain.
along chris dig driving dust hills lee mountain remember rock shadow side slip struggling stuck stuff wheels wind
Chris will remember vividly as we were struggling along the northwestern flank of that mountain how much loose, fine-grain stuff there was. Our wheels would dig in, we'd slip around and we'd dig in deep. Remember that potato-sized rock we got stuck in the wheel once? It was really treacherous driving because there was accumulated dust there. We were probably in the wind shadow on the lee side of the hills at that point.
challenge driving five six terrain
Driving in that terrain was a challenge with all six wheels. With five wheels, it was a mess.
environment kinds rocks salt shallow
This was an inhabitable environment on Mars. This was a shallow sea. These rocks ... it's a salt flat. These are the kinds of environments that are very suitable for life.
cost easy happened mars problem rover time wrong
Easy problem to find and fix, but it happened at just the wrong time and cost us data, and one more sol, ... Another first for the Mars Exploration Rover Project.
arm failed fearful motor time
We were fearful for a time that the motor may have failed permanently. If that were the case, we'd never be able to use the arm again.
found gained rock spirit time
Every time Spirit has gained altitude, we've found different rock types,
both continue husband literally mission remarkable summit top
Both rovers continue to be in superb health. It has been just a remarkable mission and I would say we literally feel on top of the world right now being on the summit of Husband Hill.
climb field figure geologist geologists hill land lay nearest robotic spirit top
What field geologists typically do - and Spirit is a robotic field geologist - is you climb to the top of the nearest hill and take a look around so you get the lay of the land and figure out where you want to go,
opportunity salty sea
We think Opportunity is now parked on what was once the shoreline of a salty sea on Mars.
belief regarding
I don't have a belief regarding that question.
last layer speaks water
One possibility is that it's the last layer to form. It speaks to yet another water episode.