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...
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.
appear berries bit clearly debating numerous rocks seem seen smaller
The berries are more numerous here, and some seem to be smaller than any weve ever seen. And interestingly, some dont appear to be round. Were still debating what this means, but clearly the hematite is distributed a bit differently here than it has been in any other rocks weve seen at Meridiani,
dipping geology says similar textures
It's very similar in composition, with very similar textures when you look at it with a microscope, but it's dipping in all different directions. What it says is that the geology around here is pretty complicated.
expect
So expect to see a very big panorama from this spot.
sit
So don't sit here and think, 'Oh, we're going to go to the hills.' We're going to go 'toward' the hills,
challenges deal financial huge launch pad technical
They'd had to deal with huge technical as well as financial challenges. Just to get Beagle 2 to the launch pad is a huge accomplishment.
challenge driving five six terrain
Driving in that terrain was a challenge with all six wheels. With five wheels, it was a mess.
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.
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.
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.
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.
almost cause expected guess mars mystery occasional odd remains root vehicle
The root cause of the reset remains a mystery, but I guess the occasional odd glitch is to be expected from a vehicle that's been on Mars for almost 600 sols.
area climb climbing field found gained geologist good motivated plotting point rock science spirit time
This climb was motivated by science. Every time Spirit has gained altitude, we've found different rock types. Also, we're doing what any field geologist would do in an area like this: climbing to a good vantage point for plotting a route.