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...
fact frost involved level might understand wind
Wind has to be involved at some level you figure. Frost might have helped. A frost build-up on arrays could coagulate the dust...but the fact is that we don't understand it very well. But I'll take it.
across columbia far hills january looked necessary night order plains quickly realized seemed sought stuff touched water whether
When we first touched down at Gusev Crater on the night of January 4, 2004, the Columbia Hills seemed impossibly far away. It was a necessary place for us to get to, though, because as we looked across the plains we quickly realized these plains were made of basaltic lava. This was stuff that was interesting but did not tell us what we really sought to know about Gusev Crater, and that is whether there had been water here. So in order to find something, in order to find something different, we had to make that mile-and-a-half drive.
awe business deciding seeing waiting
We're just waiting. We're just in awe of what we're seeing and we're just waiting to see the whole thing so we can really get about the business of deciding what to do.
home material mean seen stuff widespread
We have no idea yet how widespread Home Plate-like material may be. We have not seen anything like this before, but it doesn't mean there isn't more stuff out there.
carefully cliffs die fall proceed rover
There are cliffs the rover could fall over and die if we aren't careful. We are gong to proceed carefully and methodically.
carry climb head hill husband summit
We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the 'Inner Basin' on the other side. But now we have more flexibility in how we carry out the plan. Before, it was climb or die.
terms
We're not going to take any risks. It's a big crater in terms of diameter, but really shallow. It's nothing like Endurance.
hope survive winter
We hope to survive another winter on Mars.
busy
We'll be busy here for a long time.
discovery driven speed survival travel
Our speed of travel is driven as much by survival as by discovery.
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.