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...
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.
switched
It is a big step. We've really switched gears.
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.
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.
assume dirty solar stay
We have to assume the worst...that the solar panels are going to stay dirty and just get dirtier.
anniversary entire mars seen year
I actually see the Mars year anniversary as being more significant, ... We will have seen Mars over an entire seasonal cycle.
belief regarding
I don't have a belief regarding that question.
conjecture data gotten point purely table until
But that's purely conjecture at this point à a working hypothesis. Everything is on the table until we've gotten more data down.
amount huge respect
I have a huge amount of respect for what they've accomplished,
image sheer terms
In terms of sheer scenic grandeur, it is the most spectacular image we've taken. It's like nothing else on Mars.