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...
busy
We'll be busy here for a long time.
hope survive winter
We hope to survive another winter on Mars.
dark dealing mystery origin time
One mystery we've been dealing with for a long time is the origin of the little dark 'cobbles' that we occasionally see out on the plains.
dark dealing mystery origin time
One mystery weve been dealing with for a long time is the origin of the little dark cobbles that we occasionally see out on the plains,
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.
bedrock head heading home looking toward
For Spirit, we're going to head down the hill, looking for bedrock and heading toward Home Plate,
heck mount rover
That's no Mount Everest, but for a little rover this is a heck of a climb.
convinced gives vehicle
A sol like that gives you confidence. I'm really convinced now that we're able to keep the vehicle safe.
last layer speaks water
One possibility is that it's the last layer to form. It speaks to yet another water episode.
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.
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.
bite landed opportunity waiting
That was waiting to bite us. If Opportunity had landed first, it would have had the same problem.
found gained rock spirit time
Every time Spirit has gained altitude, we've found different rock types,
calls certainly good guy land looks promised rugged team turn
That very rugged stuff. There is a guy on our team who actually calls this the geologic promised land. I don't know if it's going to turn out to be that good or not and I don't know if we'll ever get there, but it certainly looks interesting.