Mars Lecture—Dr. Wendy Calvin—September 14

A message from Dr. Scott Tyler at UNR: Dr. Wendy Calvin will be presenting the kickoff Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering Seminar on Monday, September 14 in DMS 102.  The title of her talk will be “Roving Mars: From Sojourner to Curiosity.”  Please join us for this exciting seminar. Refreshments will follow the seminar!

Dr. Wendy Calvin
Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering Seminar Series
Roving Mars: From Sojourner to Curiosity
9/14/15 at 4PM
DMS 102
http://www.unr.edu/around-campus/facilities/davidson

We landed our first wheeled vehicle on the surface of Mars on July 4th, 1997.  Designed for a 30-day mission, the Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover completed 83 sols of imaging and observations.  In the ensuing years, our knowledge of Mars has increased exponentially, allowing us to ask more refined questions on the history of the planet and perform ever more spectacular engineering feats. The second of two 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, holds the distance record for a robotic vehicle on another planet and has passed 4100 mars days (sols) of operation and is still roving. The latest addition, Curiosity, has been exploring since August of 2012, drilling rocks and placing them in the on board science labs. The talk will discuss the evolution of our orbital information for selecting landing sites, the improvement and increased sophistication in engineering our roving vehicles and the scientific accomplishments of our four six-wheeled martian explorers.