Program Description
"Mission success" for the SPIRIT rover came on April 5, 2004, with operation on Mars for "90 sols", as a martian day is known. Success for its twin, OPPORTUNITY, will arrive in late April, 90 sols after its landing on January 25. But, already, the two rovers have succeeded in revolutionizing our understanding of Mars, and their achievements have energized the entire American space program.
OPPORTUNITY has analyzed bedrock in great detail with a powerful suite of science instruments and proven its landing site in Meridiani Planum was once the shore of a salty ocean. SPIRIT has also found evidence of water in Gusev Crater, believed to have once been an ancient lake. Both rovers have demonstrated NASA's technological capability to build, launch, land and successfully operate rovers on a planet millions of miles away, and were cited in the Bush Administration's new space exploration initiative to the "Moon, Mars and Beyond."
Now, in a program originating live at the St. Louis Science Center, key mission scientists and engineers explain the findings, present some of the amazing pictures, and look to the future. Bill Nye hosts NEW VIEWS with guests:
- ORLANDO FIGUEROA, head of NASA's Solar System Exploration division
- MATT GOLOMBEK, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who helped select the two landing sites
- SHONTE WRIGHT, a thermal engineer responsible for keeping the rovers warm and alive on Mars
- RANDALL LINDEMANN, lead engineer for the rovers' mobility systems, and a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis
- ZOE LEARNER, a member of the dynamic, young science team, though still a grad. student at Cornell
- ERIC DE JONG, an imaging specialist from JPL, whose lab. helps create the 3-D landscapes and animations that make Mars seem so real, and
- DAVE LAVERY, an expert on robotics at NASA HQ, responsible for present and future technologies enabling the exploration of the solar system.
The program originates in the Science Center's McDonnell Planetarium with a live audience of youngsters, teachers and informal science educators from St. Louis and around the nation, and includes several dynamic video sequences including the latest and best images from Mars.
NEW VIEWS will...
...explore the evidence for water, and relate the findings to the question of whether Mars was once a habitable environment
...describe the "Marscapes" encountered to date, and use animations to travel along with SPIRIT and OPPORTUNITY en route to Bonneville Crater and Endurance Crater
...explain how the robots' systems have enabled them to survive on Mars, and how their package of scientific instruments have helped them function as "robotic field geologists", and
...show how this rover mission relates to future orbiters, landers and still more powerful rovers being readied to visit Mars in the coming decade.
NEW VIEWS and the ongoing "To Mars with MER" series are made possible, in part, by NSF and NASA, and other public and private partners.
ON-AIR FAQ from COUNTDOWN TO MARS
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to Steve Squyres, Don Banfield, Diane Bollen, and Pam Smith at Cornell University, Steve Collins, Jose Guzman, David E. Herman, Ramiro Perez, Mark Maimone, Mark Powell and Randy Lindemann at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Steve Ruff, Laura Mehall, Trevor Graff, Amy Knudson, Tim Glotch, and Alice Baldridge at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this
unique service.
ON-AIR FAQ from FIRST LOOK
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to Steve Collins, Attitude Control, Rob Landis, Systems Engineer, Eddie Tunstel, Senior Robotics Engineer, Terry Wysocky, System Engineer Senior, Todd Barber, Propulsion Engineer, Paulo Souza, PDL Mossbauer, Mike Pauken, Thermal Engineer, Sheri Klug, Mars Space Flight Facility, Arizona State University, Janice Bishop, SETI Institute P.I., NASA Ames Research Center, Diane Bollen, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Cornell University for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this unique service.
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How to use ON-AIR
When the ON-AIR function is activated, usually one or two days before the live broadcast, this is what you do.
Click on this link, which will take you to a webpage. From the drop down menu, select the topic that best fits the topic of your question. For "To MARS with MER" that might be "Water on Mars", or "The Mars Exploration Rovers", or "Careers in space science."
In the blank message box, type in what you want to know.
Add your name - first name only - since the people answering your question like to address your answer directly to you. Before you do this check your school policy to see if it requires students to only use initials, first names only, or no name at all.
Be sure to enter your e-mail address, otherwise there's no way you're going to get an answer. Or, if you're submitting the question from school and do not have an individual e-mail address, enter your TEACHER's e-mail address. Be sure to ask him/her in advance.
Click on SEND/SUBMIT and sit back and wait for your individual answer, right back from one of the researchers and/or engineers working on the Mars Exploration Rovers mission!
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Visit our "TIPS FOR WHAT MAKES FOR A 'GOOD'
QUESTION" for some suggestions about practical and productive ways to use
ON-AIR with your students. Also check out the comments
from teachers who have used ON-AIR with their students and
how to make the process work out well, as well as testimonials as to the
educational efficacy of this opportunity for direct, real-time interaction with
some of the nation's leading solar researchers.
Before submitting your questions we request that you check out the ON-AIR archives to see if your question has already been asked and answered.
ON-AIR archives from past sessions:
FIRST LOOK FAQ
Saturday, January 17, 2004
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to Steve Collins, Attitude Control, Rob Landis, Systems Engineer, Eddie Tunstel, Senior Robotics Engineer, Terry Wysocky, System Engineer Senior, Todd Barber, Propulsion Engineer, Paulo Souza, PDL Mossbauer, Mike Pauken, Thermal Engineer, Sheri Klug, Mars Space Flight Facility, Arizona State University, Janice Bishop, SETI Institute P.I., NASA Ames Research Center, Diane Bollen, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Cornell University for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this unique service.
COUNTDOWN TO MARS FAQ
Thursday, May 1, 2003
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to Steve Squyres, Don Banfield, Diane Bollen, and Pam Smith at Cornell University, Steve Collins, Jose Guzman, David E. Herman, Ramiro Perez, Mark Maimone, Mark Powell and Randy Lindemann at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Steve Ruff, Laura Mehall, Trevor Graff, Amy Knudson, Tim Glotch, and Alice Baldridge at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this
unique service.
LIVE FROM MARS 2001 FAQ
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to Larry Bryant, Mary Beth Murrill, Erik Pounders, Marla Thornton and Christine Johnson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Laura Aben, Trevor Graff, Scott Nowicki, Keith Watt, Tim Glotch, Dr. James W. Rice, Jr. and Sheri Klug at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this
unique service.
LIVE FROM MARS 2002 FAQ
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to David Spencer, Robert A. Mase, Peter Poon, Michael Gayle, Larry Bryant, Daniel.F.Finnerty, Erik Pounders, and Christine Johnson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Laura Mehall, Scott Nowicki, Tim Glotch, Kelly Bender, Amy Knudson, Dr. James W. Rice, Jr., Deanne Rogers, and Sheri Klug at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight Facility, Joshua L. Bandfield from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Paul Delaune, Fadi M. Riman, Jeff Bahr and Robert Dunn from NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center, and Chris Shinohara, Chuck Fellows, Heather Enos from the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona for generously contributing their time and knowledge to support this
unique service.
