| Steve Squyres Interview Archive |
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| Written by Frank Stratford | |
| Thursday, 09 November 2006 | |
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Interview With Steve Squyres We have all followed the groundbreaking progress of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and witnessed their stunning discoveries and unprecedented views of Mars over the last Martian year. Steve Squyres is the scientist and principle investigator behind the Mars Exploration Rover Mission as well as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University. He has recently released his book- “Roving Mars” which details his fascinating account of these truly awe inspiring missions. He writes of “ more than a decade of ups, downs, triumphs, dead ends, politics, and, at times utter confusion in this dramatic tale of how Spirit and Opportunity beat the odds. Roving Mars is both and adventure story and an insider’s view of life at the frontiers of exploration”. Steve also answered a few of our questions recently sent to him a few days ago by MarsDrive- 1. How is the Mars Recon Observer progressing now and is there any >reasonable expectation that the MRO may continue to operate beyond it's >designed 24 month scientific mission and, if so, might the MRO be used to >gather data outside of the original scope of the mission? MRO is more than halfway to Mars and doing well. It's never wise to count on an extended mission for any space flight project, so we'll see what we see. If MRO does have an extended mission, it'll most likely be used to increase the coverage (i.e., to look at more of Mars). >2. If the MRO discovers substantial evidence of surface or near-surface >water ice, what near short-term impact might the discovery have on NASA's plans for manned exploration of Mars? I doubt it would have much, since Mars Odyssey has already discovered substantial evidence of near-surface water ice. >3. How do you feel organizations such as the Mars Society, the Planetary >Society, MarsDrive and others may best contribute to the continued success of programs such as MRO and MER? Mostly by helping spread the word of their discoveries. >4. What discoveries have been of particular significance to you in the >time the rovers have been exploring Mars? There have been a lot of them, but I would say that the primary one is the compelling evidence for former liquid water at the Meridiani site. >5. What kind of technical issues had to be overcome in extracting >Opportunity from the sand trap it was stuck in a little while back? Mostly it was finding the optimum technique for extraction. That work was done by simulating the martian situation in our rover testbed on Earth, and it took a lot of time. >6. Do you have any views on when you think there will be a human mission to Mars and what issues do you think need to be dealt with before this happens? Sending humans to Mars has been twenty years in the future for the past twenty years. If you look at NASA's plans, it's at least that now. So I think it'll be awhile. The biggest issue that needs to be dealt with before it happens is the political one of finding a way to pay for it. |
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