On Tuesday, 16 April 2013 over 200 members of CEPSAR made their way to the Berrill lecture theatre - and students joined through the webcast option - to listen to Z. Nagin Cox and her talk about landing and driving rovers on Mars. Nagin works for NASA and her visit was part of a tour organized by the US Embassy in London. Nagin was part of the teams that landed the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity. She now is with the Curiosity engineering team to drive the rover on Mars. …with 400 scientists on the back seat! The audience was captured by the liveliness of the presentation but even more so by the fascinating details that were presented. They learned about different methods to land on Mars with its thin atmosphere and rocky surface: it depends on weight, obviously, but there are hazards to be avoided. Once on Mars, specification matters: The rover is about the size of a Mini Cooper – with much less horsepower, but a lot more climbing capabilities … built for ‘unnamed roads on Mars’! The journey on Mars has started and Curiosity is on its way to Mt. Sharp. On the way, scientists got the first findings that tell them about water on Mars and how it flowed. Currently, Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun, which makes communication almost impossible. Curiosity takes a little break, but will soon be on its way again to new places to investigate.
22 April 2013