From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Wed Aug 24 2005 - 01:37:13 UTC
----- Original Message -----
From: <cunews_at_cornell.edu>
To: "CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L" <CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 6:41 PM
Subject: Featuring Cornell: Roving Mars
> Squyres writes the book on Mars and the little rovers that could
> http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug05/Squyres.roving.lg.html
>
> Aug. 23, 2005
>
> By Lauren Gold
> lg34_at_cornell.edu
>
> ITHACA, N.Y. -- It has been an amazing mission from the beginning.
> Getting two tremendously intricate machines funded, designed, built,
> tested, approved, launched, landed safely on a planet millions of
> miles from Earth and functioning nearly continuously for more than a
> year and a half is an extraordinary feat.
>
> And the details only make it better. "Roving Mars: Spirit,
> Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet" (Hyperion, 2005)
> by Steve Squyres, the mission's principal investigator and Cornell
> University's Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, is an inside look
> at how the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission came together. And
> how, time after time, it almost didn't.
>
> Squyres started preparing for the mission (because such things don't
> get whipped up in an easy couple of years) in 1977. In turn, the
> process was agonizingly slow and whirlwind fast -- littered with more
> challenges, crushing disappointments and maddening frustrations than
> only the most dedicated could bear.
>
> On Mars, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity have had their share of
> individual dramas as well. But if there ever were doubt that they
> would accomplish their scientific mission -- searching for evidence
> that Mars once had conditions suitable to sustain life -- it was long
> ago dispelled.
>
> Spirit and Opportunity, which would have been successes had they
> operated for 90 Martian days, are still going strong after more than
> 1,000 Martian days between them. Squyres tells how at Meridiani
> Planum, Opportunity discovered hematite, jarosite, sulfur, bromine
> and other evidence that water once flowed there. On the other side of
> the planet in the Columbia Hills, Spirit has detected those minerals
> and others (goethite, for example, which actually contains water in
> its crystalline structure) -- indicating those rocks may also once
> have been exposed to water.
>
> There are still many more questions than answers. But thanks to the
> rovers -- and their creators -- we know volumes more about Mars than
> we did just two years ago.
>
> The book isn't just about Spirit and Opportunity. It's also a story
> of the people who built them. "Roving Mars" closes with 27 pages of
> names of people involved in the mission. Over 4,000 in all.
>
> No one would deny Squyres getting much of the glory, but his theme
> throughout the book is that without that giant family of 4,000
> engineers, scientists, technicians and support staff, the whole thing
> might never have happened.
>
> "Roving Mars" also includes 32 pages of photos. Some, like panoramic
> views of Endurance Crater, are probably familiar. Others, such as a
> close-up of what the team called "freaky little hematite balls" until
> they started calling them "blueberries" -- were less widely
> circulated.
>
> Several photos show the MER team members -- beaming -- as they get a
> glimpse of the first rover images from Mars.
>
> And in one, taken just after Squyres and mission assurance manager
> Mark Boyles learn Spirit was successfully deployed, both men have
> their eyes closed and arms in the air. Boyles is cheering. Squyres is
> smiling so widely, your face aches in sympathy.
>
> The photos show the emotion. The book tells -- beautifully -- why it's
> there.
>
> -30-
>
> Media Contact: Press Relations Office
> Phone: (607) 255-6074
> E-mail: pressoffice_at_cornell.edu
>
>
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>
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>
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