This week we talk with Steve Squyres, principal investigator
for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project,
& Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New
York.

Preview from the show:

"We have been so incredibly lucky with this mission. I mean,
to have that dead wheel, which we thought was a catastrophe at the
time, turn up one of the most exciting discoveries of the mission, was
very good
fortune."

"The next big thing, at least in mars exploration, along with the
continuing adventures of the rovers, is a mission called Phoenix. And
Phoenix is a lander mission that's going to land near the north polar
region of mars, and is going to dig down into the soil there, hope to
find ice and then, scoop up some of that ice, and put it into a little
chemistry set on top of the lander, and find out what's inside of that
ice."

"What we've tried to do is provide images, provide curriculum
materials, and provide information for educators as we go. And I think
that's actually the best way to do it, because the thing that makes
this exciting is not reading about it in the historical sense after the
mission's over, so much as being an active participant - you know
following the mission as it's going along. You can go to our website,
and you can download the latest pictures from Mars that have come down
in the last day or so."

Links:


NASA's Mars Exploration Page

Audio clips with Dr. Steve Squyres, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY

Transcript: Mars Rover Update
with Dr. Steve Squyres
Steve Squyres on NASA Direct
Steve Squyres entry from Wikipedia
Steve Squyres: Man on a Misson
from NOVA

Steve Squyres Interview on
The Colbert Report

Steve Squyres on
NPR's
Fresh Air from WHYY,
March 29, 2004

ABC News Person of the Week Article

Father of Spirit and Opportunity,
an article from
Scientific
American, October 2004
Interview with Steve Squyres from
The
Cornell Daily Sun

Mars
Exploration Rovers Mission Update blog &
Way Cool Scientist!

UC Berkeley Distinguished Lecture in
Astronomy Lecture with Steve Squyres on Google
Video

Roving Mars, written by Steve
Squyres from
amazon.com


Brian's "Flaming
Pumpkin of Death"
Dale's Stop-motion
video project