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On Wednesday 10th October 2007 Mark
Adler delivered a speech on the journey of the Mars Exploration Rovers
Abstract
The Mars Exploration Rovers
left Earth in mid 2003 and landed on the planet Mars in January 2004.
Since then they have
been examining evidence of an ancient Mars that had liquid water at the
surface
billions of years
ago, and that may have had the necessary conditions to support life. The
talk will cover
why Mars is such an
interesting place to explore scientifically and culturally, a short history
of Mars
exploration by
spacecraft, what the Mars Exploration Rovers look like and how they work,
how they were
designed, built, and
tested, how they are operated on Mars, what scientific discoveries they
have made,
and the current
status and prospects for their future. The talk will end with an overview
of our future
planned and imagined
missions to Mars.
 
Speaker
Dr Mark Adler was the
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Mission Manager at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory
(JPL). Starting in
2000, he was responsible for the Mission System of the Rover project and
the
operations of the
Spirit rover en route to Mars through the primary and first extended
surface mission in
2004. Prior to the
Rover project, Mark worked on the Mars Sample Return project as chief
engineer and
as the program
architect for the Mars Exploration Program. Mark began his work at JPL as
the Cassini
Lead Mission Engineer
from 1992-1996 and is currently the Chief Mission Concept Architect at JPL.
Mark received his
B.A. in Mathematics from the University
of Florida in 1981 as
well as his M.S. in
Electrical
Engineering in 1985. In 1990 he earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the California
Institute of
Technology. Mark also
spent time at Hughes Aircraft Company working as a Staff Physicist and the
Advanced Technology
Section Head, both as part of the Space and Communications Group.
 
Union Hall, The University of Adelaide
Refer map at www.adelaide.edu.au/campuses
All Welcome
For further
information, contact ian.tuohy@baesystems.com
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