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Roving
Mars: Spirit,
Opportunity,
and the Exploration of the Red
Planet
Professor Steve Squyres, Cornell
University
A major highlight of the conference was a
highly entertaining and informative keynote address by Steve
Squires, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration
Rover Mission.
Steve talked nonstop about the
challenges, amazing successes, and surprising findings that
have resulted.
His presentation of
dramatic images and video was often interspersed with
moments of uproarious laughter, such as when he displayed the
amazing bouncing airbag hole-in-one trajectory of
Opportunity into Eagle Crater. Another humorous moment
was when he described his reaction to finding a massive iron
meteorite next to Opportunity's jettisoned heat shield: "Let's get out of
here! This seems to be a place where heavy objects
fall from the sky."
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