The Seal Beach International Friendship (“SBIFA”) welcomes back Dr. Ashwin Vasavada to give SBIFA an update on the Curiosity Mars Rover at their dinner meeting on March 21, Thursday evening. Dr. Vasavada was SBIFA’s guest speaker in 2009 on “Exploring Mars” when NASA was still putting together “Curiosity.”
The safe arrival of NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, on August 5, 2012, was celebrated by millions of people around the world.
It’s multiyear mission is to explore the ancient landscape within Gale Crater and search for evidence that Mars once was a habitable planet. To do so, the car-sized rover has seventeen cameras, a laser that zaps rocks to reveal their chemistry, weather and environmental sensors, and a drill for sampling rocks at the end of a seven-foot robotic arm.
Samples of rock powder acquired by the drill are delivered to and processed by chemical laboratories located inside the rover body.
In its first six months on Mars, Curiosity has driven from its landing site to an intriguing area where three different terrains meet. Along the way, it discovered an ancient stream bed. Currently, the rover is acquiring its first sample of Martian rock using its drill.
Dr. Ashwin Vasavada is a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He is presently the Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s Curiosity rover that successfully reached Mars in August, 2012. He helps lead the international team of scientists on that mission. His research interests include the climate history of Mars, the weather on Jupiter and Saturn, and the possibility of ice at the poles of the Moon and Mercury.
He has participated in the operation and analysis of data from several NASA spacecraft missions, including the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn. He holds a B.S. in Geophysics from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from Caltech.
The dinner program will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Mary Wilson Library Senior Center, 707 Electric Avenue in Seal Beach. Donation for members is $12 each or $22 for couples; non-members $15.00 or $27 for couples; $10 for students. Pay by check at the door. Reservations are required and accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is limited. RSVP by March 17 with Claire Yeh at (562) 431-5414 or email her at kalea16@gmail.com.
