Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - Celebrate With The Mars Exploration Rover Team

Episode Date: April 12, 2004

With lots to celebrate, The Planetary Society threw a party for the scientists and engineers who have made Spirit and Opportunity such amazing successes, and you're invited!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us for a Mars party on Planetary Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Matt Kaplan. Spirit, the first of the Mars exploration rovers, reached a milestone last week. The little six-wheeled explorer was warrantied to last three months on the red planet. It has survived that period in near-perfect health, with perhaps months more activity ahead. Over on the other side of Mars, Opportunity is also going strong, making new discoveries every day. Reason enough to celebrate, but the MER team at the Jet Propulsion Lab near Pasadena, California, had yet another incentive to party. After three months of life on Mars time,

the decision has been made to return to Earth. No more crazy, creeping schedules, shifting 39 minutes each day to stay in step with one side or the other of Mars. Finally, a return to more or less normal life with their families. The Planetary Society decided it was once again time to let them know how much the rest of us appreciate their heroic work. So the invitations went out for an informal gathering. The Society brought the pizza, beer, and soft drinks. The scientists and engineers brought spouses and children. Lots of children. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Planetary Society.

Thank you. I'm Bruce Betts, director of projects. We're having this party largely to thank all of you for helping us out, providing a great mission that we've continued to see enormous interest from the public, from our membership, for helping us out with our Red Rover Goes to Mars project, an official part of the mission. Many of you have helped us a great deal working with the most visible aspect, our student astronauts at JPL in operation, 16 kids from 12 countries. They've gotten a fabulous reception from their own countries from around the world. We also have had our other aspects of the project, of course, a replica of our fun little DVDs carrying 4 million names to the surface of Mars on each of the landers. We've got some nice pictures of these thanks to the PanCam team

and the whole mission being such a great success, and thanks to the magnet team for providing magnets, which actually have collected dust and will be coming out with something. I mentioned one other part of the DVD is, of course, our friends Biff and Sandy, the astrobots on here writing their astrobot diaries online. Again, thank you. We're just giddy with excitement and happiness. We've had a lot of positive feedback, a lot of press, a lot of traffic, and we could not

have done it without people who are here this evening as well as many others. I'm going to turn you over to Emily Lachtewal, our science and technology coordinator. She's going to share a little bit with you from the student astronauts. She's, of course, the one who's at JPL the most, and then will come back to me for very quick last words before we move on to more fun. I don't want to take too much of your time, but I just wanted to share with you two things that nearly all of the student astronauts said in their journals and to me when they were working at JPL. I expected all of the scientists and engineers to be stern and forbidding,

or at least too busy for us. But they were all so friendly. They spent so much time with us. They were all so great. They explained everything. They were wonderful people. So all of the student astronauts want to thank you all for welcoming them so much. The other thing that nearly all of them said was, I've always been interested in space, and I always thought that to be able to explore space, I had to be an astronaut. But now, after this, I know that I don't have

to be an astronaut to explore space. I can work at JPL and be on a space mission and be on a science team or one of the engineers and explore space through robots. And nearly every single one of them said that. So I want to thank all of you for giving them that impression and helping them give that impression to all of the kids who read their journals online. So thanks very much to all of you. Thank you. Thanks, Emily, for all her work on this project. Thank you all. We appreciate it. We'll go straight to the raffle if we have the raffle tickets.

And out went a lot of cool prizes, followed by something of more interest to the kids. The society staff couldn't find a pinata shaped like a Mars rover, so they settled for one that resembled the computers most of the rover crew have been staring at for months or years. Inside the Pitney computer pinata, we had nerds and smarties and airheads. We're hoping for Mars bars. Still being beat on here. Yeah, we've got a few of the scientists repeating on the computer terminal now. It's not pretty, but hopefully it'll clear their brains.

Smallest to largest, the big ones in the back. Il en a, il en a. Fais la queue. On fait du petit au grand. Yay! That was Deputy Project Scientist Albert Haldeman, getting things organized in English and the native French he spoke in Switzerland. We last spoke in December, just a couple of weeks before Spirit's arrival on Mars.

Depuis quand tu sais pas frapper une pignatin? Albert Haldeman, it looks like you could have a second career as a children's party director. Are you enjoying the party? I am, thank you very much. It's fun. Nice celebration. Have you guys done anything else like this at the lab? We have had some celebrations at the lab.

I actually was not able to partake, but I understand that on Monday we celebrated Sol 91 on Spirit. So the end of 90 Sols of operations. That was our nominal mission and still got a healthier rover on Mars, so we're going further. But apparently a good time was had by all. There was some video compilation sort of documenting what had happened and various people, various ups and downs, the emotional ups and downs of the joy of landing spirit, then the long faces when we had the flash memory anomaly, and then the exuberance when we managed to get around the corner on that one

and then land opportunity, I mean, all of that stuff. It has literally been a wild ride. It has been a wild ride. There have been lots of ups and downs. There's been a lot of emotional involvement, a lot invested by a lot of people. And you can't help but ride a roller coaster when it's something like that. But it's just a great event to participate in, and it's also a lot of fun to share it as much as possible with the world at large. I mean, taxpayers who enabled it, frankly.

as much as possible with the world at large. I mean, taxpayers who enabled it, frankly. Back to celebrations like this one. I'm not a bit surprised to hear that you've had some within JPL, but has anything like this from an outside group happened? There's sponsorship from an outside group that has really been in honor of all of you on the team. No, not that I'm aware of. We've had certain groups within the team, say, for example,

the German scientists who brought the Mossbauer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer to the payload. They hosted a party a couple weeks ago to sort of say thank you to everybody for the great data that they've gotten. They're very pleased with themselves and pleased with their experiments, but they realize, as we all do, it's a huge team effort. So they hosted a party outside of JPL at their residence here in Pasadena. That was a lot of fun. So that's a comparable sort of event. And we've also, as far as saying thank you, the project I was participating in going to some of our subcontractors to say thank

you there. No big parties, but at least just sort of thank yous all around and spreading the word and the excitement that we've had with all the hard work that was put in over the past three, four years. Somebody was trying to get your attention there. Who was that? That's one or the other or both of my daughters. The three-year-old Anya and the 5-year-old Ilona,

who are committed Martians. They know all the important stuff. Hi, Ilona. Can you speak on the radio? Can you speak on the radio? Candy in my mouth. Can I wait until you swallow your candy and then I can ask you a question? Do you want your sister to talk?

Okay. Kind of fun to have the kids here, isn't it? It is. It is nice. And they've put up with a lot, too, with the mission. A lot of families have put up with a lot. So it's kind of nice to be able to have some steam letting out time where they can participate a little bit too. They and a lot of other kids and families got to participate on landing days.

We had for Spirit Beckman Auditorium at Caltech and then the auditorium at Pasadena City College for opportunities landing. So a lot of people brought their families and got to sort of expose them to the excitement of that event, the landing event. So that was good. We've tried to share it a little bit with the families, too. They put up with a lot. And the celebrations are hardly over. Who knows how long you're going to be celebrating? Yeah, that's some excitement there in the background, things being slammed around.

The potential is there. Certainly we've got some plans. We've got some exciting things that we're hoping to get done in an extended mission in the next few months through the summer here in Pasadena and actually the northern summer, but it's going into winter for us now in our southern hemisphere locations. But we've still got some good targets and some good fun things that we want to do with the rovers, some exciting science to do that involves driving, getting to some locations where we hope to find

more evidence of past water with opportunity and maybe the evidence that's eluded us so far with Spirit and the Goosehead Prater. Well, party on, Albert, and thanks for coming back on a Planetary Radio in a very different setting. Thank you very much. I'm glad to participate. Albert Haldeman, Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. I left Albert to his capable management of the pinata pounding and moved across the patio at Planetary Society headquarters. There was Matt Golombek with a beer in his hand.

It has been a year since we last heard from the famed planetary scientist. He seemed to be having as much fun as the kids. I was just saying, Albert Haldeman, a rather different setting from the last conversation I've had with either of you on this radio show, but fun. Yeah, this is a lot of fun. Well, it's nice to be doing something on, like, normal human hours as opposed to, like, you never know. I mean, we haven't been able to have like a happy hour because we never knew when that was going to be. This is a good crowd.

They look like they know how to have fun when they get together. Oh, yes. Well, we all deserve it after this. Nine months or three months of around-the-clock operations. It takes its toll. It really does. Just even knowing that you're going to be working on normal hours and, you know, like you're going to eat dinner at dinner time. I mean, that's a real plus.

You've been through another very successful mission. I mean, well, lots of them, but especially I'm thinking of the Pathfinder mission. How does this compare? How does this, I don't know, what do you want to call it, the morale, the joie de vivre of this team compared? They're very different projects. Every project has a personality, and they're all different. They all develop that personality from the top key people that sort of get it going. And it's funny, even when those people leave, that personality stays with the project right through.

And Murr is very, very different. Pathfinder was a bunch of us in our garage. I mean, literally, it was this incredibly small team against the world, you know. And Murr is the complete establishment. I mean, Murr is JPL. It's huge. I mean, there's still people that I don't even know that work full-time on MER. I mean, it's just a very, very big team and much bigger and just very, very different feel, yeah.

And we only have a fraction of the team here, maybe 50 people. Yeah, you've got most of the science team and probably not a real big chunk of the engineering team, yeah. Do you, and I mean this in only the most complimentary way, do you ever feel like an elder statesman? No, I feel like an explorer, actually. I mean, that's really the bottom line. That's what I do is I explore Mars. I feel incredibly fortunate I can do that and actually get paid for it. I can do that and actually get paid for it.

I mean, part of the whole act of selecting the landing site is trying to imagine what it's really going to be like when you get there. And, I mean, these two missions have been incredibly fulfilling because all of the important characteristics in terms of safety of the landing sites. We predicted perfectly. I mean, they're both exactly what we said they were going to be. And yet, look at the scientific difference between what we've learned at the two. And that shows you there's always an ambiguity between this remote sensing data that you're peering down at the surface and what's it really going to be like when you get it. What are you really going to learn? What are you going to find? Nothing like getting down there in the dirt and you don't know until you

do it that's what sort of makes it so exciting it's that discovery of you know even when we got to the edge of bonneville it's a place that no one had ever seen before from that vantage point and you know we discovered it and it's hardly over no you know and we've been talking for weeks of course on this show about what's next. Let's do it one more time. What's next? Yeah, and in fact, I'm the geology czar, which is it's my job to schedule the geology theme group for all the extended mission and find out who's available and stuff. And it looks like it's going to go for hundreds of sols.

And we could find a whole bunch of incredible things. I mean, we all thought the planes at Meridiani were going to be boring. And they're anything but. We found the incredible cracks and deflation pits. It's just so much fun. So this is hardly a final celebration. Oh, no, no. We're going to be gone for a really long time.

Matt Kallenbeck, thanks very much. The party's still going strong, so grab a slice of pizza and stick around. I'll be back with a couple more members of the Mars Exploration Rover team and Bruce Betts. Planetary Radio continues its Mars Party special right after this. This is Buzz Aldrin. When I walked on the moon, I knew it was just the beginning of humankind's great adventure in the solar system.

That's why I'm a member of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group. The Planetary Society is helping to explore Mars. We're tracking near-Earth asteroids and comets. We sponsor the search for life

on other worlds, and we're building the first-ever solar sail. You can learn about these adventures and exciting new discoveries from space exploration in The Planetary Report. The Planetary Report is the Society's full-color magazine. It's just one of many member benefits.

You can learn more by calling 1-877-PLANETS. That's toll-free, 1-877-752-6387. And you can catch up on space exploration news and developments at our exciting and informative website, planetarysociety.org. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. We're back with Planetary Radio and more of our special coverage of last week's party for the Mars Exploration Rover team. It was just starting to get dark at Planetary Society headquarters when I worked my way over to a couple of other key members of the MER squad.

You may remember Ken Herkenhoff telling us about the microscopic imagers on Spirit and Opportunity and the announcement that there was once lots of water on the Meridiani Planum. Ken was catching up with geologist John Grant, another member of the science team who works for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington when he's not at JPL. Ken, we probably talked to you more recently than anybody else here because you were just on the show about two weeks ago. And John Grant's going to come back. He just went to grab another beer, I think.

You've already got one in your hand. Having a good time? I am. Thank you very much. Yeah, this is great. Nice to celebrate. Matt Golombek was just saying, boy, it's nice just that everybody could get together because, you know, so many of you are, you know, on the opposite sides of Mars.

Yeah, it's nice to relax for a change because we have been working pretty hard, and this is a lot of fun. because we have been working pretty hard, and this is a lot of fun. John Grant, you, I'm told, co-chaired the site selection committee with Matt Golombek, who we talked to just a second ago. Must be pretty pleased. I imagine you've gotten a few pats on the back for making good selections. Actually, I didn't make the selection.

I think it was pretty much of a slam dunk when you got the science community involved. There were two clear favorites, and I'm just glad to see that those favorites bubbled up to the top and were selected. Worked out pretty well in terms of data. It's working out fantastically. I mean, if you start with that assumption that if you don't land safely, you don't get any science, knowing that we landed safely and getting all this science is very gratifying. Yeah, nice balance. You're the one who's getting to do a lot of that science. Oh, yeah, it's been great. In fact, we've gotten real lucky with both of these landing sites. I think that things have gone so well, and particularly with Opportunity.

You know, we had no idea that we were going to find what we've seen there. The outcrop and all the luck we've had has just been fantastic. I've asked some of the other folks what it's like to be able to get together with the team in a situation like this, a celebration like this. It's great to socialize with people for a change because, you know, when you're working so hard, you don't really have a chance to, you know, talk about anything but work. And, you know, John and I have been friends for a long time, so it's nice to just, you know, kick back and have a couple beers and talk about something besides work for a change.

John, you're out here from the Air and Space Museum. Are you out on business and just happened to hit it when we were throwing a party? No, no, I'm on the science team as well, so I'm working with these guys on the mission. And I would concur with Ken the idea that we can actually do something in normal time when people are awake and sort of wanting to have a beer with us

as opposed to 8 a.m. in the morning or something is kind of a nice switch. I'll let you go back to enjoying the party, and there's plenty of pizza left. All right. Thanks, Matt. Thank you, gentlemen. Well, Bruce, it's time for What's Up, and the party's over.

Yeah, we're turning out the lights. But there are a few scientists who haven't taken the hint. No, no, no, stick around. We're just kidding. We're just kidding around. Bruce Betts, what's up? There are things up in the sky. There are planets, planets up in the sky, and small

children, babies flying through the sky. And scientists, strange scientists. There are bright planets up in the sky, Matt. You should go out and see them. Have you seen them? I have seen them. Have you ever seen planets? Have you ever seen planets before in the sky? Four planets! You can see them right now. Oh, well, no, it's cloudy. It's really sad when it comes

to me to maintain the serious tone on the show. In the evening shortly after sunset, look in the west, and you'll see that really bright-looking star-like thing is actually Venus. And then follow up in the night sky to the upper left, Mars, whom all these wacky people surrounding us are playing with these days. Look farther up, almost directly overhead, you will see Saturn. And in the same line, continue over, and you will see Jupiter, extremely bright and high in the east shortly after sunset.

That is what is up in the night sky. What else do you have for us? Random space fact! Did you know that Mars is the fourth planet from the sun? Mars is? Yeah, it turns out. God, it's been a wild party. Okay, moving on.

Our trivia question last week, we asked you, what is the surface temperature of the sun to the nearest 1,000 degrees Celsius? How'd we do, Matt? We got lots and lots of new folks entering the contest, people that we've never heard from before. Here's one from Matt Naughton. Now, he was not our winner, so, Matt, you're going to have to try again. But Matt said that the surface temperature of the sun is the same as his car seats in the summer.

Really? Really? But he also said 6,000 degrees centigrade. Now, how old is he that he's actually sitting in a car seat? Oh, okay. Not like baby car seats. Okay. You want a real winner? Oh, I do. I do. I want a real winner, randomly chosen. And I think this is our first winner from Malaysia. He hails from Penang, Malaysia.

And I am absolutely bound to mangle his name. Poon Kai Meng had the correct answer. You said to the nearest thousand, 6,000 degrees Celsius centigrade. Very nice. Excellent. Yeah, it's around 5,700 degrees Celsius. So that's our winner. Congratulations.

And you'll be getting that Planetary Radio t-shirt. We gave away several of tonight. We've got our trivia contest for this week. We'll stick with since we had a Mars rover party. What is the nominal requirement for each of the rovers in terms of how far they have to drive to be considered a success as defined by the NASA requirements? This is like the one-year, 12,000-mile warranty. Although in this case it was, what, a 90-day warranty.

You want to know how far they had to go to be successful. Right. 90 days was the equivalent for how long they needed to last to consider the success. How far did they have to go? How do people enter our contest? Go to planetary.org slash radio and follow the instructions to enter our contest, and you, too, can win a fabulous planetary radio t-shirt and come on folks tell us what size shirt you need just like uh our winner this week did he

wants a large planetary radio t-shirt bruce uh anything else or are we done oh we're pretty much done matt it's it's been a good time so i just want to encourage you all to go out there and look up at the night sky and think about the pink bathroom thank you and good night that's bruce betts the director of projects forary Society, who joins us each week on this segment called What's Up. Say good night, everybody. Good night! So ended our party for the Mars Exploration Rover team, held on April 8 at Planetary Society

headquarters. And that's also going to do it for this slightly abbreviated spring break edition of Planetary Radio. We'll be back to our regular format next week, including the return of Q&A with Emily Lakdawalla. Please join us and have a great week.