Prof. Steven Squyres on the Mars Rover
January 25, 2007 - 6:45 p.m.

Thanks for posting that. The really great news is that there will be live, streaming video which will eventually be archived. I was looking through the archived video of previous lectures and there are some interesting ones there in various fields of science.

Tonight at 6:45pm EST (early tomorrow for you in Europe) Steve Squyres will speak at the Carnegie Institution on:

Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet
In January 2004, NASA’s twin robotic explorers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Expected to last for 90 days, the two rovers have been exploring the planet’s surface for more than two years now, searching for evidence of past water. Could conditions on Mars have supported life?

Streaming video, and later, on demand archived video.

Carnegie Institution Site

Direct link to streaming video page starting about 6:40pm EST.

It was an interesting talk aimed at a general audience. I particularly liked the movie of what happens when the RAT gets stuck.

Has anyone found a link to the archived version of the talk. None is given at The Carnegie Institution's science talks web page.

Steve

I got the following reply when I asked the Carnegie Institute about the archive of Squyres' talk:

Steve

Further news from the CIW. Unfortunately, Squyres did not give permission to archive his lecture.

Steve

That's fair enough - sometimes people use slides in a 'live' event that they don't want being made available after the event.

Doug

Darn it! I had to kick myself several times for not setting the reminder I knew I needed. I forgot to tune in to the event.

Doug: That is exactly the reason. A few months ago there was another lecture that Dr. Squyres gave that archived the audio as an mp3 file. I was really fascinated about a few of the things he said, so I emailed the site hosting the mp3 to ask if the slides were available. They informed me that they were not, so in desperation I emailed SS to ask if he would send them to me.

He declined, and he gave a completely understandable explanation for his decision. I don't think it is appropriate to post his correspondence, but essentially he said he always struggles with these things. My interpretation of his response ==> If he only presents peer-reviewed stuff, the lectures are a bit dry. He likes to toss in a bit of their current speculation to spice things up. If that gets out on the net, it tends to take on a life of it's own, creating multiple conflicting conclusions that later come back to haunt them.

My interpretation of my failure to set a reminder ==> Ya snooze, ya loose.

So, does anyone who managed to catch the webcast have a few bones to toss out to us dogs?

What, you mean the current speculation tossed out by Squyres that Home Plate was actually once the concrete flooring under a thoat pen?

Nope -- sorry, didn't catch it...

-the other Doug

Being on in the same time zone, I was able to view the lecture. I enjoyed it, SS is always enthusiastic and entertaining, but the talk was for a very general audience and I don't think he presented anything that most USF members aren't already familiar with.

For me, the best part of the lecture was when he was describing the RAT. He had a great clip where the RAT latches onto a large rock, and then (like a hand electric drill, when the bit latches up) the rover starts rotating wildly until the wheels fly off and the rover is destroyed. It’s a clip that most USFers would really enjoy if anyone knows where to find it.

I'm amazed everyone here hasn't already seen it

Doug

I know I have a copy of that animation somewhere, but I have not been able to locate it. I did notice there was a copy of it on YouTube.

I have a copy, though it's rather too large (at 892KB) to simply attach to a post here, I think. And I don't know that Doug wants us cramming the site's storage space full of movie files that most of us have already seen...

-the other Doug

You had me there for a while, O'Doug. So, under this new "thoat pen" hypothesis, would the scattered dark rocks filled with gassy holes be fossilized droppings from the green horses?

Got it in one, Tom!

-the other Doug