Public lecture to explore latest missions to Mars

The robotic rover Spirit, which bounced to a near pinpoint landing inside a 4-billion-year-old Martian crater on Saturday (Jan. 3) after a seven-month flight, promises a trove of new data about the Red Planet, UW–Madison scientists say.

Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist at UW–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center, says the latest “invasions of Mars” should help answer some of the key questions scientists have long been asking about the Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor.

Limaye will give a public lecture about Mars and the latest missions to the planet on Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at UW–Madison’s Space Place, 1605 S. Park St. The lecture is sponsored by the Madison Astronomical Society.

The rover’s mission is to sample the planet’s rocks and sediments for clues to Mars’ geologic history. Equipped with two camera systems, a package of advanced analytical instruments, magnets, and a scraper called RAT (rock abrasion tool), Spirit will be able to analyze samples from slightly below the Martian surface, samples that may hold insights that escaped earlier detection by the rover Sojourner in 1997.