Dawn or Doom
Briony Horgan

Briony Horgan

"Roving Mars: NASA's Search for Life on the Red Planet"

Thursday, September 24

STEW 214 CD: 4:30 - 5:30 PM

The surface of Mars is the frontline in NASA's search for life beyond Earth, and NASA has devoted three generations of robotic, semi-autonomous rovers to this search. Through the efforts of the scientists and engineers behind the Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers, we now know that Mars hosted watery environments that may have been habitats for ancient life 4 billion years ago. Now, planetary scientists at Purdue are working with NASA to design instruments and choose the landing site for the Mars2020 rover, which will search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars and collect samples to return to Earth. Why is this search important, and how much can these robotic geologists do alone?


Bio: Briony Horgan is an assistant professor of planetary sciences at Purdue. Her research program uses data from NASA satellites and rovers, along with lab and field work back on Earth, to understand the geologic history of Mars and the Moon. Prof. Horgan is a Co-Investigator on the Mastcam-Z camera system for NASA's upcoming Mars2020 rover mission, the first step toward Mars Sample Return.