Nerd Nite

When the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed in 2004 they didn’t find any Tharks or H.G. Wellsian tentacled creatures with leathery skin, but they did find surprising evidence of water. Both rovers vastly exceeded their nominal missions and were joined on Mars by the larger Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity in 2012. In this episode, Senior Research Scientist and NASA Participating Scientist Bill Farrand from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO tells us how the rovers have helped to transform our view of the surface of Mars from a barren, dead volcanic planet to one that was once much like the Earth with flowing ground and surface waters and stunning scenic vistas. This presentation was given at Nerd Nite Denver in December 2015. Farrand is a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He has a B.A. in Geology from Franklin & Marshall College and a M.S. and Ph.D. in the Geosciences from the University of Arizona. He has worked extensively in terrestrial