Journey to Mars with WWU
WHEN
Monday, July 20, 2020
12:00-1:30 p.m.
LOCATION
Online
PRICE
FREE
Check out this video to watch the Journey to Mars with WWU.
On July 30, NASA will launch the Mars-2020 Mission to explore the geology of Mars, seek signs of ancient life, and collect rocks that will be eventually returned to Earth. On board the spacecraft will be the Perseverance rover, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, and a total of 25 cameras to capture the details of Mars’ environment and landscapes.
Western proudly presents a pre-launch discussion with WWU Associate Professor Dr. Melissa Rice, co-investigator on this mission, who helped design the rover’s Mastcam-Z (the color camera system that is equipped with a zoom function on the Perseverance rover). Dr. Rice is also the leader of the Western Mars Lab at WWU.
Please join us for an exclusive webinar conversation on Monday, July 20 from 12-1:30p.m. with Dr. Rice and her team of undergraduates, graduate students and recent alumni as they discuss the mission, their research, and how Western can continue to support humanity’s exploration into the final frontier.
Dr. Melissa Rice
Dr. Rice is an Associate Professor of Planetary Science at Western Washington University, where she has held a joint appointment in the Geology Department and the Physics & Astronomy Department since 2014. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in 2012, and was a NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral fellow at Caltech from 2012-2014. Her research focuses on the sedimentology, stratigraphy and mineralogy of Mars.
Dr. Brad Johnson
Dr. Johnson is the Dean of the College of Science Engineering and Professor of Physics at Western Washington University. Dr. Johnson has been at Western since 1997, following a one-year tenure-track appointment at the University of New Mexico, and a 4-year post-doctoral fellowship appointment at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Dr. Johnson earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physics from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.