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HEPL KIPAC Seminar

Tuesday, September 26, 2006 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: Applied Physics 200, (AP200)

Dr. Dan McCleese
Chief Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
“Recent Results and Future Direction
of the Exploration of Mars"

Over the past decade, seven spacecraft have enabled investigations of the habitability of past and present Mars, the climate and its evolution, geology, geophysics, geochemistry, as well as preparing for eventual visits by humans. Most recently, Spirit and Opportunity have returned data from the surface that point to a past very different from the cold arid Martian landscape that we see today. This data together with images from the Mars Global Surveyor and new observations from Mars Express indicating widespread sulfates salts may be the long sought evidence that Mars may once have been wet and, perhaps, habitable. The decade of NASA missions to Mars is part of a larger program of exploration of the planet -- planned by the science community, NASA and JPL -- that will extend at least through 2020. In this lecture we will discuss our current understanding of Mars relating to habitability and describe the direction NASA will take in the future exploration of the planet.


Dr. Dan McCleese is chief scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In this role he is responsible for leadership of the scientific and research community at the laboratory, and serves as the focal point for interactions with universities and the external research community. He is the principal investigator for the Mars Climate Sounder instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Between 1994 and 2006, McCleese served as JPL's chief scientist for Mars exploration, working with the international science community to establish the present and future strategy for exploring Mars. McCleese was a Fulbright Scholar at Jesus College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he earned his doctorate in atmospheric physics. Since coming to JPL, he has worked on NASA missions to study Earth's atmosphere, Venus and Mars. He has been a visiting associate in planetary science at Caltech since 2000, and in 2005 he received NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal.

 

Location: Applied Physics 200, (AP200)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Light refreshments available 4pm; Presentation begins 4:15pm. Open to all.

 


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Previous HEPL Seminars 2004, 2005, 2006:

Dr. Dan McCleese
Chief Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
“Recent Results and Future Direction of the Exploration of Mars"
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Ned Wright
Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
What's New in Cosmology?

Thursday 9 March 2006

Peter Michelson
Stanford University
GLAST: The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Mission
Seminar and Tour

Thursday 16 Feb 2006

Robert L. Byer
Stanford University
"Acceleration of Electrons with Visible Light"

Wednesday 1 Feb 2006

Emeline Guiu
Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA)
The MICROSCOPE Mission and In-Flight Calibration
Emeline Guiu, Danya Hudson

Wed 7 Dec 2005

Dr. Nicholas White
Chief, Laboratory for High Astrophysics NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
“The NASA Beyond Einstein Program”

Wed 5 Oct 2005

Ulrich Schreiber, Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodäsie, TU-München
“High Precision Sagnac Interferometry for Applications in Geoscience ”
Thursday, September 8, 2005

Christopher D. Bass, Indiana University / IUCF, “Measurement of the Parity-Odd Neutron Spin Rotation in Liquid-4He”
Monday, August 22, 2005

Anne Kinney, Director, Universe Division in the Science Mission Directorate, NASA, "Blue Planets, Black Holes"
Wednesday, 20 July 2005

Dr William Tobin, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Canterbury, JNew Zealand, "Foucault's Gyroscope of 1852"
Friday, 8 April 2005

Rex Geveden, NASA Chief Engineer, Independent Technical Authority
7 April 2005

Shooting the Moon: Probing Fundamental Gravity in the Solar System
Tom Murphy, UC San Diego 3 March 2005

The GRACE Mission: Status and Science Results John Ries, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, 14 February 2005.

Hubble Robotic Servicing - Recent Engineering Development, Bill Reeve
Civil Space Director of Advanced Science Programs, Lockheed Martin, 26 January 2005.

Interferometry for LISA, Daniel Shaddock, PhD, Interferometry Metrology and Optics Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 17 November 2004.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Steve Kahn, Deputy Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 27 October 2004.

HEPL-KIPAC Showcase. 29 September 2004. Agenda