UA Intern in Driver's Seat of Mars Exploration Rover (MER)

UA Intern in Driver's Seat of Mars Exploration Rover (MER)

UA Intern in Driver's Seat of Mars Exploration Rover (MER)

Chris Lewicki, was a 1993-94 Arizona Space Grant Intern, and a 1997-1999 Graduate Fellow--not to mention the first student manager of the UA Space Grant Student Satellite Program. He now serves as a member of the Mars Exploration Rovers Assembly, Test and Launch Operations team at JPL. In 2003, two new and powerful Mars "Robotic Geologists", developed by the MER team, will be sent to the red planet. With far greater mobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, these rovers will be able to trek up to 100 meters (about 110 yards) per day across the Martian surface. These missions continue NASA's quest to understand the role of water on Mars. Chris is MER Mission Flight Director for the Impact to Egress phase. Chris is responsible for actually "steering" one of the rovers! How cool is that!?!?! For full details on this mission, along with a lot of great pictures, please visit the Mars Exploration Rovers site.

View an article covering Chris's most recent trip to Arizona, where he was the featured keynote speaker for the 2005-2006 Arizona/NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Intern Annual Symposium! This link is featured in our articles page.

Also check out NASA's Offical Marsrover website.

School
UA