Women Drivers in Action on Mars
On February 23, 2008, an all women group of scientists and engineers worked together as a group in order to guide Spirit on a major NASA mission on Mars–part of the Mars Exploration Rovers. March 2008 was Women’s History Month, even though the NASA women chose to honor it early in February. Women’s History Month is a special time for all women to honor and recognize any American women to celebrate their achievements.
Throughout America, Barbara Cohen and her colleagues gathered more than two dozen female scientists and engineers to help run little Spirit. During the winter, according to Cohen, they study the landscape of Mars and how it changes over Martian seasons. They also study rocks that are within view of the rover, zooming in and looking at them more in depth. Finally, “we look at things on Spirit itself, like the composition of the dust that collects on its surface.”
All-Women Uplink Team for Mars Spirit Rover:
Science Operations Team, distributed throughout the country:
Science Operations Working Group Chair –
Barbara Cohen, NASA Marshall Space Flight
Center Science Operations Working Group Documentarian -
Wendy Calvin, University of Nevada, Reno
Long-Term Planning Lead -
Joannah Metz, California Institute of Technology
Keeper of the Plan -
Emily Dean, Cornell University
Mineralogy & Geochemistry Science Theme Group lead -
Alian Wang, Washington University, St. Louis
Geology Science Theme Group lead -
Nathalie Cabrol, NASA Ames Research Center
Atmospheres Science Theme Group lead -
Nicole Spanovich, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Physical Properties Science Theme Group lead -
Kim Lichtenberg, Washington University, St. Louis
Pancam Payload Uplink Lead -
Elaina McCartney, Cornell University
Mini-TES Payload Uplink Lead -
Amy Knudson, Arizona State University
Microscopic Imager Payload Uplink Lead -
Aileen Yingst, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Engineering Cameras Payload Uplink Lead -
Brenda Franklin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
APXS/Mössbauer Spectrometer Payload Uplink Lead -
Mariek Schmidt, Smithsonian Institution
Deputy Project Scientist -
Diana Blaney, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Spacecraft Engineering Team, Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
Engineering Team Lead -
Sharon Laubach
Mission Manager -
Cindy Oda
Rover Planners -
Ashley Stroupe, Tara Estlin, and Julie Townsend
Tactical Downlink Lead -
Dina ElDeeb
Tactical Activity Planner / Sequence Integration Engineers -
Caroline Chouinard and Alicia Vaughan
Tactical Uplink Leads -
Colette Lohr and Pauline Hwang
Telecom Subsystem -
Manju Kapoor
Power Subsystem -
Jennifer Herman
Mission Data Operations -
Zsarina Bulchand
MIPL Image Processing -
Amy Chen
Security -
Cindy Alarcon-Rivera
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Mission History, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
