VIDEO NEWS RELEASE: UH scientists celebrate successful Mars rover landing

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Sarah A. Fagents, (808) 224-5344
Researcher, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
Shiv K. Sharma, (808) 349-2909
Researcher, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
Posted: Feb 18, 2021

Francesca Cary
Francesca Cary
Sarah Fagents
Sarah Fagents
Watching the Mars rover landing.
Watching the Mars rover landing.
Watching the Mars rover landing.
Watching the Mars rover landing.

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/3ufdYl8

WHAT: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists watched as the most sophisticated rover ever sent to Mars successfully landed on the red planet via NASA TV. Now they will start operating scientific instruments to search for signs of ancient life. 

WHO: Sarah Fagents, a researcher at UH Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and volcanologist with the Mastcam-Z camera team, Shiv Sharma, HIGP researcher and co-investigator on the SuperCam instrument team, Francesca Cary, a HIGP graduate student, and other UH scientists and graduate students.

WHEN: Thursday, February 18 at 10:55 a.m.

WHERE: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, POST 544

HOW: Using scientific instruments, UH scientists will search for signs of ancient microbial life, characterize the planet’s geology and climate, and collect carefully selected rock and sediment samples for possible return to Earth by a future mission.

WHY: UH scientists will be operating the rover around Jezero Crater, roughly a 6-mile region for the next two years, to search for clues about past life on Mars. 

OTHER FACTS:

  • The landing site, Jezero Crater, once contained a lake that scientists think is one of the most ideal places to find evidence of ancient life.

  • Mastcam-Z is the mast-mounted multispectral stereo camera system that is equipped with a powerful zoom function—enabling the team to identify rocks, soils and other targets that deserve a closer look by other instruments.

  • The SuperCam instrument team will assist with detection of biosignatures—indicators that life existed in the distant past.

VIDEO BROLL: (1:32)

  • Scenes inside UH HIG awaiting landing

  • @1:05 it lands

SOUNDBITES:

Sarah Fagents, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Researcher (:15)

“I’m most excited to get over towards the delta deposits because that’s one of the outcrops, one of the areas, that have the greatest potential for containing sediments that have signs of ancient life in it. So I can’t wait to see what those deposits look like.”

Francesca Cary, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Graduate Student (:10)

“I’m excited that we’re going to be directly interacting with the surface of another planet, to me that is the most profound thing I can ever imagine doing, so I’m just excited to get roving.”

Shiv Sharma, Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Researcher (:10)

“Yeah, it was very exciting, we have been waiting for that day for a long time. So everybody was so happy to see that it landed safely.”