Mars lander team to lecture at Rice Nov. 1

Members of the Curiosity team cheer after the rover executed a perfect landing on Mars last August. NASA image

Two members of the team that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars this summer will give a talk at Rice University at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 at McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall as part of the Space Frontiers Lecture Series hosted by the Rice Space Institute and the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.

Ravi Prakash, descent and landing engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and Bobak Ferdowsi — aka “Mohawk Guy” — the mission’s activity lead and flight director, will discuss their experiences and the science behind the high-profile Curiosity, which landed on the red planet on Aug. 5 in a risky multi-stage maneuver that was billed by NASA as “Seven Minutes of Terror.”

Seating is limited for the event, which is free and open to the public.