The Nevada Sagebrush

Wendy Calvin, a member of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, has been with the project from the beginning. Calvin, also a UNR associate professor, shares her research experiences with her classes. Photo by Devin Sizemore/The Nevada Sagebrush

Associate professor Wendy Calvin channeled her love for geophysics into a new outlet when she joined NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission team more than five years ago.

“In 2002, I wrote a proposal to NASA answering their call for participating scientists who could work with mission operations,”Calvin said. “Out of the 20 scientists accepted, I was one of two women.”

Calvin’s involvement with the Mars rovers began when the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, first landed on the planets surface in January 2004. Since then, Calvin has remote planned and computer programmed as  NASA’s Science Operations Working Group chair and Science Theme Group lead for mineralogy.

In her capacity as a participating scientist, Calvin’s remote planning consists of directing operations from her home base in Reno. Computer programming is a daily job since technicians constantly rewrite programs in order for the rovers to function each day.

Barbara Cohen, a NASA participating scientist and Marshall Space Flight Center planetary scientist, said that Calvin has inspired her as both a scientist and role model. Cohen first met Calvin when she was a Ph.D. student working under Calvin, who has guided her ever since, leading her to follow in her mentor’s career path.

“Dr. Calvin is good at taking different points of view into account,”Cohen said. “She makes decisions and prioritizes, making sure things continue to operate, which is crucial to the mission.”

On top of her work with NASA, Calvin also maintained her role as a geophysics professor and juggled her MER duties with teaching responsibilities.

This was especially difficult given that the team works on “Mars time,”which slips about 40 minutes behind Earth’s schedule each day, meaning that her shifts were at odd times of the day or night. Calvin’s years of pulling double duty are helping her better teach her students.

“The University Rover Challenge, (in which) science and engineering students build a rover for national competition, is one way we bring the Mars experience ‘down to earth,’”Calvin said. “I also bring the new discoveries we make into the classes I teach, particularly a class on the solar system that I teach every other year.”

She has the most up-to-date knowledge on the mission from every angle, giving Calvin the opportunity to inform students on new developments with the rovers. Perhaps the most significant finding is proof that water once existed on Mars. Samples of hematite and “blueberries”found in layered sediment both help confirm the hypothesis that water existed early in the planet’s history.

A past student of Calvin’s, Laura Garchar, said that Calvin’s work gives her opportunities that students at other universities may not have to study planets in depth.

“I help her analyze data from Opportunity, including thermal emissions measurements,”Garchar, a geological and engineering major, said. “She has both scientific knowledge and knowledge of how to communicate. She’s very intelligent and I definitely look up to her.”

These findings help Calvin look toward the future both for herself and for science. Calvin considers the mission accomplished already, but said that the mission will continue for as long as the rovers keep driving.

In the near future, the rovers are headed toward some nearby volcanic vents and the Endeavor Crater. Since the rovers move at about 100 meters per hour, it could take a year for them each to reach their targets.

Calvin conducts research with NASA outside this particular mission and works on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, just two more duties in what she hopes will be a long career with NASA.

“I’m able to work from afar which is great,”she said. “It is my hope that I can work with NASA indefinitely. I love what I do.”

Kathleen Phelan can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.

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