The speaker will be Ben Clark, chief scientist of Space Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin and director of Advanced Planetary Studies. His talk is titled "Rovers On Mars: Invasion Of The Red Planet."
Clark is a member of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) science team and was a full-time participant in the four months of primary mission for these Mars rover missions. He was one of three scientists selected to present at the 2004 NASA headquarters press conference announcing the discovery of the prior presence of liquid water on Mars. He is also a scientific co-investigator on the Stardust, Phoenix, Huygens and Genesis missions. Clark was responsible for conceiving and developing the x-ray fluorescence spectrometers for the first geochemical analyses of Martian soil onboard the Viking landers.
Previously, Clark was the project manager for the Manned Mars Systems Study for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, with responsibility for developing advanced concepts, trade studies, mission timelines and accommodations for human exploration missions to the moon and Mars. He was LMA's technical director of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) in 1989-1991. His 1979 paper, "The Case for Man on Mars," laid the foundation for subsequent Case for Mars conferences and the potential use of Martian resources for augmenting human missions to the red planet.
Media should meet at the Los Alamos Public Affairs office, 135B Central Park Square (the old Kaiser Building, now labeled Shaw Building), Room 767, at 9 a.m., to be guided to the Physics Auditorium.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.