Group Offers Guidance And Policy Advice To Agency
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University
Astronomy Professor Steven W. Squyres (pictured) chairman of the
NASA Advisory Council (NAC), an assembly of experts from various
fields that offer guidance and policy advice to the administrator
of America's space agency.
"I am extremely excited that Steve has accepted the NAC
chairmanship," Bolden said. "His experience as a planetary science
researcher with many NASA robotic missions will be of great value
to the council. The knowledge and experience of the council's
members, such as Steve's, is a vital component of the group. They
will be of tremendous value as we go forward, planning to go beyond
low-Earth orbit."
Dr. Squyres succeeds Dr. Kenneth Ford, the founder and director
of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, who has
served as council chairman since October 2008.
Squyres previously served on the council during the 1990s, and
he also served as chairman of the former NASA Space Science
Advisory Committee.
In October 2011, Squyres participated as an aquanaut in a unique
5-day undersea expedition in the Florida Keys that simulated a
future human mission to an asteroid, taking the first steps toward
learning how to conduct asteroid exploration by humans. He was a
member of the 15th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations
(NEEMO) team of six researchers that lived and worked underwater in
Aquarius, a school bus-sized laboratory sitting on the seabed near
Key Largo, Fla., at a depth of 60 feet. NASA's goal is to send a
human mission to an asteroid by 2025. The NEEMO expedition was
originally planned for 13-day duration, but ended earlier than
planned due to Hurricane Rina.
Squyres' scientific research focuses on the robotic exploration
of planetary surfaces, the history of water on Mars, geophysics and
tectonics of icy satellites, tectonics of Venus, and planetary
gamma-ray and X-ray spectroscopy. His best known research includes
the study of the history and distribution of water on Mars and of
the possible existence and habitability of a liquid water ocean on
Europa.
Squyres has participated in a number of NASA planetary missions
including Voyager, Magellan, and the Near Earth Asteroid
Rendezvous. He currently is the scientific principal investigator
for the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which includes the Spirit
and Opportunity rovers. He also is a co-investigator on the Mars
Express mission and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Squyres is a
member of the Mars Odyssey mission and the Cassini mission to
Saturn.
In 1981, Squyres earned a Ph.D. in planetary science from
Cornell University.
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