Prof. John Moores and his team win NASA Group Achievement Award
Professor John Moores and four other researchers in his Planetary Volatiles Laboratory at Lassonde have been presented with the NASA Group Achievement Award for their contributions to the Mars Science Laboratory’s (popularly known as the Curiosity Rover) first extended mission, which completed in 2016.
The research group is directly involved with rover operations, with students helping to decide each day which tasks the spacecraft will carry out on Mars. Once those tasks are completed, scientific measurements are taken and the data are returned to Earth.
The same students complete the analysis required to yield new discoveries, such as the water-ice clouds glimpsed above Gale Crater by the Group in August.
“It’s a great feeling to be recognized for what the team has accomplished, but the work of exploring Mars and its past and present environment continues!” noted Moores, whose students are also a part of the 2nd Extended Mission of Curiosity, currently underway.