Exploring Mars with Curiosity...

This was our first time attending a presentation hosted by UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. TERC, located in Incline Village on the campus of Sierra Nevada College, leads research on the water quality, physical processes and ecology of Lake Tahoe and its watershed. It also educates and has some pretty cool hands-on exhibits.


We chose an excellent first foray into TERC's monthly lecture series with this presentation by Dr. Dawn Sumner, from UC Davis and the NASA Mars Science Laboratory team. Dr. Sumner is on the team that launched the Curiosity rover to explore Gale Crater on Mars. Her team has discovered lake and river deposits that show that ancient Mars was habitable by Earth-like life, although they have yet to find evidence that life was present.
For over an hour, Dr. Sumner shared photos and findings while oozing enthusiasm for all the work being done. While at times it was more scientific than I could wrap my head around, I left feeling very impressed, informed and hopeful.

That planet has a considerable but moderate atmosphere.
So that the inhabitants probably enjoy a situation
in many respects similar to ours.
— William Herschel, 1784 

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