Mike Seibert, rover driver for NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars talks with visitors about navigating the surface of Mars at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum Mars Day, an annual event celebrating the Red Planet with exhibits, speakers, and educational activities, Friday, July 21, 2017 in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
NASM Mars Day
Rover team members Kim Lichtenberg left and Mike Seibert fill a mixer with powdered clay and diatomaceous earth, a combination found to offer physical properties similar to the soil where NASA rover Spirit is embedded on Mars.
Preparing a Test Mixture
Mike Seibert and Sharon Laubach, engineers on NASA Mars Exploration Rover team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, check the exact position of a test rover in preparation for the next test of a possible maneuver for Spirit to use on Mars.
Preparing for Next Test
Rover team members Mike Seibert left and Paolo Bellutta add a barrowful of soil mixture to the sloped box where a test rover will be used for assessing possible maneuvers for NASA rover Spirit to use in escaping from a sandtrap on Mars.
Filling the Simulated Sandtrap