Due to technical difficulties we weren’t able to get our full Google Hangout experience “on air”. I hope you can still enjoy this short clip from the discussion where I got to ask Tanya Harrison my question.
Today my science class had the amazing opportunity to have a Google Hangout with Tanya Harrison. She is a planetary scientist that worked on the operations team for the Curiosity Mars Rover from 2008-2012. The main things she did while working on the operations team were reporting the weather on Mars and chosing what the Mars rover would take pictures of. Now she is a PHD student in Geology at the University of Western Ontario.
I really enjoyed the Google Hangout. It was very interesting and I learned a lot of cool things about space, Mars, photography, planetary science and what Tanya’s experiences have been like working with the Curiosity Mars rover. I was able to ask Tanya about the most interesting thing she experienced and learned while working on the Mars rover. You can view me asking her this question in the short video above.
I learned so many things from Tanya that it’s hard for me to remember everything she said. I was however able to remember some of her responses. Out of the many things she spoke about the one thing that interested me the most was the difference between the three Mars rovers. This was one of the things I was curious about going into the Google Hangout so it was really cool that I was able to learn about the difference in physical appearance and function between the three Mars rovers. From Tanya I was able to find out that the main difference between the Curiosity, Opportunity, and Spirit Mars rovers is in their size. Curiosity (the most recent rover sent to Mars) is much larger than Spirit (the first rover sent to Mars). She told us that the Curiosity Mars rover is in fact almost the size of a mini van. I had no idea that the Mars rovers are actually this big! She explained that the most recent Mars rover is so much bigger than the other ones because it is able to hold more gadgets and tools for doing research and taking photos.
As is mentioned before, I asked Tanya “what was the most interesting thing you experienced or learned while working on the Mars rover?” Her response to my question was that the most interesting thing she did was that she got to work on the cameras that went into space. This was really interesting and super exciting to find out about. It’s absolutely amazing to have something you worked on in space!
Even though I learned a lot during the Google Hangout I still have many questions about space and Mars.
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For more information about Tanya Harrison and the work she’s done go Here
For more information about the Curiosity Mars rover go Here (also where I got the picture of the rovers)
Link to where I got the picture of Curiosity’s camera Here
June 16, 2016 at 2:17 pm
Emily!! This is a great post:) I love how you embedded the video and pictures to support your information. It made the post more engaging.
June 16, 2016 at 2:32 pm
good job Emily, I love how you put so much information and how you embedded the video. good job!
June 16, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Thank you Minji and Lucas. I’m glad you enjoyed reading my post.
June 16, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Hi Emily,
I really like your post on the CBL skype chat and how you embedded the video as well as the photos. I really liked how you fully explained everything that happened during the skype call and how you put sources at the bottom for people to find more information about her and Mars.
Really Great job,
Jacob
June 16, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Thanks Jacob, I’m glad you enjoyed my post. Thanks for recognizing the effort I put in to make this post as informative and engaging as possible.
June 16, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Hey Emily, nice blog post. I really like how much detail you put into this. I like how you got the picture of the Mars Rover and also cited the source. What are some of the other questions you have about space?
June 16, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Thanks Nisrine for reading my post. I’m glad that you enjoyed it. Some of the other questions that I forgot to ask Tanya Harrison are: Is there anyone that inspires you? and, What interests you the most about planetary science? Maybe I will contact her and ask these questions.
June 17, 2016 at 11:20 am
Excellent. You included fantastic background information on Tanya and great questions with the answers that you received. Great work embedding the pictures and the Google Hangout into your post. I not only liked how you presented a thorough engaging post on what you learned, but I also like how you responded to the many comments that you got. I hope you get the rest of your questions answered some day! Great work!
June 24, 2016 at 3:17 am
Great post Emily! Glad to hear you learned so much about Mars! It was wonderful getting the chance to talk with your class. I saw your comment above with a couple of questions so I’ll answer them here:
As far as inspiration goes, I was really inspired by Stephen Hawking as a child. I was also very influenced by growing up watching Star Trek—I really wanted to be like Geordi LaForge or Captain Janeway. More recently, I’ve been really inspired by Emily Lakdawalla, a space outreach guru with The Planetary Society.
What interests me most about planetary science is being able to study whole other planets. Earth is really interesting as a geologist, but then to take that knowledge of Earth and apply it to other planets it very exciting and often challenging. It really tests how well we truly understand certain geologic processes.
If you ever have more questions about space or Mars, feel free to send me an e-mail anytime!
June 28, 2016 at 7:15 pm
Thank you so much for answering my questions Tanya Harrison, I’m glad you enjoyed my post!