Final Profiles and Perspectives speaker offers look inside NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission

ARDMORE, Okla. — Steven Squyres, Ph.D., has been to Mars, and now he wants to take the citizens of Oklahoma there.

Squyres is the face and voice of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, and he will bring his amazing story to Ardmore as the final speaker in The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation's 2008-2009 Profiles and Perspectives season.

Squyres will present "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet" at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 3, at the Washington Theatre, located at 221 N. Washington, Ardmore, Okla. The presentation is open to the public and offered at no cost, courtesy of the Noble Foundation.

"We have hosted many outstanding speakers during the 11-year history of Profiles and Perspectives," said Mary Kate Wilson, series organizer, "but I am sure Dr. Squyres will be one of the most unforgettable."

Squyres dreamed of the MER mission in 1987, saw it from conception in 1995 to a successful landing in 2004, and serves as the principal scientist of the $400 million payload. He has gained a rare inside look at what it took for rovers Spirit and Opportunity to land on the red planet and knows firsthand their findings.

Combining his personal journey as a young scientist with the history of NASA's Mars space program, Squyres' presentation details how the MER mission was born, the politics, mistakes and confusion that threatened to entangle the mission, and its ultimate success.

"Audiences will appreciate how accessible Squyres is as a speaker," Wilson said. "He can discuss the technical issues in an unscientific way. He is an incredibly compelling speaker with an even more remarkable story."