StarFest Denver 2019

It's Mars Mania time at ScienceFest! 2018 was an exciting year for Mars Exploration. In May,
the latest NASA Mars mission, INSIGHT (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations,
Geodesy and Heat Transport), lifted off from Vandenburg, California. Seven months later it
arrived at Mars, survived a 12,000 MPH descent thru the atmosphere, and landed safely in the
Elysium Planitia region just north of the equator. This spacecraft was designed, built and tested
right here in Colorado at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Pieter Kallemeyn, leader of the
Lockheed Martin team that performs mission support for this spacecraft, will give a presentation
on what it takes to build, launch and land such a complex spacecraft, and the latest pictures and
science discoveries from the surface of Mars. In addition, Pieter will give an update on the other
rovers and orbiters exploring Mars, the hazards of the dust storm that encompassed the planet
for most of last year, and a preview of the next Mars missions scheduled for 2020 and beyond.