Sunrise on Mars
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
August 7, 2012 – Globe and Mail
With Curiosity safely landed on Mars, the real work begins. And this is where Canadian expertise comes in.
Designed by a University of Guelph professor, funded by the Canadian Space Agency and built by Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer is a key part of gleaning information on Mars’s ancient history, and maybe the secrets to life on other planets.
Peter Ilott hugs fellow engineer Ann Devereaux as they celebrate the Mars science rover Curiosity’s successful landing on Monday night.
(Brian van der Brug/Reuters)
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
August 7, 2012 – Globe and Mail
Barely two minutes before an enormous, sophisticated space robot touched down on Mars, Peter Ilott spent 20 seconds consumed with dread, convinced the entire mission had been lost.
As he monitored NASA’s communications link with the rover Curiosity, he and a colleague sitting beside him at Mission Control noticed a fatal signal coming through, indicating a failure substantial enough to cripple the rover and derail a $2.5-billion mission eight years in the making.
a business of misfits 