Dr. Eric Baumgartner has never been to Mars, but he drove Opportunity, one of the Mars Rovers, around the planet.
The dean and professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University shared his “space travel” experiences at the Sept. 11 Ada Rotary meeting.
Prior to joining ONU, Baumgartner spent 10 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. There he held a number of technical and management positions. One was a leadership role on the Mars Exploration Rover project that successfully launched, landed and operated the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on the Martian surface.
And, during his NASA years, he actually served as one of the rover drivers.
“Opportunity landed in 2004. It is still sending pictures back to Earth, nine years later,” he said. “During its time on Mars Opportunity has traveled 30 kilometers, which is like driving from Ada to Lima.”
The other rover, Spirit, went silent on March 22, 2012.
At Rotary, Baumgartner took members on a video space exploration of Mars. He explained spacecraft configuration, answered questions about we go to Mars and told about the rover family of vehicles.
He told Rotarians what takes place during the seven-month journey to Mars and explained that that there is a 10- to 20-minute delay in signals from Earth to Mars.
The most recent rover on Mars, Curiosity, arrived there Aug. 6. Baumgartner said that it carries a mobile science lab in it and is the size of a small car. Compare that to the first vehicle to land on Mars, which was the size of a microwave oven.
Baumgartner was honored with the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2004 for his efforts on the Mars rover project and, in May 2008, Baumgartner, along with two of his colleagues at JPL, was presented with the 2008 IEEE Robotics and Automation Award.
