Professor David Southwood, Professor Sanjeev Gupta

Professor David Southwood

Mars: Jinxes, Disappointments and Daring
Professor Southwood is a Senior Research Investigator in the Department of Physics at Imperial, focusing on solar-terrestrial physics and planetary science.

His talk will consist of personal stories from his role in Martian exploration as part of American, European and Russian space programmes. Mars has at times seemed like a hostile, uninhabitable planet, but it remains a major goal for exploration.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta

Driving on Mars: Martian exploration by rovers

Guptar is Professor of Earth Science at Imperial College, London. In his talk, he will discuss how engineers and scientists explore the surface of Mars, searching for ancient habitable environments using rovers, with a particular focus on the adventures of the Curiosity rover in Gale crater. Sanjeev will also take us forward into the future with a look at the European ExoMars 2020 rover mission due to land on the red planet in 2021.