Jeff Megivern on “Mars 2020: NASA’s Perseverance Rover and the Search for Ancient Life on Mars”

/ Strathmore Speaker Series

Join the Strathmore Speakers Series and Onondaga Free Library for an afternoon with NASA engineer and Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover team member Jeff Megivern. Perseverance’s successful landing on Mars on February 18, 2021 was a testament to NASA’s resourcefulness, technical expertise, and dedication to the pursuit of knowledge. Equipped with a helicopter named Ingenuity, Perseverance is on a mission to seek out signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth. During this talk, Mr. Megivern will provide an overview of the Mars 2020 mission, discuss the challenges inherent in robotic exploration of the Red Planet, describe his role as part of the Perseverance systems team, and give us an insider’s look at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A brief Q&A will follow.

This event will be held on Saturday, May 15th at 2 pm on Zoom. Like all Strathmore Speaker Series and Onondaga Free Library events, this presentation is free and open to the public.

You can register for this event here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIld-qrrjgsH9BLrKqB_6wlA6NIXXn17XZX

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Mars for Kids

OFL is also offering a free companion Mars Activity Kit for Kids grades K-4. Reserve your kit today at: https://onlibonondagafree.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=9585

About Jeff Megivern

Jeff Megivern grew up in Florida across the river from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where he watched launches from his backyard. This inspired him to pursue Aerospace Engineering and Math bachelor degrees at the Florida Institute of Technology. While at Florida Tech, he interned at NASA Kennedy Space Center supporting launch flows and spacecraft integration activities for Delta II, Delta IV, Atlas V, and Pegasus XL launch vehicles. As part of this internship, he also sat on launch console for a number of Delta II launches, including Mars Exploration Rovers A & B, Aura Earth Observation Satellite (EOS), and Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER). After graduating, Jeff moved to California to work at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (now Aerojet Rocketdyne) as a system test engineer and test lead on the J-2X Upper Stage Engine. Currently, he works for NASA JPL as the Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test lead for the Mars 2020 Sampling and Caching Subsystem (SCS).

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