NASA scientist Jennifer Stern Ph.D., brought the story of the mission of the latest Mars robotic probe, Curiosity, to an enthusiastic audience at Alumnae Hall on the Cedar Crest College campus Nov. 15.

She detailed the development of "Mini-Cooper-sized" craft and its 354 million mile journey from Earth to a small landing site on the red planet. She enthusiastically reported the project is beating all expectations as it searches for signs of "habitability" on the distant planet.

Stern is a geochemist at the Houston NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Planetary Environments Laboratory. She is a member of the science team for the Mars Science Laboratory Rover, Curiosity, which landed in the Gale crater on Mars in August.

The mission of the Mars robotic probe is to search for conditions that could support any form of life as we know it. The basic element the probe is searching for is carbon, because that is the building block of known life forms here on earth.

Stern earned impressive educational credentials to qualify for the elite team that spent eight years imagining, then engineering, building and sending the probe off to Mars.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in geology-biology from Brown University and a doctorate in geochemistry from Florida State University, where she developed analytical techniques for stable carbon and oxygen isotope and trace metal analysis of environmental waters.

She decided to apply her interest in stable isotopes to astrobiology as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Ames Research Center and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral Nov. 26, 2011 and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars Aug. 6.

The landing site was less than 1.5 miles from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 241-day, 350-million mile journey.

Upon reaching Mars, an automated precision landing sequence took over the entire landing events. A cable cutter separated the cruise stage from the aeroshell and then the cruise stage was diverted into a trajectory for burn-up in the atmosphere. Landing was confirmed simultaneously by three monitoring Mars orbiters.

The multi-stage landing sequence involved slowing the craft from 13,000 miles per hour in increments to 900 mph, then 180 mph and when it was dropped to the Mars surface it was traveling only two mph.

Stern said the landing was a nail biter for those watching from Earth. It took about seven minutes for telemetry signals to reach Earth signaling a successful landing.

Stern showed her audience both a simulation of the landing and actual photographs sent back to Earth from instruments in part of the laboratory in orbit over the landing site.

The rover's goals include: investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration.

Stern held up a replica of the wheel on the rover and showed photos which the vehicle has sent back to the Goddard Center. The craft has 17 cameras on board and a top speed of about 300 feet a day. The craft is slowly making its way from the Gale crater landing site to a mountainous formation dubbed Mt. Sharp.

The rover is performing scientific experiments at every step of its slow voyage.

Lasers on board can vaporize material from the Mars surface which a robotic arm places in a vacuum container. By subjecting the gases to chemical and photo spectrometers, data sent back to earth can provide an analysis of the elements found on the planet's surface.

Even though Stern has been deeply involved in the science of the mission, she did not try to hide the fact of how "awesome" she found the whole mission to be. She urged the Cedar Crest students in attendance to set their goals high and not give up on their dreams.

As a young woman scientist, Stern said she was privileged to be part of the Mars mission.

"I'm just the messenger here," she said. "The entire project team involved 400 scientists and an 'untold' number of engineers."

Before attending a reception after her lecture, Stern opened her presentation to questions from the audience. A young student interjected her question among the technical adult queries.

"Have you found any space people on Mars?" the youngster asked.

Stern did not count out the possibility. "We just haven't found them yet," she concluded.