Astrophysicist inspires listeners at Ipenz centenary
A talk about the landing of Mars rover Curiosity drew a large crowd to Hamilton Gardens for the Pickering Lecture.
Hundreds turned out at the Hamilton Gardens last night to listen to the director of the California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Caltech’s Dr Charles Elachi was invited to speak at the lectures held across New Zealand as part of the 100-year anniversary of Ipenz Engineering New Zealand.
MC Judith Makinson described Dr Elachi’s appearance as very fitting for the Pickering Lecture.
“The lecture is held annually in honour of New Zealander Sir William Pickering, who was director of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab for 22 years.”
Dr Elachi and his team at JPL worked chiefly on the technology designed for the landing of the Mars rover, Curiosity.
“We developed a way so when we fired the retrorocket we have the mothership actually hover over the surface and we skycraned it down to the surface very softly.
“When we first explained to Nasa headquarters what we were trying to do, they thought we were crazy.”
Audience member Hayley Kay said the way he related space exploration to life on Earth was captivating.
“I liked how he mentioned that the technology he used could be used for things on Earth.
“He looked at things in terms of how our planet was created. So it’s not just our curiosity about other places, it’s curiosity about ourselves.”
Dr Elachi finished his speech by addressing the younger members of the audience.
“If you guys get into engineering and science, you might be operating the next rover.”
