Live Hangout Interview with Rover Driver Scott Maxwell

By Nancy Atkinson - February 10, 2012 at 10:08 PM UTC | Planetary Science

It was history in the making: Our first live interview via a Google+ Hangout On Air! We talked with Mars rover driver

Scott Maxwell

, and he told us about the plans for the Opportunity rover's upcoming winter, we took a look back at the 8 years of the MER on Mars, and looked ahead to the Curiosity (MSL) rover mission, set to land in August this year. Thanks again to Scott for being a wonderful first live interviewee!

To watch these interviews live, circle

Fraser

and watch his feed for updates. If you're not on Google+, you can still watch these episodes live. Today, we were able to have a live feed on the main page of Universe Today while the interview was taking place (it was on the upper right hand corner). But you can also visit the

Cosmoquest Hangouts

page and you'll see them when they happen.

And I've got great news: Next Friday, February 17, we'll have our second live interview with astronomer

Mike Brown

from Caltech. The interview will take place at 18:00 UT (1 pm EST, 12 noon CST, 10 am PST).

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com