A lead scientist for NASA’s Phoenix Lander Mission to Mars is scheduled to speak at Missouri S&T on April 16.

Dr. Raymond E. Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis and lead scientist for Phoenix’s Robotic Arm, will present “Phoenix Lander Mission: A Trip to the Frozen Arctic of Mars” at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Room 104 of the Physics Building on Missouri S&T’s campus.

Launched in August 2007, the Phoenix Mars Mission is the first in NASA’s Scout Program, and was designed to study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s ice-rich soil. Arvidson will discuss the composition and theories on the evolution of soil samples obtained from the mission.

Arvidson is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the department of Earth and planetary sciences at Washington University. He is deputy principal investigator for the science payload on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers. He also serves as an interdisciplinary scientist on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, head of NASA’s Planetary Data System Geosciences Node and a director of NASA’s Regional Planetary Image Center. Arvidson has more than 100 publications dealing with remote sensing of Earth, Mars and Venus. He was science team leader for the imaging system on NASA’s Viking Landers from 1977 to 1982. He earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., and a doctorate in geological sciences from Brown University in Providence, R.I.

The lecture is sponsored by Missouri S&T’s physics department.

For more information about the Phoenix Lander Mission, go online to phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/.