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Spotlight On Mars - Image |
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A Woman's Place Is... in Space! |
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March 18, 2008 |
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Nowadays it's not unusual to find a woman at the helm -- leading a corporation, commanding a space shuttle, or even operating a rover on Mars, but it's rare to have a supermajority of women in some technical fields. Thirty women made "herstory" recently when they took charge of operating NASA's Mars rover, Spirit. The all-female team of scientists and engineers planned the event after noticing they were occasionally a supermajority on the rover operations team. They designed an action plan and transmitted all the computer codes for the day's activities, including using the robotic arm to take microscopic images of dust while Spirit was stationed on a slope. Though men still outnumber women in space exploration, the gender mix is changing. Through events like this, women hope to motivate their "sisters" to join them in exploring other worlds.
Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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