When she isn't doing homework, attending classes, and studying for
exams, Zoe Learner is gearing up for the landing of the Mars Exploration
Rovers. At age twenty-five, Zoe is a second-year graduate student at
Cornell University, a member of the 2003 Athena Science Team, and the
youngest Way Cool Scientist to date. Pretty cool, huh?
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Zoe at Cornell overlooking Cayuga Lake
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So I bet you're thinking, "wow— she must be a brainiac!" And, while
you're absolutely right, Zoe insists that science and planetary
exploration is for EVERYONE. "You don't have to be a particular 'type'
of person, or possess a special kind of intelligence to work in this
field," says Zoe. Her colleagues and fellow teammates vary in age,
gender, and ethnicity. She works with engineers, accountants,
geologists, meteorologists, electricians, computer programmers, software
designers, secretaries, and even lawyers— the list goes on and on.
Mars hovers in the intersection of Zoe's education and her work with the
science team. Her primary responsibilities as a student are to complete
her graduate study classes, pass her qualifying exams, and create a
thesis project— her thesis will converge on the data she receives from
the rovers. She spends most of her 'non-school' time reading about Mars,
attending training sessions to prepare for her role in the mission, and
watching the Yankees or her University of Oklahoma Sooners football team
(Zoe is a sports fanatic).
Once the rovers are set into motion, Zoe will have two jobs as an Athena
Science Team member: she will be a Documentarian and a Science Theme
Group (STG) member. As the Documentarian for the science team, she will
act as a scribe to keep a kind of 'rover diary'. This 'diary' will
maintain a coherent history of scientific investigation to keep the
scientists up-to-date. As an STG member, she will examine the newly
received data, and, based on this information, request new activities
for the rovers.
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Zoe during FIDO field test at Jet Propulsion Laboratory using 3D glasses to look at stereo images from the test rover
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For Zoe, becoming a scientist is more like the manifestation of destiny
than a conscious decision. She's been interested in planets, space
travel, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life for as long as she
can remember. She recalls the first time she considered science as a
career. When she was in fifth grade, she visited the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) to view live pictures of Neptune captured by the
Voyager 2 spacecraft. Several of the JPL scientists talked to Zoe's
class about what they did, and it was only then that she dared to
envision herself as a scientist. "It was like loving chocolate," Zoe
says, "and being told that you could make a successful living as a
chocolate taster!"
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Zoe at the Kennedy Space Center with a picture of the Saturn V rocket in the background
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Even before Zoe was in school, her favorite question was not why, but
how? Her mother recalls a time when Zoe wanted to know how the
electricity "got into the wall". They drove all the way to Hoover Dam,
in Nevada, to satisfy her curiosity. As a child, Zoe's bookshelves were
teeming with books on famous scientists, dinosaurs, inventors, and
various disciplines of science, including astronomy and space travel.
Zoe has always loved flying and roller coasters, and she still holds on
to her childhood dream of being an astronaut.
Starting with her wild curiosity, and continuing with her interest in
science, Zoe's excitement for Mars grew gradually throughout her teen
years. As a young teen, she lived in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she spent
a lot of time at the Lowell Observatory (for information on the
Observatory and on Percival Lowell, who was passionately committed to
the study of Mars, check out
www.lowell.edu).
Despite her admiration for
Lowell's devotion to Mars, her interests weren't limited to one planet
specifically. Her fascination with the Red Planet didn’t start until
high school in the years leading up to the Pathfinder mission in 1996.
She attended the Space Settlement Design Contest at JPL, and worked with
other students to design a space station to orbit Mars. It wasn't until
this event that she became a hardcore fan.
Zoe's mother is a teacher, and has been her inspiration and life-long
mentor. As a kid, Zoe was only interested in science and math, but her
mom taught her that being well spoken, well read, and having good
writing skills were just as important as knowing the contents of
Saturn's rings or understanding how stars shine. Being a good scientist
is not just about making discoveries in the world around us— it's about
sharing that knowledge with the rest of the world.
Zoe's advice to kids interested in science is this: don't think too much
about what you should do to get to a specific final goal. Follow your
interests because they will lead you somewhere— even though it may not
be where you thought you'd end up. As a character on the TV show “The
West Wing” (a physicist in fact) once said, "Great achievement has no
road map."
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This was taken after Zoe's first time skydiving.
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Even now as a scientist and a graduate student, Zoe maintains a
childlike excitement for her work. "The kid in me who was so excited to
see those live images from Voyager can't wait to be among the first to
see the images of Mars," says Zoe. From orbit, these landing sites
appear to be unlike any of the previous landing sites of Viking and
Pathfinder. "It's the thrill of seeing something that no one has ever
seen before," says Zoe, "that lights a fire in my belly, and makes my
heart beat twice as fast."
