Dr. McEwen is currently the principal investigator for the HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.) This incredible camera, onboard the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), was designed and built by optics whiz and fellow planetary scientist Peter Smith at the University of Arizona, who spent two years on the project and who also is the chief investigator for the Mars-Phoenix lander.

MRO's HiRise camera has been taking incredibly sharp closeup photos of Mars' varied geology since 2006, and actually imaged the Opportunity Mars rover. It also caught the Mars-Phoenix lander as it parachuted to thesurface, then again as it sat upon the arctic plains of Mars. It has also captured Martian geology in motion from avalanches to gully creation. HiRise has returned over 30 terabytes of high-resolution photos; more than all the other planetary imagery combined. Planetary scientists have lifetimes of Mars imagery to digest, even though MRO has imaged far less than 1% of the Red Planet.

His next assignment is as co-investigator on LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) a "clone" of the MRO which will comb the moon for possible future manned landing sites. The Peter Smith designed camera will, for the first time, be able to image the 40-year old Apollo hardware left on the moon. It is planned for launch in summer 2009. He is also on Dr. Porco's Cassini imaging team where he led the planning and analysis for imaging observations of Titan's surface.

Dr. McEwen will show and explain his favorite MRO images on a large screen (if he showed all of them, it would take years), including some movies, flyovers, anaglyphs and 3D pairs, false and natural color, and black and white images.

TIME: Saturday 1:30 PM Big Room Admission $10