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Watson Lecture: Ashwin Vasavada (PhD '98) on the Curiosity Rover's Quest to Understand the Habitability of Mars
Watson Lecture: Ashwin Vasavada (PhD '98) on the Curiosity Rover's Quest to Understand the Habitability of Mars
November 06, 2025
Credit: Lance Hayashida/Caltech
Was life ever possible on Mars? On November 19, 2025, at 7:30 p.m., Ashwin Vasavada (PhD '98), a project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA, will discuss the Curiosity rover's 13-year endeavor to investigate the habitability of the Red Planet.
In a public talk called "Thirteen Years in the Dust: How a Robot Showed that Mars Was Once Habitable," Vasavada will explain the prerequisites for life that he, his team of 500 scientists around the world, and the Curiosity rover are looking for on Mars. Vasavada will also describe his day-to-day work with Curiosity— all done from millions of miles away—and some of the challenges that he and his team have faced in managing the rover over the years, including during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
"When you're running one of these rover missions, it's like an expedition that happened on Earth in the last 100 years, where you might draw a line on a map, and that's where you try to go," Vasavada says. "But there could be things any given day that cause you not to be able to do exactly what you thought you'd do in advance. We're making daily zigzags and changes in real time to both our scientific goals as we discover things, and our actual path of exploration based on what the terrain allows us to do with the rover."
Vasavada recalls being fascinated by space from an early age, a curiosity encouraged by television programs such as NOVA specials—some of which featured his future graduate advisor, Andrew P. Ingersoll, professor emeritus of planetary science at Caltech. One pivotal image stands out in his memory: The photograph of Mars taken by Viking Lander 2.
"The picture was taken by the lander, and it had this barren, rocky world out in the distance," Vasavada describes. "It captured its own antenna, beaming back the signal to Earth, and then an American flag on the side. I could just stare at that picture for hours, because it just brought home the fact that we're out there exploring other worlds. There were other worlds to explore, number one, and then you could send these robots out as your emissaries."
Vasavada earned a bachelor's degree in geophysics and space physics from UCLA in 1992 before pursuing a PhD in planetary science at Caltech. He has worked on NASA spacecraft missions at JPL since 2004.
About the series
The Watson Lectures offer new opportunities each month to hear how Caltech researchers are tackling society's most pressing challenges and inventing the technologies of the future. Join a community of curiosity outside Beckman Auditorium to enjoy food, drinks, and music together before each lecture. Interactive displays related to the evening's topic will give audience members additional context and information. The festivities start at 6 p.m. Guests are also encouraged to stay for post-talk coffee and tea as well as the chance to chat with attendees and researchers.
