Posted by tourdemars to Mars Exploration Rovers at September 22, 2004 11:17 PM

Like some phenomenal high school quarterback drafted into the NFL, University of Arizona undergraduate Nicole Spanovich has made it as a pro. But her skill is in helping run rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, on Mars. Spanovich, a UA astronomy senior, is running a remote operations center for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission in Tucson. She set it up at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's Phoenix Project building, 1415 N. Sixth Ave., last month.