Well Bruce wasnt too far from the mark - they overran some repeats of the next shuttle crew slapping each others back - and BANG straight into the end of Southwoods introduction

Doug

It's not an easy thing to do at mars - very little payload due to the thin atmosphere. Thre have been suggestions, but no actual firm plans

Doug

Because it doesnt have the payload accomodation to do the bio-science required, or the data handling capactity for the HUGE data products suggested for the MSL payload.

Doug

I'm not sure if 3d interpolation was done that much with Viking imagery. With the VERY long baseline of sterep - should get some really accurate results
Doug

Quick - get me a geologist - what is this

Doug

cunning trick for the missing lines - take a copy of the missing line form another channel and increase/decrease brightness/levels to match its neigbours.

Not sure on the procedure for getting the right colour balance with Viking though - not looked at it very carefully

Yeah - it shares most of the same systems - it's the same design really. Same engines, same systems, same structure, same cruise hardware etc. Because of that - when the '99 lander failure was not understood - the '01 lander was cancelled as a matter of caution.

The only majorly different things are the solar arrays and the instrumentation. Also - it's got an MER style HGA instead of the wok-design that MPL had - and this platform also had - and changed instrumentation.

The orig. plan was for the robot arm to 'pick up' the Sojourner 'spare' ( Marie Curie ) from the lander deck and put it on the ground beside the lander to rover around. That's since been dropped from the package.

Whilst some would say the platform is 'flight proven' w.r.t. Polar Lander - to be honest, the only thing that's proven is that it fails. However - the likely root cause has been found, and fixed ( a simple software bug ) - and they will be obliged to integrate some form of EDL tone telemetry a la MER to help troubleshoot if there is another failure.

The camera system is a hybrid evolution of the MPF/MPL camera ( 14.4 degree f.o.v. with approx 256 pixels across) and the MER CCD's ( 1024 across ) - so, if the two work well together, it should actually be better imagery - just - than MER

Doug

It's the part-built 2001 lander, taken out of storage - Marie Curie taken off and other instrumentation bolted on.

If you add the money spent pre-cancellation, AND the money for the scout class mission - Phoenix is a rather expensive little lander

Doug

The dirt on the rear-hazcam appearing JUST when they got to the Heatshield and only on the one set of camera is a bit coincidental to me - all this chared cork and resin ready to be run over and I can imagine it easily sending clouds of sticky dust in the air...I think they should do no more than the bare minimum then get away.

I was AMAZED they spent so long next to the 'big piece' when the mylar insulation could have folded back around and hit the IDD

Doug

He didnt get to scan the masters - he got to scan the first-generation copies.

The masters are in frozen storage somewhere

Doug

Ditto - 4 years to go yet.

Doug

I know - Jim's such a nice guy - he's been amazing via email w.r.t. my mosaic work. I felt like SUCH a prat afterwards

Doug

FWIW - and I'm not a geologist...

I think we have a dark sandy material as the 'sea bed' - and ice/ice+organics as the 'mainland'. For some reason - be it tidal or wind of flow of some other reason- we have had 'bars' of deposits that might be carried down from the mainland out into this flood plain - these rounded ice-pebbles look a bit like terminal moraine and flood-debris.

Where do you see ridges and bars of rounded eroded debris off a 'mainland' feature

Doug

iirc - the heads cutting surfaces are diamond in a resin setting - that self sharpens over time - expendable but very long lasting - and they've both suffered only a tiny tiny ammount of wear so far - but something like that meteorite would kill it in a jiffy

Doug

Even my other half thought she looked good at the Golden Globes

Doug

This is quite an interesting issue. Something specific happened between end of drive Sol 330, and end of drive Sol 331 - only to the read hazcams, but to both of them and no other camera - and has remained consistant and in place ever since.

I cant figure out what it might be - perhaps a local dust laden wind feature. The rover was parked just west of the impact crater at the time

Doug

Yup - even when something amazing is achieved - they will find SOMETHING to fling crap at - it's pathetic.

Doug

Oh bloody hell - confuse Jim Bell and Jeff Bell is not something I want to do

His articles often have a valid 'theme' - but they get so addorned with hate hate hate - that it's impossible to take them seriously.

JimO has often made valid criticism of NASA procedure and so forth - but without sounding like he has some massive gripe with them.

Bell just uses so many superlatives and flings so much dirt - his otherwise valid message is lost.

Doug

Are the public really being cheated?

I've often thought that it's all to easy to 'blame' the media -but if what the media presented, in print, and on our television screens was really 'cheating' the public - wouldnt they simple switch off or change channels to someone who wasnt?

Is it more a case that actually - the 'public' dont really care about this stuff? It's impossible to 'wow' the public with a picture from mars when Hollywood shows people walking around and using old russians landers to blast their way home.

This is why I'm often to be heard mentioning the 'sexy'ness of a mission. A mission has to have ker-POW - keZAZ - ka-BOOM factor to wow the public - and unfortunately - they can not ( or dont understand ) fathom the limitations of the technology that have given us what WE consider to be an amazing view from the surface of titan.

It all feeds-back into itself - but there's certainly an argument to be made that all space projects should have a %'ge public engagement budget as mandatory - and that proper data should be in the public domain in very short order.

Doug

Does anyone know a company in the US that will take online mail orders from UK customers delivering to a US address - I think VP needs a prize (No, I dont like C-B EITHER - but that's not the point damnit )

Doug

Yes - the first postcard from Spirit ( that 3 x 3 frame section ) was probably the last colour MER image printed in the mainstream media.

I'd LOVE a poll of the public - "How many rovers are currently working on mars. 0,1,2" - I'd bet 50% of the public dont even know there's two working rovers on mars right now.

Of course, Janet Jacksons breasts, ex-celebrities locked in a house, and BAFTA nominations are seen as more important subjects. Hell - they even out-run GWB's impending attacks on Iran.

Doug

Yes - sadly, there are some who think that because they can buy an 8 megapixel digital camera on the highstreet there's no reason why you cant put one on Titan.

Jim Bell's articles are best avoided. He's a troll that somehow - is given the title 'journalist'. In the forum of life - he should have been banned some time ago. He gives other, more decent writers ( JimO, Bruce ) a bad name.

Doug

Recent anaglyph of the area - bear in mind though that I dont have my r/b glasses at work - so I've not been able to test this one - I've put the centre of attetion in the middle to far distance

Doug

One has to consider ESA's performace w.r.t. the main stream media. The next day's papers, and that evenings news. For that - their performace and output was sufficient. A couple of pictures, a couple of sound bites - thats all that was required. Anything above and beyond that is a bonus for the TINY minority who have a greater than passing interest in it.

Doug

I think a stop-over will be warrented here....

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...HHP1201L0M1.JPG

Interesting rocks right in the IDD work volume

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...HPP1214L0M1.JPG

Doug