There is no doubt in my opinion that the press will get the naming wrong and called the decent stage the 'skycrane' instead of a decent stage performing a skycrane manouvre.

Not sure how you did it, if I did that it'd take 28 years Inspired

Doug

There's something to be said for the Viking cameras - sure, low bit depth, low res in colour - but they produced some beautiful, seamless images Great work Don.

Doug

http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_ins...A_BallPark.html

Not bad

Doug

I bet he wishes he had the time to write it From '92 to the day MSL lands, it would be one HELL of a story.

Doug

The first man to fly in space three times, one of that rare bunch of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo veterans. God speed Wally.

Doug

If I were you I'd just leave.



Leave the executive fridge keys with Jason.

Doug

You didn't suggest that next time he follow up the left with a right upper cut - the old one-two?

The sort of things I'd have aksed...nicely done - it's not easy. When you get a few quiet minutes with people that you might put in the 'hero' catagory, it's difficult to keep a clear head and ask sensible questions that wont make them roll their eyes or make you think "oh - why did I ask THAT?" 5 seconds later.

The only thing I've never heard a moon walking astronaut asked is how well the photos match their own experience of the surface

Doug

Longest ever was 220 meters not far after a crater called James Caird - Sol 400-and-something

Doug

Beautiful work as ever Tim...hopefully R.K. will be able to release some sort of DEM product for we mortals to get all artistic with soon

Cartographcially,

Doug

Well - there has to be as much material moved away from these areas as there is being deposited - or they would be visible ridges wouldn't they? I can't get that principle out of my head - am I missing something?

Doug

How do you know this?

If sand is deposited then dust depoisted then repeat...where is the big pile of material?

Steve didn't say 'Deposition, Period'. He said 'Deposition'. You're infering more than he said. He said that deposition is occuring. If deposition is the only thing that occurs at these places - then over the past several billion years they would be huge piles of sand. These do not exist - thus an element of erosion must also be occuring. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not attempting to pose a theory of my own. But can you see that you are over-simplifying the processes here? If only one thing were happening all the time in these places, they would be very very different to the surrounding terrain. They're not. They're different in a subtle way. This isn't a trombone solo going on - there's a full orchestra at work. We can hear the trombone...but there's other instruments playing as well.

I've said it again, but it bares repeating. This isn't a black or white issue. It's a blend of processes.

Doug

Don't know. How much do you think it takes?



So if stuff is being moved within this streak no more than anywhere else - but sand is being thrown out of the crater preferentially at this point - where's the net balance of sand producing dunes or similar?



Nothing conclusive, nothing that isn't ambiguous, nothing more than lots of other places around the crater that don't have streaks

I don't pretend to have all the answers, others should stop pretending that they do I see a range of symptoms that no one simple theory here has covered unambiguously.

Maybe the simple fact that more sand ends up here dictates that more polishing of berries goes on. BUT - is the streak the same direction as the prevailing winds? If winds are picking stuff up from inside and dropping it out on this side of the rim - what is going on on the far side from here?

If the sand was being dropped just outside the rim then would there not be a large pile, maybe a mini dune field - from which it is then redistributed with the 'nominal' apron winds. For there to be no pile then that dictates it is being thrown out at a rate slower than it is being then moved on by normal winds - BUT - that then means the normal winds are more powerfull, more dominant that the ejecting stream and would that not mean that everything around here should be polished?

If it were whipping over a lip, perhaps you would have a stall on the rim edge, but we don't get that here it's whipping up a slope which aerodynamically blends reasonably well into the apron. How has the wind here altered the profile from ramp to apron compared to other ramps?

Notice all the question marks?

Doug

Watching it now - melodramatic in the extreme. Horizon is not what it used to be.

We know there to be stronger winds at the streaks - that is the mechanism by which sand is being put here. Those stronger winds will also clear more dust off the surface than anywhere else. Why would the berries be polished if the winds here were the same as everywhere else? They're polished because stronger winds are blowing surface material along and bouncing it past all the berries surely?

That diagram is interesting - but it dictates that sand is gettting thrown onto a several hundred metre parabolic arc out of the rim surely? This isn't about one steady state of one speed of wind in one direction..it's about prevailing, statistics, distribtuions.

This is not a black and white issue guys - stop pinning your pet theory on one side of a fence that just does not exist. It is indeed very silly - as I told you all it would be some days ago. Superlatives, hand waving, football chants. It's childish.

Doug

(PS - I've edited my previous post to remove the El Dorado reference, that was not what I was trying to say)

The same strong winds that carry the heavier sand out the crater will also be keeping it clean of the dust that falls everywhere surely?. If it was ALWAYS deposition and nothing else- then it would be a huge big pile would it not? A big pile built up at the lip of the crater.

The dust falls everywhere - it's why the sky is the colour it is.. In light winds it forms dunes of its own. In heavy winds, it is blown away totally. Only stronger winds carry the sand. So - for this to be a place of all sand and little dust - both deposition AND erosion have to be occuring. Not only because we see no dust that we know to be falling everywhere, but also because if there were no erosion at all - we would have a sand mountain to see.

Doug

Sweet - thats another Kodak moment isn't it?

Bingo - we're up and running. John - we need to talk about your shirts.

Ahh - so I WAS right, but not any more.

Can I make and eat Pork stir-fry in 36 minutes.

Doug

Hmm - should have started by now...instead an interesting, but unscheduled Goddard documentary.

Doug

Well - slowly - some people at least 'get it'
http://www.marsjournal.org/

All free, in full....beautifully done.

Doug

Well - much thanks and kudos for the time and effort you've put in in keeping us informed about all things HiRISE - it's very much appreciated

Good luck at Raytheon

Doug

Six Million Dollar.. Hmm - I think they missed off a few zeros there AND - with the accident a few weeks ago, November is looking iffy. But hey, Horizon never lets the facts get in the way of overly dramatising things.

They were like overshoes I think.

Doug