Thing is - Western USA is a BIG trip for anyone from Europe, and there is a large European contingent in this place. I'd rather do something that isnt 12hrs away and reachable with a cheap airline first time around, see how it goes - THEN - do something in the US perhaps the following year

Doug

New SS Update - "December 23, 2005

Things have been going well at Gusev. We've spent most of the past week looking at a rock right next to Comanche that we call Comanche Spur. Like everything we've seen since we've descended off of Haskin Ridge, Comanche Spur has undergone very little alteration and has a lot of olivine in it. But the composition is different from what we saw at Seminole and Algonquin, so we seem to have yet another rock type at Gusev.

With the Comanche campaign wrapping up, it was decision time... Allegeny Ridge or El Dorado? We had a long meeting about that at mid-week, and the consensus decision was to head for El Dorado. We should begin the drive on about Sol 704, and we're hoping it will go quickly. Expect Spirit to do a lot of driving and (except at El Dorado) not much IDD work in the weeks ahead...."

704 is Boxing Day

What do you think - El Dorado for New Year with a nice 6 x 3 pancam postcard....go on Jim, you know you want to


Doug

Seems like the UMSF S1K conference has some support

Doug

mhmghamgmmmmmhgmhmahmhmmmmhwhghrfffmahmghfff

Sorry - mouth full of sulphate rich dep....sorry, mouth full of CAKE

The MER model is this one - http://www.lansbergen.net/eng/ - somehow, despite the fact that we live and work together, Helen managed to find it, print it, cut it out, make it - AND modify it to include the STS107 dedication on the back of the HGA and I didnt have a CLUE.

Right - time for some Hematite conc.... Maltesers

Doug

Am I dead yet? No one told me

Doug

Ahh - ye old 33 Cameras Talk..seems like a long time ago now

I've got another London talk coming up in Jan

Genius work on the cake by Helen, way better than the Racing Car one I had when I was 13

Doug

I've recieved a few Planetary Geology books ( exactly what I wanted ) AND....the cake is a work of utter genius on Helen's part - I'll post photo's later

Thanks for everyone's kind words - this place is hard work sometimes, but my god it's worth it I cant accept thanks for this place without saying thanks to my Admin team - they've not been around long, but they're helping a lot

Doug (aged 27.002739726027397260273972602739726 )

Messenger's gravity 'thing' has appeared here before, and he was suspended from the forum for a month for continually spouting pseudo science.

Infront of everyone here - go down that path again, and I'll just ban you. I'm not having that pseudo-science junk in this place. Speculation, yes. Discussion, yes. Debate, yes. Crap? No.

Doug

I love watching Ariane 5 webcasts, the commentary team are hillarious...they dont MEAN to be, but they are

Doug

I did think that a web-cast based thing would be cool, BUT, you have the trouble of having basically - a crap picture at the end. Seing a lecture in person is cool - but seing one down a webcast could be a bit lame. I walk around, use a laser pointer, make jokes about people who come in late ( don't worry, you've not missed a THING ) and so on - done via a webcase it wouldnt be too good, and it would require quite a lot of expensive hardware that we'd have to beg, steel, borrow, hire.

BUT

We could do a DVD of the end result and get that out to anyone who couldnt make it.
Doug

Suzi say's Happy Holidays...but remind you all that ALL YOUR DATA BELONG TO US





Doug

I'd be happy to try and organise something - but realistically, I'd have to organise something that's in the UK. For me to try and arrange facilities, accomodation etc somewhere abroad would be a nightmare.

Would people want to sort their own accomodation out, or would something like last years BAA conference be good, where they had basic accom available as a bundle with entry to the conference.

Doug

I totally and utterly agree, it'd be amazing to have a mini conference type thing even - central Europe would be perfect - perhaps we should do one of those 'where everyone is from' google map things ( I can't remember the URL but everyone can add their own pin to the map ) and we could schedule something for the middle of it.

BUT

I'd suggest that the best time to do it would be once MER is over ( a bad thought, but one that will come, one day ) so we can have a celebration of what they have achieved. When that will be - I dont know.

Similarly, it'd be cool to have something in the US for obvious reasons, perhaps over on the West Coast somewhere (like, say, Pasadena.... )

A long weekend - dinner on a Friday, Talks and events on Sat and Sun Am, and everyone home on Sunday afternoon

TECHNICALLY it's been done. Nico and I met up in Cambridge this Summer

But yes - it would be fantastic to sort something out, but it'd have to be perhaps 6 months in planning to try and get a venue, accom. and people to sort travel etc

IDEALLY, we would have it here in the UK, right here in Leicester at the National Space Centre

Doug

Ahh - the Summit Pan + Deck pan reprojected in the Polar Format as seen in this place would be the best way to present it I think - and yes, it should be in there

Doug

We've had this discussion to death already. That's quite enough of it ljk. Any more and I'll start deleting posts.

Doug

What I'd include....

The Hubble Mars shot of the Dust Storm
Plutos two new moons
MRO Launch and/or Lunar Calib image
Anything and Everything from Cassini - particularly some of the KODAKMMT's
DI images, the impactor images are fairly poor quality, but a sequence of flyby images of the impact would be good
Aqua/Terra images of Hurricanes / Flooding and Hemel Hempstead Oil Depot / LA Bush Fires
Aqua / Terra images of the Annular Eclipse
Images of the Tile Gap Filler removal EVA
Something from MEX, umm, the ancient Martian 'Glaciers'
Heck - I could think of dozens

Doug

I doubt you could run any sort of Ion engine off normal RTGs - certainly not one worth investing the time, money and particularly mass and volume in.

You need something like a kw or 2 to make it worth while

Doug

But, Maximum possible speed from a flyby, and the course required for your intended target are almost certain to not be the same thing as well

I'd have thought, if you were intent on doing a misssion out to near 100AU then you're going to have to go with Ion or even more interesting propulsion ( A solar powered Ion 'stage' to the spacecraft, ejected once prop is exhausted after perhaps 12 months of thrusting adding a few km/s to the velocity of the RTG powered spacecraft )

Doug

What I just can not believe is that New SCIENTIST... (I'll say that again..SCIENTIST) confused the phrase et al (used a dozen times on just about any science paper ever written) and made it into Marco's second sirname Etal.

That's bad enough - but to then put (sic) at the end, which basically says 'Yes, we know it looks odd that the guys name ends in Etal, but it's right, we checked, honestly' - is just SHOCKINGLY bad practice by whoever put it in there. I'm more upset by their utter stupidity then their failure to ask us & AW first. The answer would, of course, have been yes, but to screw it up so badly is shocking for what I thought was a good publication.

Doug

Boys - dont make me come in here!!! I've delted a few posts that were all rant-like and silly.

BEHAVE

Doug (with stern look on face)

Dont forget the equiv. prop mass of the RAD and TIRS rockets in the MER backshell. I dont know if the figure are out there, but they bring just about 900 very-ish-KG from about 180mph to 0mph in about 3 seconds - it's quite a whack and so there must be quite a lot of mass within that lot.

What still suprises me is the ammount of metal about on these vehicles when carbon composites would surely offer advantages in strength and mass. OK - so it lunched itself in the process of landing, but the basic B2 structure was actually built by the composites wing of the McLaren F1 team.

Doug

Helen just found this....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=6590449480





Doug

the sound of wind across an open plain......a piece of tumble weed drifts across an old cart track...off in the far distance a church bell rings...


get out.





Doug

I replaced the attachment with a smaller one - you must have looked during the inbetween deleteing one and attaching the other phase

I've found two other scheduled obs like this - one I've found Odyssey in, the other, I cant find it.

Doug

In my mind was a little voice going "where are those images you thought might be taken of Odyssey...."

So I used the Pancam team database site, and found them

VERY cool