Very good, stevo!

I, too, love the fact that JPL has settled on this biologically-created material in order to replicate this particular section of the plains of Meridiani. That should give the conspiracy theorists a charge, and adds a whole new perspective on the "Fighting the Surf" topic.

I took the sentence less optimistically to mean that they didn't necessarily have an approach that worked (it does note that they've been working on getting the consistency of their surface material right). I thought it meant only that if they came up with a maneuver that worked in the test bed, Thursday or Friday would be the earliest that they could send the commands. On the other hand, I assume that they wouldn't rush off to try the first thing that works, either, so this may just mean that they won't be sufficiently satisfied with the option until later this week. Guess we'll find out when we're all of a sudden peering back at those skid marks.

If dust accumulation on the cells got to a point of desperation, would it be even possible to consider "brushing" sections of the panel with the RAT brush, or is that either 1) mechanically impossible -- not in the physcially possible work space, 2) practically impossible -- just too risky to damage important components, or 3) practically impossible, because the 'brush" would destroy the solar cells?

Hi all --

Been lurking here for several months, mostly on the MER boards, but have enjoyed the Titan discussion as well. Thanks.

On the topic of the "official" first image release (the "drainage channel" image at about ~11:50PST (~19:50UTC) on Friday), and the subsequent applause by the gathered officials: I could have sworn I saw the image on the screens of the Huygens mission control room before the official program began. Sure enough. On reviewing the tape, during the live feed of the control room ~3 minutes before official program begins, the image of the "drainage channel" comes up on a couple of the big screens (you even see a couple of people remark on it, though they don't look that excited about it). They then cut to the little ESA / Huygens intro, then there's the whole "event" with Martin Ransom, the "reveal" (without actually seeing the image), extended applause, and that commentary by various officials.

Perhaps I was completely foolish to think that was the first time those gathered individuals had seen the image, but I felt rather misled, particularly when contrasting it with the spontaneity of not only the MER image releases on those first nights, but even the commentary by Carolyn Porco of the Saturn ring images as they streamed down shortly after SOI. I have my problems with NASA TV coverage, but the kind of "staged" release that I saw from ESA really drives me insane, and makes me thank my lucky stars for NASA and JPL.

Anyway, back to the real stuff, which due to the wonders of the web we have in hand (the lack of "official releases" notwithstanding).

Thanks again for all your great insights and imaging work.