The Descent into Victoria, Possible and Actual Strategies Options

[CosmicRocker]

Thanks for noting that, Doug. That's exciting news, but it is unfortunate that it was buried it in the NASA internet labyrinth. This is something that should be given more bandwidth. I'm putting it on my calendar.

[Reckless]

Hi everyone
I couldn't find that NASA briefing I looked in nasa TV special events and it wasn't there.
The date is today isn't it.
Roy

[djellison]

Tomorrow. I think it will be an audio telecon with slides rather than a full NASA TV program.

[akuo]

It isn't on NASA TV schedule for tomorrow either. Might be audio only, like the final MGS teleconference.

[Tesheiner]

Here is the press release. It's audio only.

[Reckless]

Thanks Doug and Tesheiner
I really thought today was Thursday somedays I don't know what planet I'm on.

Audio is that like stone knives and bearskins
It's bookmarked and Ill try to get it for the ipod.

Roy

[Stu]

Looking forward to the teleconference today, which I'll have to listen to on my laptop cos my main PC's frakking soundcard has decided today would be a GREAT time to stop working...

I wonder what thoughts are going through the MER team's minds right now? Excitement? Reluctance? Apprehension? Fear? Impatience? (anyone want to tell us..?) I know Oppy herself isn't really alive (despite what I keep writing!), that she isn't self-aware, but I think that if she was she'd be thinking "Please, let me go in... I want to go in... This is what I was made for... this is what you built me to do, and sent me here to do... this is what I hauled myself out of Eagle Crater for, and trekked all this way south for... this is what I dragged myself through Purgatory Dune for, and dipped into Endurance Crater for... this is what I endured all those freezing martian nights and windy martian days for... this is why I Am, to go into this crater and study it from inside... rocks may fall on me, my wheels might get stuck in the dust, but down there is where I should be, where I need to be... "

At the end of the sol, if Oppy doesn't go in, what is she going to do? Keep scouting around the edge of the crater, looking down at one tantalising just-out-of-reach outcrop and bay after another? Send back countless thousands more images of all those layers and shelves and terraces that hint at wonderous geological stories, but are, too, just out of reach?

I think we all knew this day would come. The interior of VC is It. It's as far as Oppy can go. The rail tracks end here. There are no more targets within - realistic - driving distance.

I know many are worried that Going In might mean she never comes out again, that it's risking a valuable asset, but I think that's seen as acceptable and even necessary now. As much as we convince ourselves here sometimes, Oppy isn't immortal; the martian ghouls could claim her literally any moment, snuffing out her life with something as petty and frustrating as a snapped wire or a circuit failure, or as dramatic as a broken wheel or a lurching topple into a bank of soft dust. But it's time. She didn't come all this way, survive everything that's been thrown at her, to just meekly patter around the edge, like R2D2 trundling through that canyon on tatooine, beeping and tooting forlornly and plaintively, killing time, waiting for time to kill her. She came all this way to explore, to learn, and to teach us. Time to let her do that.

A major dust storm is brewing up on Mars as we've heard, a great billowing mass of red dust is broiling and churning away, getting larger by the second. It could end either of the rovers' missions if it pours over them, the dust choking and clogging them, cutting off their power, killing them as surely as a pillow smothering their faces. So what fate would we rather have for Oppy? To have her end her days rolling safely around Victoria, ticking off the sols, looking down on the geological Alladin's Cave that is VC's interior... or exploring the inside of the deepest hole we've yet reached on Mars? There's amazing science to be done in there... layers to study, dust spills to photograph in detail, rocks to gaze at close-up... cliff faces to peer up at from below, their boulders and ledges jabbing out of the rockface like gargoyles against the pink martian sky... imagine the images we're going to see from inside there...

Enough trundling. Enough peering down. Enough "that might be". Time to let her go and do what she was sent to do.

Go explore, Oppy. The stage is all yours...

[Guest_Geographer_*]

What an inspiring speech Stu! You should write speeches for Michael Griffin. I'm sold...but I was never a hard sell in the first place.

[Reckless]

O.K. Stu

You've pushed me over the edge. so to speak.
It's strange that trying to think about the pros and cons kept me hovering but, them gargoyles helped me decide to go for it.

Roy

[Tesheiner]

The telecon should have already started, but the NASA news audio page still says "A link to the streaming audio will appear here before the event." and no link is there.

[algorimancer]

Here I go, spitting into the wind again. I think it would be great if Oppy couldn't go into VC - off we'd go on another cross-country adventure, hopefully southeast towards Big Crater, wondering day by day what is over the next hill and exactly what route we'll follow. New vistas, new adventures, that's what I'd like to see. A full-color 360 degree panorama from the peak of the western rim of Big Crater - that would be incredible.

But of course there is little double that Oppy is going into VC, and there will undoubtedly be interesting things to see there as well - I'm looking forward to MI close-ups of a vertical cliff. But I anticipate a lot of boring sitting around in one spot for ages, like Spirit has been doing lately.

[akuo]

The teleconference is still an hour and a bit away.

[Tesheiner]

I must go back to school!

1pm + 6h = 7pm and not 5pm.

[CosmicRocker]

I won't be able to listen to it after all. I see now that there is only a link to a RealAudio stream. Even if I would consider installing Realplayer on this machine, our corporate bit-nazis would not allow me to. Hopefully some nice people will post running comments here so those of us without access can learn of anything interesting being said.

[Tom Tamlyn]

The press release for the teleconference states that "[s]upporting images and graphics for the teleconference will be posted at: http://www.nasa.gov/rover," but I get "page not found" for that address. Perhaps the page goes live at the last moment?

TTT