Endeavour Crater, And again shall we conquer the Remoteness Options

[ustrax]

There is technic, there are pictures, there is poetry.

You forgot one...there is also cheerful ignorance!

[Phil Stooke]

Rui's hill is the big drift fringing Duck Bay. Let's not go back and look at it!

Phil

[Tman]

Could/should be the rim of the Duck Bay.

[RoverDriver]

...
On the poetry thing... I sometimes worry about posting mine (or lines from other poems) here, because I am very aware that not everyone "gets it",
...

Stu, speaking only for myself as usual, I'm one of the few who does not get it. Both because English is not my primary language, and also because I do not appreciate poetry in my native language either. I'm pretty sure that if I sit down with you I can quickly explain any of the technical details that now escape you, but you might spend years and fail to explain to me how to put together words so that they make you feel something.

Your poetry is more than welcome but unfortunately not "grocked" by your truly.

Paolo

[ustrax]

Paolo, I know that you are on the engineering side of the fence and that I am not Stu but...

Itaca

Quando ti metterai in viaggio per Itaca
devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga,
fertile in avventure e in esperienze.
I Lestrigoni e i Ciclopi
o la furia di Nettuno non temere,
non sara` questo il genere di incontri
se il pensiero resta alto e un sentimento
fermo guida il tuo spirito e il tuo corpo.
In Ciclopi e Lestrigoni, no certo,
ne' nell'irato Nettuno incapperai
se non li porti dentro
se l'anima non te li mette contro.

Devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga.
Che i mattini d'estate siano tanti
quando nei porti - finalmente e con che gioia -
toccherai terra tu per la prima volta:
negli empori fenici indugia e acquista
madreperle coralli ebano e ambre
tutta merce fina, anche profumi
penetranti d'ogni sorta; piu' profumi inebrianti che puoi,
va in molte città egizie
impara una quantità di cose dai dotti.

Sempre devi avere in mente Itaca -
raggiungerla sia il pensiero costante.
Soprattutto, non affrettare il viaggio;
fa che duri a lungo, per anni, e che da vecchio
metta piede sull'isola, tu, ricco
dei tesori accumulati per strada
senza aspettarti ricchezze da Itaca.
Itaca ti ha dato il bel viaggio,
senza di lei mai ti saresti messo
sulla strada: che cos'altro ti aspetti?

E se la trovi povera, non per questo Itaca ti avrà deluso.
Fatto ormai savio, con tutta la tua esperienza addosso
gia` tu avrai capito cio` che Itaca vuole significare.

Kavafis

I don't believe that, even for you, the journey towards Ithaca/Endeavour will reduce itself to find the path, cross the distance and get there, will it?...

[Guest_Bobby_*]

Hi Ustrax

Where is Pando??? No reply from him Since June
Does anyone know how to contact him?
He's missing out on the new adventure

[climber]

Paolo, I know that you are on the engineering side of the fence and that I am not Stu but...
Itaca
....
Kavafis
I don't believe that, even for you, the journey towards Ithaca/Endeavour will reduce itself to find the path, cross the distance and get there, will it?...

Thanks Rui,
I wish of you all can get the music of this magnificent poem. Every language has its own sounds and give untranslatable feelings.
I'm just in awe at the moment...

[climber]

Hi Ustrax

Where is Pando??? No reply from him Since June
Does anyone know how to contact him?
He's missing out on the new adventure

Hey Bobby, did you missed this : http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...mp;#entry127604 ?

[Guest_Bobby_*]

Thanks Climber

Yes I did miss that post and thanks
I think Ustrax missed it also

Now Go Oppy

[RoverDriver]

Paolo, I know that you are on the engineering side of the fence and that I am not Stu but...
....
I don't believe that, even for you, the journey towards Ithaca/Endeavour will reduce itself to find the path, cross the distance and get there, will it?...

Absolutely not. What I meant to say is that while I can appreciate a good picture, I typically cannot appreciate poetry, I only wish I could.

Paolo

[ustrax]

I can understand Paolo, I really can, but if you can just remember the time when there were no pictures...

How would you describe something as amazing as Mars, something that cannot be imprisioned in a picture, like the will to move onwards, to learn, to discover, to see the unseen and know the unknown, to surpass purgatories and face 12kms distant utopias? That is, in my humble point of view something impossible to achieve without one of Mankind's greatest conquests, to, through words, express the beauty and the core of it all.

We're too spoiled by tech...

[TheChemist]

In view of the publicity Kavafis got in UMSF, it is a bit spooky to realize that another famous poem of his, "Waiting for the barbarians" starts with these very words :

"What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?"

[Greg Hullender]

On the poetry thing... I sometimes worry about posting mine (or lines from other poems) here, because I am very aware that not everyone "gets it", and some people probably think this isn't actually the place for waxing lyrical about space exploration when it's such a Hard Engineering subject.

I think I can find at least one example of a deeply moving poem that's at least close to the subject:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

--John Magee, "High Flight"

I don't know about anyone else, but "High Flight" always chokes me up, and I cannot read it aloud.

That said, I have to say none of the rover poems works for me. The style seems fine, the words seem to be well-chosen, the rhyme and meter are pleasing -- but something leaves me cold. I'd like to say something helpful about that, since I feel Spirit and Opportunity ought to be at least as inspiring as a Spitfire, so I'll say I think the reason the poems leave me unmoved is that they really are just about the two machines. I guess I'm not satisfied with them just being machines -- I want them to be symbols of something much greater. If a rover "feels" something, I don't want it to be an actual physical malfunction -- I want it to be something felt by all of us who want to reach for the stars. I wish I could be more precise.

Yes, I know it's unreasonable to expect something as good as "High Flight." :-) Yet sometimes it doesn't seem like you're that far away from it. Don't mean to offend -- just wanted to offer some feedback that might actually be useful.

--Greg

[ustrax]

I think I can find at least one example of a deeply moving poem that's at least close to the subject:

That is a fantastic poem, thank you, personally, for introducing me to it and, although I do not entirely concur with you about Stu's poems, there have been, at least, two poems through which this mission has been fueled by, well, I personally didn't know these so, at least for me, they work as my two favourite works so far...El Dorado by Poe and Ithaca by Kavafis, and these you can't disassociate from the sols we've been through...
Engineering, science, astronomy...man...that without the "pilgrim shadow", that without " what Ithaca means", that without, "Ectasy of Gold" (my own MER soundtrack...) wouldn't mean a thing...

And even if the words don't work out for you I am sure, beyond UMSF there's someone dreaming about an Atkinson's Mars...

TheChemist...don't tell me you have reached that poem only know?!...

[ustrax]

Just received an e-mail...looks like Jim Bell jgot into the party...

"It is going to be an adventure--if we can make it! Once we finish at the alcoves and promontories of Victoria, we will be starting to routinely take Pancam images in that direction--for a LONG time..."

That sounds like a lot of headaches coming from me to you James, doesn't it?...

And...of course...don't forget this from Jim...