Giving thanks for MGS Options

[djellison]

Here in the UK we don't do Thanksgiving - the closest thing we have is Christmas really - however given that most of what we discuss here has a US origin, it's certainly right to mark what I think is a one of the more sensible national holidays in the world.

So - given the not so great new recently, and the fairly dim outlook - I though it appropriate to give thanks for the people and the talent behind, and the results from Mars Global Surveyor.

When Mars Observer was very first planned.....there was no plan for a camera on it...and eventually a manager said "You CAN'T send a spacecraft to Mars without a camera...." and that is when MOC was selected.

HiRISE owes its existance to MOC - because without MOC we would not have learnt, so very obviously, that much much higher resolution teaches you much much more. That may seem obvious now - but back in the late '80s and early '90s - it wasn't. It truely was a proof of purpose in getting high res pics. It's perhaps fitting that MGS has survived long enough to pass the baton on to it's decendant MRO, the 4th Orbiter sent to Mars since MGS, but the first to carry a camera of higher resolution than MOC.

MGS took us to Meridiani, it showed that Gusev was a safe place to go, it helped Odyssey and MRO in their aerobraking, it gave us - for a while - a better elevation map of Mars than we had of Earth. It was the first to image another Martian spacecraft, the first to use aerobraking at Mars, It mapped the progress of global dust storms as well as seing tiny dust devil tracks on the ground - it was Weather Satellite, Spy Satellite, Communications Satellite, and, most of all, a Global Surveying Satellite - the first part of the modern Mars Exploration program which has brought us to where we are today - Three working orbiters, two working rovers, a lander in final assembly and a long range rover on the drawing board.

It was the Viking Orbiter of the Internet generation, and bridged the gap, fed the science, gave us the data we needed when things went wrong in '99, and took the torch forward beyond any reasonable expectations.

It taught us of the Mars we know today, and for that, today, I am thankfull.

Doug

[diane]

While giving thanks for MGS, it's also very important to give thanks to the people who made it happen, from planning through construction, testing, launch, operations, analysis, and distribution of those fabulous photos. Thank you to everyone involved!