Steve Squyres Q & A - The Mp3 Options

[djellison]

Sorry it's taken so long to edit it up.

This was my first hack at recording ' in the field' - so there's a bit of wind every now and again, and a coot quacks at one point...and you can hear the MD recorder.

But - you can hear it all

It's 22 Mbytes, it's 5 seconds short of 50 minutes long..and it's here

http://www.rlproject.com/audio/ss_qna_030905.mp3

Thhat MP3 is sponsored by the kitchen staff of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge - who saved Nico and I some dinner despite arriving 45 minutes late for it, it's all Steve's fault really

To all of you who submitted questions that didnt get asked....I'm sorry - but I had to be selective on the day as we were running out of time - but I hope the quality of Steve's replies makes up for it. I didnt mention each members question specifically - but you should recognise your questions in there

The winner of the competition has been notified, just waiting to hear back before announcing it publicly.

Doug

[craigmcg]

Have it on my iPod, ready for the drive to work tomorrow.

[centsworth_II]

Fantastic! Thanks to Steve and thanks to you, Doug. This has got to be the best interview ever done on the MER mission.

[akuo]

Great job Doug! Thanks to Steve and you.

[dvandorn]

Very nice, Doug! Great, great interview -- you structured the questions well, leading Steve through a narrative rather than just getting answers to individual questions.

I feel a great sense of affirmation at Steve's response to my question... And I must say, I *knew* some of those rocks Spirit was looking at up near Methuselah looked like welded ashflow tuffs! It's great to hear Steve say so, too.

So -- a new edition of the book after the MERs finally die, eh? So, we'll look forward to reading that sometime in 2012... *grin*...

-the other Doug

[paxdan]

Just finished listening...

Encore.. Encore.. Encore..

Fantastic Doug. Didn't want it to end.

Perhaps the answer to the book dillema is an illustrated version.

[deglr6328]

Excellent job! Thanks so much for asking the Carl Sagan question! loved listening to every minute!!

[Deeman]

A big thanks for that, Doug !!!
Really appreciate your work as a whole!!

[mhoward]

It's great hearing Steve address an audience that doesn't need to be educated on rover basics - there are so many more details in there than in other interviews. Thank you. I think I'll have to listen to it again later to take it all in properly.

There were even some great tidbits about what's going on right now; for example, looks like Spirit has just moved to the second position that Steve talked about, where it will take a color pancam mosaic to use with the earlier one-filter mosaic for long-baseline stereo of the Inner Basin area.

[David]

Could somebody transcribe just the little bit where Steve is talking about a fantasy landing of a third MER somewhere in the Vallis Marineris? There's a lot of noise and I'm not sure what he's saying.

This is a great interview, by the way, and many thanks to Doug for doing it. It's so much better than those one-hour NASA press conferences!

I am wondering, though, considering the extreme fatigue that Steve said he and the other team members are laboring under, with no end of the mission in sight -- what happens if they've so badly misjudged the longevity of the rovers that they last for ten years? Obviously this gives the opportunity (pun unintended) to do lots more science, but rovers can maybe endure better than human beings can. And ultimately, I think, scientists will want to have missions that have no specific ending date, if they can. How do you restructure the whole process of collecting and publishing to deal with an on-going mission that will only terminate by unlucky accident?

[TheChemist]

I enjoyed every second of it, a great many many thanks to you Doug !

Steve might be a retired professor by then and not the PI, but I really wish that at least we will have him logging in as a user at unmannedspaceflight in 20-30 years when (and if) Europa's exploration takes place !!!!

[craigmcg]

I enjoyed it very much. Doug, if you get tired of what ever it is you do, you could work in the news interview business! Well done.

[ElkGroveDan]

Could somebody transcribe just the little bit where Steve is talking about a fantasy landing of a third MER somewhere in the Vallis Marineris?  There's a lot of noise and I'm not sure what he's saying.

"...Melas Chasma, you know down in the Valles Marinaris. That one is reeeeeally tempting. That would have been a good one. whhoooba thumpa-thumpa whooooo fududafudafuda whoopa whoopa boom boom whoosh whoosh..."

I hope that helps.

[SFJCody]

"...Valles Chasma, you know down in the Valles Marinaris.  That one is reeeeeally tempting.  That would have been a good one. whhoooba  thumpa-thumpa  whooooo fududafudafuda whoopa whoopa boom boom whoosh whoosh..."

I hope that helps.

Melas Chasma. That was my question! I actually feel a bit guilty for having edged some of the better questions out cos I was kinda anticipating Melas as an answer.

http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites/.../maps/Melas.jpg

[ElkGroveDan]

Melas Chasma. That was mine! I actually feel a bit guilty for having edged some of the better questions out cos I was kinda anticipating Melas as an answer.

Thanks for correcting my typo.