[X] My Assistant

[Redstone]

According to the NASA TV schedule, there is an MER news conference set for September 1, at 1 pm EDT (5 pm GMT). Take it with a pinch of salt, because these schedules change a lot. Whenever it happens it will be shown on NASA TV.

This is the first press conference since when? I can't remember when we saw the last one...

I'm guessing this is when we'll see the "Mother of all Panoramas". Hopefully some news on the science too, and future route plans.

[Burmese]

Squyres interview by ABC in Australia

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1445148.htm

(and the reporter spells his name Squires, btw)

Another article that is not one of the carbon-copy jobs spewed onto Google:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/n...on/12477325.htm

[ustrax]

Squyres interview by ABC in Australia

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1445148.htm

(and the reporter spells his name Squires, btw)

Another article that is not one of the carbon-copy jobs spewed onto Google:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/n...on/12477325.htm

'You know, if I could go there myself, I'd do it in a heartbeat. No question about it, I would love to go to Mars. This is the closest I'm going to come in my lifetime and I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I possibly can.'

We know you are...

[Burmese]

What I found interesting in that 2nd article was the indications that some scientists thought taking a panorama a waste altogether and wanted to get back immediately to using 'their' instruments.

[tedstryk]

What I found interesting in that 2nd article was the indications that some scientists thought taking a panorama a waste altogether and wanted to get back immediately to using 'their' instruments.

Brings back visions of the late fifties/early sixties, when scientists doing particle and fields work were really angered by having to let remote sensing not only tag along, but often take precedence, as the felt that remote sensing was just glorified sight-seeing, and that their work was the real science. Many probably still feel that way. Fortunately, because it is remote sensing that generates much more public interest, this narrow approach usually loses.

[mike]

Strange, I always thought light was part of the same electromagnetic spectrum as radio, infrared, microwave, and everything else..

[dvandorn]

It is. But tedstryk is right -- and it's not just a phenomenon seen in the late 50s and early 60s. Particles & fields experimenters have historically had a bias that would have you believe that imagery is worthless -- after all, *anyone* can see things in visible light, but it takes their own special instruments (and their peculiar abilities to understand the results from those experiments) to understand everything *unseen* out there in the Universe.

I've spoken to people who are so antagonistic to imagery that they believe there should *never* have been a camera flown in space, period -- they just can't understand how anyone can gain any *important* data from images.

For an example of such anti-imagery prejudice, Pioneers 10 and 11 were originally designed without any imaging system whatsoever. Many of the people involved in the design of those probes went to their graves feeling that imaging on those probes was a waste of time and effort.

I feel comfortable saying that the anti-imaging prejudice is just plain wrong -- particles and fields sensors, for example, would *never* have discovered the basic truth about Io that non-scientific *navigation* images revealed. And nothing except imaging could have established the water-laid nature of the evaporite rocks at Meridiani. But the anti-imaging prejudice did exist, and still does exist to a certain extent.

-the other Doug

[djf]

Wasn't entirely sure which of the many great current topics to post this in, but there's a new mission update at http://athena1.cornell.edu/news/mubss/.

Figured this one might become a focal point for discussion a little later today...

[jamescanvin]

Wasn't entirely sure which of the many great current topics to post this in, but there's a new mission update at http://athena1.cornell.edu/news/mubss/.

Figured this one might become a focal point for discussion a little later today... 

Thanks.

And for those of you who are really into the engineering details: On Sol 581 -- more than nineteen months after we landed -- the solar array output for Spirit was 956 watt-hours. Insane. We have to shut her down every afternoon these days so she won't overheat.

Insane indeed!

[Decepticon]

Will the conference be available for download after the event?

Or will NASATV replay later in the evening?

[djellison]

They are bound to replay it - but I will TRY and get a capture of it. If not - spaceflightnow.com (well worth the subscription) will surely have it as a QT movie in a day or so - or even just the audio as an MP3

Doug

[Bill Harris]

As I write this, Spirit is now perched on a steep slope on the south side of the summit, and is starting to take what should be a spectacular Pancam panorama of the inner basin.

We need an "applause" smilie. As a geologist, I've been having wet dreams over the Layered Outcrops for a year now. The drive to the summit has been a good ride, but I think that the Inner Basin will answer (and ask) a lot of questions.

the solar array output for Spirit was 956 watt-hours. Insane. We have to shut her down every afternoon these days so she won't overheat.

He is joking about having to shut down, isn't he?

--Bill

[djellison]

He is joking about having to shut down, isn't he? 

--Bill

Nope - back when Spirit landed, it got so hot they started taking UHF passes out from the afternoon session to let it cool down

On the upside - they can do lots of night time stuff with all that power,

Doug

[Marcel]

He is joking about having to shut down, isn't he? 

--Bill

The only reason what i can think of why they should do that is, that there's major currents flowing around in the WEB. This only happens if the battery is not full and (thus) draws a high load current, or if there's a lot of parts inside drawing amps at the same time. But then using the rover extensively makes it warm, not the energy input. If there's normal operation and no excesive use of transmitter, instruments, wheels or whatever uses energy: the arrays just put a 36 volts on the bus and this doesn't cause any currents that can heat. Potential (volts) does not cause heat, amps (and thereby watts: squared amps times resistance) does.

So, i don't understand either.

But it makes me so happy, that i don't even care. I knew it when i saw these arrays at the first navcam images at the summit: they almost look as crisp and clean as they looked on jan. 4, 2004. Gusev is a very windy place, especially on top of this hill.

[abalone]

This only happens if the battery is not full and (thus) draws a high load current, or if there's a lot of parts inside drawing amps at the same time. But then using the rover extensively makes it warm, not the energy input. If there's normal operation and no excesive use of transmitter, instruments, wheels or whatever uses energy: the arrays just put a 36 volts on the bus and this doesn't cause any currents that can heat.

Could be that when its up and running the batteries can not be offline. Online batteries could act as a current sink even when fully charged. This would turn power into heat inside the batteries.

[abalone]

Squyres interview by ABC in Australia

Why didnt someone tell me he was coming to OZ. I could have gone to listen to one of his lectures.