[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

Psssst...

<< Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington                    March 22, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N04-044

NASA ANNOUNCES MAJOR MARS ROVER FINDING

     NASA will announce a major scientific finding at a Space
Science Update (SSU) Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST, in the headquarters
Webb Auditorium, 300 E St. SW, Washington. The Mars Exploration
Rover (MER) Opportunity is exploring the martian Meridiani
Planum and recently discovered evidence rocks at the landing
site have been altered by water.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will make opening remarks. SSU
panelists:

--Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator, Office of
Space Science
--Prof. Steve Squyres, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and
MER Principal Investigator
--Prof. John Grotzinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Mass, and a MER Co-investigator
--Dr. Dave Rubin, U.S. Geological Survey Sedimentologist at the
Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, Calif.
--Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon,
Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters >>

Well, what do we think THAT could be about? The NASA head-honcho introducing a panel that includes the main science guy and a sedimentologist? Hmmm...

Just speculating here, but the Opportunity rover has been taking a LOT of pictures of the so-called "blueberries" in the past few days, many showing what appear to be holes in them... and Opp has stayed in that crater a LOT longer than expected...

Something's "up", definitely