[X] My Assistant

[Toma B]

It's encouraging to see officialy mentioned words like "Partway to 'Victoria' "...
Maybe there's still a chance to get there...I surelly hope so!

[Guest_Edward Schmitz_*]

Holy Cow! Let's calm down. These guys have done a fantasitic job of get great science out of these two vehicles. Now you guys know better than them how serious the situation is?

I don't think so.

We only have the least bit of knowledge of what is going on. They are highly trained professionals. They are seasoned. They have demonstrated the capability to make the hard choices and make them correctly. I'm behind them 100 percent. Don't you folks have any loyalty to the team? You know they read this site. (Or at least hope they do.) I for one appreciate all the great work and believe they are doing the right thing.

ed

Does anyone care the a great discovery may sit at Opportunity's feet.

[sranderson]

I have no intention of denigrating the Rover team. They have done a great job, and I greatly appreciate it. That one chart showing the history of sedimentation discovered at Endurance is worth the entire mission.

I just think it is very important to see the Victoria strata and try to push our understanding back a few eons. While there may be great discoveries at our feet here in Erebus, the likelihood is that there is not.

Wouldn't you hate to have this mission end with no knowledge of earlier epochs that what we saw at Burns Cliff?

BTW, that pile of dark material is likely ejecta consisting of Victoria's version of Vishnu Schist.

Scott

[jamescanvin]

Wouldn't you hate to have this mission end with no knowledge of earlier epochs that what we saw at Burns Cliff?

Sure, but then I'd hate to have an end of mission period!

However Oppy may or may not get to Victoria whether we race off now or not, it's still a long way away. I'd rather see Oppy die on the way to Victoria while collecting lots of useful data than die while racing to get there ignoring all targets in between. Like always, the MER team have to work with the assumption that the rovers may not wake up tommorrow. Putting all our scientific eggs in one distant crater is risky and silly.

There is going to be lots to see in the etched terrain and I hope that there is enough life lefted in the IDD to get it into a useful position to look at it. If the best chance of getting that is to wait here a few more weeks while the best method is worked out, then that's what must be done. The IDD is way to important to give up on so quickly.

James