[X] My Assistant

[aldo12xu]

Don't mean to compete against the Home Sweet Home thread, but I thought I'd put together a summary of the main observations and points discussed so far with regard to Home Plate, especially now that the thread is almost 20 pages long. I wouldn't be surprised that even after we eventually get the spectroscopy data, we'll probably still have a way to go before we get a handle on the origin of Home Plate.

So, anyways, I hope everybody finds the post of some use. The link is on my homepage.

Cheers,
Aldo.

[djellison]

Scientists say what they want
Engineers say what is possible
Management say what is fundable

More seriously -it's a case of the engineering team dictating what the scope for rover activities are, and the scientists choosing what to do within that scope.

It's a hard balance. But they've told us for months about the need to get to slopes. The option is to either sit here and try and do science while the rover dies...or...get something quick, get to the good slopes (with actually a quite reasonable chance of a healthy rover in 4 or 5 months ) and then revisit West Spur again.

It's not a choice they're really having to make - the calender and the dust are making it for them.

Doug

[dvandorn]

Scientists say what they want
Engineers say what is possible
Management say what is fundable

I'd put it slightly differently:

Scientists say what they want -- as long as it's published. If it's not yet published, they'll threaten you with reprisals if you even ask them what they think.

Engineers say what it possible -- but they often don't care if what is possible is actually do-able within the budget, or if it will actually work in a real-world situation. Or if it will work more than once.

Management says... whatever will make it most likely that, when the excrement hits the air circulation device, no one will be able to point to *them*. And whatever will make it most likely that any failure will result in someone else, and not them, getting fired over it.

-the other Doug