[X] My Assistant

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

O.K. about which unmanned spaceflight missions (subjects) would You like to see a book published?

[hendric]

Well, there are the unpublished books I have planned in my head.

A children's book about Spirit and Opportunity, about the travels and travails they have had, with pictures from Mars from the regulars and Stu's poetry to go with it. My 3.5 yr old son is always talking about how he wants to fix Spirit's broken wheel, etc. and I would love to have a picture book to show and read with him. I think one for each rover, or a book that flips over to show the other story, would be great. Someday, I'll have enough time to do this using the available images and release it for free on the 'Net.

A theatrical play of Spirit's journey, with actors for Mission Control and the rover. Just the idea of someone wearing a Pancam mast on their head and six wheels makes me laugh. It would have to include landing, the flash memory failure, Bonneville, the race to Columbia Hills, dust devils, reaching the peak, the broken wheel and ending up at Winter Quarters.

A similar play for Opportunity would include landing, Eagle crater, Endurance, Heat shield, Purgatory Dune, Erebus, the race for Victoria, and hopefully the view from Victoria.

Of course, the scenery would be critical.

And just a general project I would love to do would be to build a MER whirligig. What's a whirligig? Here's some examples:

http://www.beamscreations.com/pages/whirligigs.html#Snowman

My idea is to use copper sheets to create a MER model, with the pancam, IDD, and high-gain antenna tied to the windmill power train. Wouldn't it be the coolest to have a little MER in your garden that would wiggle around when the wind blows?