[X] My Assistant

[tuvas]

It's sure to be alot. MRO returned more data in it's first picture at Mars then Galileo during it's entire mission. It's sure to be an exciting time!

As for MGS, well, it's sad to see it go, but not all hope is lost (Just most of it), and it's certainly served it's purpose well. I've personally been looking at the HiRISE pictures, it's alot of work to carefully look for something out of the ordinary... There's still a glimmer of hope that there is something near the noise level that is MGS. FYI, the pictures weren't of the entire 2 minute uncertainty window that MGS currently has, only a few seconds of it, based off of two canadates from the nav. camera. Still, they are among the largest HiRISE images taken... Cheer up though, there might still be some exciting news from HiRISE in the short term future. The release of pictures was delayed in part due to the press conference today, and with the holiday in the US, but it will be coming shortly. MRO in many ways is an upgraded MGS, it will allow for photographing the entire weather patterns at Mars, and for high-resolution pictures anywhere, just like MGS, only it's spacial and spectral resolution will be better. That's not to say that MGS couldn't have done something more, only that it served it's purpose to the day that it was replaced, and not a day longer. Sad it is there couldn't be a bit more overlap, to compare the data sets a bit more, but it's something that will take MRO quite some time, to build up the great reputation that MGS left for us.

[Stu]

Cheer up though, there might still be some exciting news from HiRISE in the short term future.

There you go again, dangling a tasty morsel, a tantalising tidbit before our noses then whipping it away again with a silent movie villain's laugh. Booo!!! Booooo!!!! Cruelty, thy name is tuvas...!!!

Come on, admit it, you've imaged a martian's rubber duck floating down a gully, haven't you...

[tuvas]

Stu, how on earth did you ever guess..... J/K. HiRISE wouldn't have that kind of resolution anyways...

Just to make your mouth water even more, I checked the upcoming pictures, and there's more fun stuff coming up in the next week.

[Stu]

HiRISE wouldn't have that kind of resolution anyways...

You've obviously never read the John Carter books. Those martians are big fellers. Their duckies would be proportionately big too...

By the way, you do know that by casually saying "I checked the upcoming pictures" you just confirmed my previously-verbalised suspicions that you are 1) enjoying hiding these priceless images from the rest of us under your bed waaaaaaaaaaaay too much... and 2) deliberately waiting until I go on holiday to Spain on Sunday for a week until you release a breathtaking close-up of that eroded crater in Ganges Chasma I asked for...

[tuvas]

Hey, if it helps any, I'm missing the pictures that are being taken over Thanksgiving weekend, which there's some fun ones... This week has had alot of fun ones actually...

Oh, and it's not that I enjoy teasing everyone, merely you Stu;-)

[tuvas]

Hey, if it helps any, I'm missing the pictures that are being taken over Thanksgiving weekend, which there's some fun ones... This week has had alot of fun ones actually...

Oh, and it's not that I enjoy teasing everyone, merely you Stu;-)

For reference, here's the pictures I was talking about.

VL-2 came in about Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I happened to be awaiting it anxiously, I was really tired of looking at MGS pictures (We didn't spot it at first, but we decided to keep trying just in case there was something there.) Then, about half an hour before I was supposed to go, and after I had finished most of the channels of MGS, came in a nice surprise, the VL-2 image was down. I searched it and found the backshell. I didn't know what it was then, but I sent an email of it out to the team, a mere few minutes before the HiPI (Alfred) sent out an email very similar to mine. After a bit more work, we found the real lander.

Spirit came in at about 3:00 or so Wednesday right before Thanksgiving. I was on my way out of town only a few minutes after.

VL-1 came in close to midnight of the same day (Give or take...)

So, well, that week was eventful, we tried photographing lots of spacecraft that week, a grand total of 4. Of those, 1 wasn't successful, two were 100%, and VL-2 was 99%. I don't know how obvious it is, but the image is somewhat smeared. The next image should be better of the site.

[akuo]

So, well, that week was eventful, we tried photographing lots of spacecraft that week, a grand total of 4. Of those, 1 wasn't successful, two were 100%, and VL-2 was 99%. I don't know how obvious it is, but the image is somewhat smeared. The next image should be better of the site.

Speculation time. Hirise targeting has been flawless, so I doubt the one missing spacecraft was missed because of that. Therefore I don't think it was Pathfinder. My conjecture is that the team tried to image either the presumed crash site of Mars Polar Lander or Beagle II. MPL site would be a better candidate. If the imaging was succesful, this would mean that the site identified by MOC as the possible crash site is not the crash site after all!