[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The 1st information circular for this upcoming meeting is now available.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The second information circular is now available.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The agenda is now online (50 Kb MS Word document).

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

NASA Watch is live blogging this meeting.

[djellison]

Note interesting comments from Rob about HiRISE pathfinder obs

Doug

[gpurcell]

From the LiveBlog, on MGS death:

"We think that failure that a software load we sent up in June of last year was the cause. This software tried to synch up two flight processors. Two addresses were incorrect - two memory addresses were over written. As the geometry evolved. We drove the arrays against a hard stop and the spacecraft went into safe mode. The radiator for the battery pointed at the sun, the temperature went up, and battery failed. But this should be treated as preliminary."

Ouch.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Note interesting comments from Rob about HiRISE pathfinder obs

Doug

Richard Zurek, from the afternoon session:

The fact that Viking 1 parachute is still visible after 30 years of dust storms gives some hope that Beagle can be found. Sojourner rover is the size of a pixel so it will be hard to get a defintive answer. Heat shield apparently broke up.

[monitorlizard]

Keith Cowing has posted extensive notes on the current MEPAG meeting (Jan. 9/10). I thought these were some of the most interesting revelations:

(1) Solar power is no longer being considered for MSL. It WILL be nuclear.

(2) HiRISE "maybe" has found Sojourner. Speaker said it's hard to say because it would only be one pixel (it seems to me that it should be more than that ).

(3) MRO has returned some data at 3 Mb/sec, and has already returned as much science data (bitwise) as Mars Odyssey did in five years.

(4) DSN is planning an increase in performance up to ONE MILLION fold, with arrays of small dishes and eventually (TDRSS-style?) relay satellites around the moon and Mars.

(5) Mars Science Orbiter (2013) may test several new telecommunication technologies, possibly including a five-meter antenna (I think MRO's is three meters).

(6) Nice MER summary by Steve Squyres, including new info (I think). Victoria DEM has been made from HiRISE stereo images and is being used to plan entrance strategy.

(7) MSL development is on a tight schedule and there may be small descopes to the drill and Tunable Laser Spectrometer instrument. Heat shield will make some atmospheric measurements to aid future missions.

(8) Exo-Mars was briefly mentioned, as probable launch in 2013 (officially), but no mention of impact of recent Canadian decline to be involved in design.

All of this is from just Monday (Jan.9). There is another whole day Tuesday! You can access Cowing's live blog through his NASA Watch website (www.nasawatch.com).

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The brief chairman's report (147 Kb PDF) is now online. And if you missed it, the attendance list (93 Kb PDF) is also available.