[X] My Assistant

[antoniseb]

Well, 3 possibilities...
1. Major discovery right off the bat - in that case, they may be preparing for a big announcement.
2.  The usual - "Who cares about the low-life public?"
3.  Something isn't working right, and they are trying to hide it. 

I'd be inclined to go with number 1. If it were number 2, they wouldn't have bothered removing information from websites and commanded radio-silence from all respectable journalists. If it were number 3, they'd have a tough time actually keeping it secret for long.

Given the image a few months ago of the broken ice block in the frozen sea (if that's what it was), then we can probably expect that this instrument was capable of returning a very important result very quickly.

[chris]

Given the image a few months ago of the broken ice block in the frozen sea (if that's what it was), then we can probably expect that this instrument was capable of returning a very important result very quickly.

It has been said numerous times that it will take a long time for them to understand what the instrument is telling them. If that is true, they would have to be careful, otherwise "look what we have found!" would be replaced with "oh, wait..." and much embarassment.

Chris

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

There was a New Scientist article a week or so ago that said the instrument was working, but they were having some difficulty interpreting the data. This hasn't been attempted on another planet remember.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_38_2005_p_EN.html

Mars Express radar collects first surface data

[TheChemist]

Thanks for the link sunspot.
Everybody, please keep whinning. A little bit more and then maybe an update of the MARSIS website might take place

[Tesheiner]

The article http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_38_2005_p_EN.html (thanks Sunspot), says:

“The bulk of our work has just started, as we now have to be sure to clearly identify and isolate the echoes coming from the subsurface. To do this, we have to carefully screen all data and make sure that signals which could be interpreted as coming from different underground layers are not actually produced by surface irregularities. This will keep us occupied for a few more weeks at least.”

[maycm]

Lots of good email addresses for the prinicpal people on the team there also.

Lets try and out mail the viagra merchants.

[RNeuhaus]

The article http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_38_2005_p_EN.html (thanks Sunspot), says:

“The bulk of our work has just started, as we now have to be sure to clearly identify and isolate the echoes coming from the subsurface. To do this, we have to carefully screen all data and make sure that signals which could be interpreted as coming from different underground layers are not actually produced by surface irregularities. This will keep us occupied for a few more weeks at least.”

Our patience will pay us a big bill! This sound like that the science hypotesis is still working at least and hope that there will have a big surprise before this year.

Rodolfo

[RNeuhaus]

Mars Express Preparing to Look Underground

Mars Express Preparing to Look Underground
Summary - (Aug 5, 2005) The MARSIS radar instrument on board Mars Express is now extended and fully operational, and ESA scientists have begun using it to probe beneath the surface of Mars in search of water and ice. During this initial commissioning phase, operators have used the instrument to examine Mars' topography to compare its reading against previous readings of the Red Planet to make sure its calibrated correctly. Within a few weeks they'll start isolating areas where the radar is penetrating beneath the surface to start mapping out underground layers.

Wait for few weeks!!

Rodolfo

[deglr6328]

More detail in the latest Panetary Soc article. here.

[djellison]

Anyone notice they had a graphical profile of Marsis data as part of a graph about Sharad at the MRO conf yesterday...

ARHGHGHG

That should be on the ESA website!!!!!

Doug

[Harder]

Doug,
Perhaps there is a silver lining here, if it points to transatlantic collaboration. For example the excellent Mars surface calibration data taken by Marsis -according to the recent status report- could be used to shorten the calibration effort of Sharad and/or enhance the Sharad accuracy via the Marsis dataset which would eliminate any systematic errors.

Or is this too optimistic from either an organisational or instrument-technical perspective?

[mike]

How long is a 'few weeks'? Let's see some radar waves.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Mike, it has been emphasized repeatedly that it's going to take a long time to interpret this data properly. It took TWO YEARS to analyze the Apollo 17 radar sounder data properly -- and that was a far simpler world. See http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=37206 .

[Elias]

The first MARSIS team meeting is in a few days from now, so probably expect a public release after it