Mars Rover Blog and Forum

I have traveled to San Diego many times from my home town Phoenix but usually I used to return by night. This time I would have to stay there for a week to attend a seminar. Can anybody suggest me some good budget hotels in San Diego?

Aviation Week reports the MSL launch in 2009 is in deep doubt:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/Balloon100308.xml&headline=Mars%20Science%20Lab%20In%20Doubt&channel=space

I'm not surprised - this mission has been recklessly optimistic, particularly concerning the "skycrane" landing system.

Lots of interesting things to discuss if we get there.
Crater appears to be quite old and almost eroded away but it looks like it has Meridiani beds in the bottom which accumulated after it formed. My guess is that they are younger beds protected from the erosion of the plains.

[link]

Anyone know what these white spots might be. I suspect ice. But then again, wouldn't ice disappear quickly versus move around.

"One potential photographic subject is the Holy Cow ice feature directly underneath the lander. The ice was exposed when Phoenix's thrusters pushed away the dirt lying on top of it during landing. The feature was first imaged by Phoenix's robotic arm camera.

The imager might also catch a glimpse of some so-called "barnacles" attached to Phoenix's legs. Smith describes these as "bright dots on the legs" that are pieces of the Martian surface that were splashed onto the legs by the thrusters during landing.

Some of the dots have grown and some have moved around over the course of the mission, which is now entering its fifth month on the Martian surface. Mission scientists aren't sure why the dots have such unusual behavior.

"It's one of those wonderful Martian mysteries," Smith said."

The whole story can be found here - [link]

RJS

[Failure aboard Hubble puts shuttle flight on hold]

NASA can't get a shuttle launch to save their lives.

[link]

The only faults in several posts I can think of which I can do little about, are occasional typos due to encroaching blindness. This also means that I take longer and engage in extra effort to post in the first place, making it even more frustrating that frustrating your filters are snagging everthing I write unless it is a New Topic. Someone is dropping the ball.

If anyone has been studying Mars for very long they realize there are muliple groups of individuals. We have the scientist that land probes as well as those that missed it by that much. We have the yes guys that work for the various agencies, NASA, ESA, ect.

Then we have the Bloggers and Forum guys. The front line guys. The guys that take the raw data and look at it and ask questions. This is the good part. We do get the good ones here. We also get the ones that it is hard to understand. They operate on levels we can not go and some we do not want to go.

Then we have the journalist. The guys who package what we say and put it out to the masses. Oh, for a non bias one, hard to find. Soap anyone.

Now if you exspect to get all these guys together and agree you are in for bad times. Now Brian has cryed and taken his marbles home. America and Britain may share a common ansestery but we do go at it. Just ask Genral Patton and Montgomery. That being said America thinks of England as our motherland, so have some tea.

Now Brian or geo types with marbles, the first problem I have with the geo types on all missions and you is this. If something does not fit you just stroll by it, like it was not there. If some one hands it to you then you just offer up som BS.

This is an image Brian said was dust subduction into a void. Anyone can see, I hope, this is surface deposition post eruption. Now if you Geo types want some respect then you most address this. It was sol 122 from Oppy. How long will you let this fester?

You want millions of years of wind and dust and this image to. Not A chance brother.

Fred

A place to park Mars videos This is a Cool video. Could work.

Fred

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDHv3o7YNQ

sol 105 view:

with a link to a sol 107 RAC 3D view.

Does the interest in the OFB now indicate that there is a "positive" result that must be checked against a known carbon free sample?

I would think that negative organic results would not need checking.

Here is a report titled "Science Priorities Related to the Organic Contamination of Martian Landers".

All the pdf papers that I googled on the Phoenix organic free blank which were once on the lpl site are no longer available.

Hmmm.

I read Phoenix was to run 90 days, PERIOD. Me thinks not. How long can it go?

Looks like Oppy is tired of Phoenix getting all the attention. From today’s batch.

The famous,” High thin wispy clouds.”

Will go back and see what else I can find if anyone has any stored this is the place.

Fred

Here we will look at the most dynamic area of Mars. That is because of a constant moisture source, sublimation, and interaction with mid latitudes and water eruptions both vaporous and liquid.

Now I talked about moisture advection with the head, “Rock guy,” Brian

His response:

Moisture advection? Moisture by definition being diffuse wetness or water (or other liquid) causing a slight wetness or dampness? I really don't think so.

Without overrunning moisture advection above artic inversion there would be no Polar Hood. I ain’t letting you off the hook Brian

We will start out soft and slow

Fred