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16 September 2008
3rd MSL Landing Site Workshop – Engineering and Geobiology
We covered a LOT today, so I have decided to split things up. This post will cover the talks in the morning and then I will give each site its own post. Today started off with presentations from some of the engineers and managers on the mission. They updated us on the rover’s status (it it making lots of progress, but still has a long way to go!), and informed …
15 September 2008
MSL One Year from Launch
One year from today, the Mars Science Laboratory will launch. It seems fitting that the workshop during which we choose the final three possible landing sites begins today. The whole process blows my mind. I will be sitting in a conference room this week with dozens of Mars scientists, poring over data of unprecedented detail for seven locations on Mars. We have images of the sites of such high resolution …
MSL Workshop Eve
It’s almost time! Tomorrow the third Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop begins! I’ve tried to get everyone up to date by re-posting my reflections on last year’s workshop, but there is a little more of the story to fill in. At the end of the workshop last year, we had narrowed down the list of possible landing sites to six sites: Nili Fossae, Mawrth Vallis, Holden Crater, Terby Crater, …
12 September 2008
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop – Day 3
I’m in the airport on my way to California to participate in the third Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop, so I thought I would take this chance to post my blog entry from day three of last year’s workshop: What a day! We began with a series of highly anticipated presentations about potential landing sites with evidence for salts, sulfates and clays – all types of minerals typically formed …
9 September 2008
Last Year's MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 1
Coming up next week is the 3rd Mars Science Laboratory Landing Site Workshop, where the Mars science community will come together to narrow down the possible landing site choices for MSL. There have been two similar meeting before this one, and I was lucky enough to attend the one last year. In fact, some of my first blogging experience was summarizing the three days of that meeting. I will be …
24 March 2008
Mars Budget Cuts
Exploring another planet is an expensive business. We all know this, but sometimes it hits home harder than others. Today was one of those times. This afternoon at an all-hands meeting of the Mars Exploration Rovers team, we heard about some particularly bad budget news. The situation is this: the Mars Science Laboratory mission is costing more than expected. It is common for this to happen with spacecraft missions because …
12 March 2008
A Little Career Advice from Mike Griffin
If you haven’t heard, the NASA Mars Exploration Program budget is in a bit of a tight spot. The budget for the next 12 years was already going to be tricky, with the cost overruns of MSL, the delay of the 2011 Scout mission, and plans for the uber expensive 6-missions-in-1 Mars Sample Return. Now, because NASA is moving money to Outer Planets to fly a new flagship mission, the …
27 February 2008
Mapping Meridiani: Part 2
Last time, I gave some of the background information about my research. Now, armed with that knowledge, we can press forward and talk about what I do. I look for hydrated minerals. A hydrated mineral is a mineral with water trapped in its crystal structure. The crystal acts as a protective cage, keeping the water bound within it even when the atmospheric pressure is too low for liquid water to …
24 February 2008
Mapping Meridiani: Part 1
The mantra of Mars exploration is “follow the water,” and my research is no exception. Lately, I have been looking closely at the the Meridiani region on Mars, searching for evidence of water-formed minerals near some of the potential landing sites for the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. MSL‘s primary goal is to figure out whether Mars is, or ever has been, a habitable planet, so you can bet …
