Just a reminder to tell people that NASA TV (finally) shows something to celebrate 2 years on Mars

Eastern U.S. time.
January 24, Tuesday
2:45 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Mars Rover Anniversary Program - JPL (Special Program)

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Oppy 2 years!! congratulations.

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/01/24/index.html

Nico

Still waiting to see a decent MER-related cover for BIS monthly Spaceflight magazine

http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/sitesia.aspx/page/184/l/nl-be

Today's Press Release:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-015 - Mars Rovers Advance Understanding of the Red Planet

The highlight of the program for me was the display of a 1/3 scale model of the MSL.

TTT

Dang, I was working and didn't get to this in time...was there anything exciting and new announced? Anything about Victoria?

Big time D'OH!

You didn't miss anything. It wasn't nearly as elaborate or interesting as the first anniversary event. Nothing new or exciting about MER operations was announced. It was primarily a ceremonial event to recognize the MER team, directed to the JPL community rather than to the public.

There was a pleasant narrated slideshow of team members' favorite images, now available here on the rover site. A congressman presented commemorative certificates from Congress, and a local mayor presented a commemorative resolution.

Steve Squyres appeared briefly by speaker phone, to praise the level of cooperation between the engineering and science teams. The only other team member who spoke was Richard Cook, who unveiled a 1/3 scale model of the MSL.

The MSL model _was_ interesting, and possibly new. It didn't have any solar arrays that I could see.

TTT

Not in the program, but I did see this today:

Exciting new findings in offing in NASA's Mars Mission

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/485200601241614.htm

"Kolkata, Jan. 24 (PTI): Scientists on NASA's Mars Mission are hopeful of 'exciting new findings' in the next two months when its latest rover Opportunity on the red planet hits a crucial stop -- the Victoria Crater.

"We have not yet found the life that we are looking for in Mars. But maybe in two months from now, you might hear something really nice. So stay tuned in," said Steven Ruff, head of a NASA team from the Mars Exploration Rover Mission currently touring India.

Delivering a lecture on the two years of NASA's rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars for thousands of school children here, Ruff said after unearthing some very interesting data in craters called Gusev, Bonneville, Eagle and Endurance as well as higher altitudes like Columbia Hills and Husband Hill summit, the rover was now inching its way to Victoria Crater.

"This is by far the biggest crater located on the Mars surface and it is expected to provide vital clues to our search for life on the planet," Ruff said."

Keep in mind this is an English translation, but the MER team seems optimistic about reaching Victoria and what interesting things might be found there.

Anyone got pics of the MSL model?

Doug

Not from yesterday's NASA TV program, but here's what the MSL looks like:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/gallery/space...rConfig2_br.jpg

Grrr! "Inching" is the word! ;-)

How long ago the daily ~100m drives across the flats!

Andy G

The model unveiled yesterday was more advanced and had more detail than this rendering.

TTT

A larger version ...

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imaged...t%3A+NASA%2FJPL

... and a detailed version.

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imaged...t%3A+NASA%2FJPL

I posted this on Mars Rover Blog. I thought you also might be interested. (I do not post often)....

What a difference two years makes!
Two years ago last night I was at the edge of my seat and nearly bouncing off the walls. I had woken up at 6 am to join the EDL gang for breakfast at Burger Continental. We tried to be relaxed but Spirit's Sol 18 anomaly had really thrown us for a loop. We were beginning to think that we may have a dead rover on Mars and with Opportunity headed into the remains of a dust storm (one that elevated the atmosphere pressure and hence lowered the air density where it is needed most during entry) and knowing full well that Meridiani was at the upper edge of the elevation we could get to, our confidence was ebbing fast. Our only consolation was that Meridiani was believed to be pretty safe from a rock and slope perspective (we did not know for sure). Regardless we started that day with a lot of trepidation and knots in our guts. I could not finish my breakfast so instead I raced to the lab to hear news of the late night commanding to try to get Spirit out of her endless reset loop. When I got to the 8th floor the first people I saw were Richard and Jennifer. They looked tired but the beaming grins from their faces told me all I needed to know, Spirit was not dead and in fact was very likely to live.

I was still unsettled that day, but we did not have the near panicked debates on what to do about pyro electronics or parachutes as we had 3 weeks earlier. We even got a signal during the airbag bouncing at landing on the LCP or left circularly polarized channel. (We lost the signal near the first bounce on Spirit and had to wait an interminable 15 minutes or so for the rover to squirt a signal out on its lander base petal patch antenna that was pointed to Earth.)

It was so much easier, but for some reason I was far more nervous and far more relieved when it landed safely. After talking to politicians and cheering in the press conference, I was so tired I did not wait for those great first images to come down a few hours later. Instead I went home to my family and cheered with them over a glass of wine and watched the images come down on TV with the rest of the world. It was a great glass.

Today my blood pressure is much lower.

Cheers,
Rob Manning
Former MER Engineer

PS we are all still shocked at how long these beasties have lasted. I joked with Mark Adler yesterday that being off by a factor of 8 in lifetime and a factor of 10 in distance that maybe we had made some sort of systematic error somewhere during the design.

****************
Comments made here are the express opinion of the author and do not represent the views of JPL, Caltech nor NASA.

Gee, Rob, you guys better stop making such systematic errors, or the next time y'all need to ask NASA for an extra $80 million or so to get your babies off the ground, they'll just take you to task for designing and building the things *too* well in the first place!

-the other Doug

Hi Rob

It's amazing what some errors can do

You've all done an amazing job.
Thanks a lot for landing them safely! EDL! EDL!

Nico

I think to months to Victoria is too optimistic (but would be nice!)... and also expectations about new findings there appear a little bit excessive!

Hi Rob,

great to hear from you and congratulations to all of you. and please keep those systemic errors coming !! thanks for those interesting tidbits. I am amazed that you watched those first pictures from home.

ken

That may largely just be the translation, I don't know. But, being able to see deeper strata is of course the point of getting to Victoria, which should be much better than even Endurance, depending on what was actually found. Bigger pieces of the puzzle!

Hi Rob

Welcome to the forum, great to hear from one of the team - keep giving us a bit of insite every now and again.

Congratulations to all of you for an utterly brilliant job done and for sharing so generously with your mars followers

Kind regards


Brianc

Hi Rob and thanks for your posting!

Why don't you guys just make ten or twenty rovers exactly like the ones up there now, and start some serious Mars exploration? - Oh yeah: ..funding... ;-)

But seriously, if the manned space program can practically resuscitate Apollo, I think JPL should find a small (ok, big) hole in the budget and give us more MER goodness! We love those over-engineered fella's!

Greetings from a Dane,