For me, I was just hoping Sprit could crawl to the base of the hills, and that Opportunity would amble over to Endurance for a look down into the crater. What a freakin' amazing pair of adventures the engineers and scientists on The Team have taken us on. I, and my better half watched each of the EDLs in nearly real time on NASA TV, and I can assure all that we were almost as elated as the crews in the control room when each ended nominally
Until the MER missions laid down some serious boot prints on another world, it hadn't ever gotten this good.
QUOTE (DFinfrock @ Jul 17 2006, 09:49 PM)
... There are a lot of great scientific and technical contributors to UMSF. But your lyricism and thought-provoking topic starters are unique. You said it all perfectly, for all of us. Thanks!
...
That states it all so succinctly. ...
I wasn't going to comment in this thread, since all of the good points had already been made, and many quite eloquently. Thanks for capturing a couple of them for reconsideration.
QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jul 18 2006, 09:33 PM)
As long as, every day, we can ask "where are we going to go tomorrow, and what are we going to do when we get there," the MER adventure continues.
It's just getting really painful to think of the day when we can no longer ask that question, for either of the girls. ...
How true. It is really painful to consider the eventual "End of Mission" that we all realize will be upon us one day, and possibly when we may least suspect it. It will be doubly painful, since we have two beloved and intrepid explorers to care about. With some luck, one or both will survive in some capacity until we have a new focus on Mars. Survival until MRO is piping home data is almost assured. If I've got the timeline right, Phoenix will be next, and then MSL. ??
The good news lately is that more are "getting it" every day.