TFWThom - Thank you.<br /><br />Not my favorite Nova, but certainly worth watching - and showing the human emotional involvement in the project - some seem to have it as a major goal in life!<br /><br />Here are some of my notes:<br /><br />Nova Welcome to Mars episode, PBS channel 12 WYES New Orleans, 1:00 AM, 1/9/05.<br /><br />Documentary concerning the Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.<br /><br />Overview: Ice cream and blue berries.<br /><br />The former needed because of Martian rotation speed, the latter favors water origin.<br /><br />A few notes:<br /><br />Interesting the problems and how some of them were overcome.<br /><br />Spirit's flash memory malfunctioning, similar to a hard drive on a computer. However, Spirit survived by going to a safe mode, called: asleep.<br /><br />Solved hours before Opportunity descends to Mars. successfully -whew! Rover is safely on Mars.<br /><br />Lakebeds, once bathed in liquid water?<br /><br />Recently life has been found in unlikely places on Earth, wherever there is water. Even life forms under Antarctic ice and life using sulfur instead of light.<br /><br />Gusev crater (once a lake)?<br /><br />Meridiani Plateau with deposits of hematite which can be formed in the presence of water.<br /><br />Desire to explore an outcrop of bedrock to determine the geological evidence along the crater wall on the Meridiani plateau.<br /><br />Layered - sedimentary??? Or hardened layers of volcanic ash since most martian rocks are volcanic.<br /><br />Rover has a toolkit that will answer this....<br /><br />Tiny spheres (size of BB?s) litter the ground, close-ups show them eroding out of the rock.- what are they?<br /><br />Spirit's flash memory - too many files. Delete old files and cure problem!<br /><br />However, Spirit's landing site shows no evidence of water. Rocks are basalt, solidified lave. Not in harmony with hypothesis that this is a lake bed. Could the evidence be buried. Head for Bonneville crater, which will take weeks.<br /><br />Opportunity again. OK, just re