NOVA PRESENTS WELCOME TO MARS

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tfwthom

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From the Night Sky Network<br />http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/<br /><br />NOVA PRESENTS WELCOME TO MARS<br />Tuesday, January 4, 2005 at 8 PM ET on PBS<br />www.pbs.org/nova/mars<br /><br />Millions of viewers were glued to their sets on January 4, 2004, as NOVA covered the making of the most ambitious robotic space probes ever built, the Mars Exploration Rovers, closing with the spectacularly successful landing of the first of these robots on Mars the previous day. Now, exactly one year later, NOVA presents the startling findings of the two rovers in their nearly year-long investigation of the red planet on Welcome to Mars, airing Tuesday, January 4, 2005, at 8 PM ET on PBS (check local listings).<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>
 
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askold

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I was looking forward to this show (as I do to all Nova programs) but was quite dissapointed.<br /><br />It seemed like a sort of puff-piece about the engineers on the project - most of whom seemed to be a little tightly wound.<br /><br />The "science" was a little thin - they found some "blueberries" so there must have been some water there, sometime, somewhere or something.<br /><br />Well, that's my opinion.
 
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newtonian

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This episode will air in 25 minutes, 1:00 AM CST, on PBS channel 12, WYES, New Orleans.<br /><br />I will post comments after I watch it.
 
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newtonian

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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
 
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