2009-07-25

Spirit Sol 199

Yestersol's RAT operation went perfectly, drilling a hole almost 4mm deep. So thisol we're poking at the hole, of course.

Since most of the science team is going to be remote as of the end of this month, they're practicing for it this month by phoning into meetings from their science rooms as if they were back at their home institutions. But this isn't being enforced rigorously -- Mike Sims, for one, walks into the SMSA more than once to work out issues in person.

Which should act as a signal that having the science team operate remotely is going to be difficult. But there's only so much we can do about it: the money supply is finite, and that's forcing suboptimal solutions like this one.

Pretty frustrating, but I guess I should look on the bright side: we're having this problem because the rovers continue to operate so well. That makes it easier to take.





Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. A front HAZCAM image showing (in shadow) the RAT holes we've drilled in this outcrop.

No comments: