Not My Rovers ! 
  Sadly I must report that it appears the Mars Rovers will lose nearly 4 million dollars from its 20 million dollar budget.  Next year they are expected to take a further cut of nearly 8 millions dollars.  Worse off the funding cuts are likely to place Spirit on hibernation and job cuts […]

Friday morning Pamela and I both went to the session on comparative planetology. While we’d worked pretty hard to make sure we were never both in the same session, this was sort of necessary. We had to leave mid-session in order to get to the airport in time for my 2.15 flight home – so […]

Here are summaries of a few brief stories that combine Earth data and elsewhere data to get neat understandings of other worlds
1) Carrizozo Lava Flow (image: Google): Looking at Mars, we keep finding beautify lava flows that stream across the surface and end in sprawling lobes. Pouring over images of the Earth, we find […]

When someone feels comfortable making such a pointed statement in their openning remarks, I just have to quote them and blog them.
In this talk on mars historic river systems, Ted Maxwell presented a visually stunning story rich with labeled MOC images. This is a bloggers dream come true - I can actually find what he […]

Let’s face it, impacts are cool. Big, small, it really doesn’t matter. Everyone likes a good geological train wreck , especially one not involving us.
I just finished listening to one of the most fast paced, data flying talks I’ve seen so far. In 15 minutes, dozens of PowerPoint slides flew furiously as J.C. Andrews-Hanna presented […]

Basic Question – where can life live and prosper on Mars? Or can it? Part of answering this question requires us to consider the temperature structure on Mars. As near as we can tell, temperatures above 253 K / -4F (as well as aqueous liquid, shielding from UV) are required for life. Salty water can […]