Originally Posted by 3488

Hi ToSeek.

I did not realise that you were personally involved. Your statement backs up what I said, that management was weak. You noticed an error was made. Did anyone in management listen to you? No, they did not.

I can understand that they were very cheap missions, but were perfectly capable of successfully completing their missions, if management, listened to those, such as yourself in the know.

A shame that you were not management. If you were, I am sure we would have had two successful missions.

Are you involved with Phoenix? I was involved in the campaign to get Phoenix approved, after the loss of Polar Lander & I was also involved in the campaign in getting DAWN on the way to 4 Vesta & 1 Ceres.

I find it quite sad when members have to question the scientific value of this mission. This mission will reveal an enormous amount of new information, regarding the Martian arctic area in general & the landing site in particular.

Soil to ice ratios, composition, deposition history, general environment from ground level of the Martian high northern latitudes (something never done before), did life ever arise there, before the conditions became too harsh?

Not to mention the PanCam images showing the landscape. These will reveal the form of the surrounding area, clues as to what has happened there, monitoring clouds, hopefully filming the Martian Midnight Sun dipping to 2 degress above the northern horizon before rising again (good PR observation, but also scientifically useful regarding pinpointing the exact location of Phoenix & further information regarding the movements of Mars), etc.

This is a superb mission. Lets hope it works, fingers crossed, but Pheonix is a beautifully built, well tested & engineered craft, so I am quietly hopeful.

Andrew Brown.