Found this while surfacing the usual science sites:

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/1...its/index.html

Hmm, Edgar Rice Burroughs had something like Martian polar bears (apts) in his Barsoom series. Maybe he was on to something....

The (where's John Carter when we need him?) Curtmudgeon

In a weird way, it sounds like fun. S'mores anyone?
Running a simulation before a new mission isn't unusal. The military does it all the time.
Lisa

Oh, I'm well aware of the good purpose of simulations. The Apollo astronauts did some prior training in the southwest desert, and wasn't there something at Thule as well? I think this would be a great thing to do, myself, if I weren't mid-forties, physique dictated by a mostly-sedentary lifestyle, and carrying too many other commitments already.

Anyway, I intended posting the link as a serious read, I just couldn't help but make the polar-bear-to-apt comparison for fun. ERB has long been one of my favourite authors, and his Barsoom series is great hack-n-slash space opera fun. (I recently met a waitress at a local barbeque restaurant whose name tag read 'Dejah', and surprised her by knowing exactly where her parents gave her the name from.)

The (she wasn't the right skin tone, though [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] ) Curtmudgeon

You ever been to Thule? Talk about an alien environment! We were driving to past J Site on the way to P Mountain, and I noticed a 55-gal drum that had rolled down a hill into a ravine. Then I found out that what I was looking at was over 3 Klicks away. There's nothing up there to use as a frame of reference and its easy to become disoriented.
And the environment? Let's just say: bring a sweater.
Lisa

Been aware of the existence of that spot for a while now. My weekly science show has talked about it extensively and there's a 1 full hour next week about that place.

Maybe I can get some info and translate it and put it in here.

J Site? P Mountain?
Retired military?
Mid-forties?

What-ever!

Yes, retired military, and early 40's. The rest is site designation. 17 kilometers on a washboard road isn't fun, in case anyone is interested.
A question: What is the cause for the spacial distortion I experienced? The photo specialists on the board should have fun with this one.
Lisa

Oh, and by the way Mr. X, check your private messages.
Lisa

Same to you, Lisa K.!

[quote="Lisa"]Very little manmade dust, not much soil exposed means even less dust, sub zero temperatures allow no moisture, so you get very clear air and very little loss of definition. Add thereon no man-made objects in the landscape to give you a size reference and you have an automatically high under-estimation of distances.
Known phenomenon in high altitude (with added benefit of less intervening air) and high latitude places.

Chris CII