tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post8246648192043714663..comments2024-01-03T20:28:17.727-08:00Comments on Future Planetary Exploration: Curiosity (MSL) Landing Site CandidatesVan Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227978868817989527noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-1288699441394972152009-06-01T14:06:04.028-07:002009-06-01T14:06:04.028-07:00Seemingly, the strategy now is to rely on MRO site...Seemingly, the strategy now is to rely on MRO site characterization, which of course wasn't available till well after the MERs were already landed. <br /><br />There isn't any substitute for ground truth, but the best conjunction of performance & affordability seems to be reliance on remote sensing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-91968310384069701622009-05-29T11:12:54.322-07:002009-05-29T11:12:54.322-07:00And that IS an absolutely terrific article by Ken ...And that IS an absolutely terrific article by Ken Edgett.Bruce Moomawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-30241807636688042352009-05-29T11:07:33.497-07:002009-05-29T11:07:33.497-07:00It would be nice if we could develop a relatively ...It would be nice if we could develop a relatively inexpensive rover that had some ability to look for Martian trace organics without being able to actually analyze them in detail like MSL. The Raman spectrometer that got kicked off the MERs at the very start of their design effort might be able to do this (especially when combined with a surface abrasion tool, such as Van recommends for rovers anyway).Bruce Moomawnoreply@blogger.com