MER briefing - facinating (read sarcasm)

Bring back Steve Sqyres; that lot today are really
boring scientists. Now I know why I wasnt interested
in geology in high school :-)

The good thing about Steve Sqyres is that he'll share
his ideas about what they are seeing, and isnt afraid
to get it wrong. The others all seem so scared about
making any observation in case they are wrong.

This consensus attitude in science is bad news, and
not very exciting if you are trying to turn young
minds onto science subjects. Its like trying to
get blood out of a stone.

Atleast Oppurtunity is about to egress; lets the
action begin :-)

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:52:22 +0000 (UTC), "Mike Morris"
wrote:

Bring back Steve Sqyres; that lot today are really
boring scientists. Now I know why I wasnt interested
in geology in high school :-)

He does have a good personality and makes things not quite so boring.

The good thing about Steve Sqyres is that he'll share
his ideas about what they are seeing, and isnt afraid
to get it wrong. The others all seem so scared about
making any observation in case they are wrong.

I like it during one of the later briefings, when there were just two
scientists on the panel and a handful of journalists in the room. As
Steve Sqyres was standing to one side and helped out answering the
questions.

He certainly does give a good shot at answering the questions with
like "here is our current top theory", when all the rest are like "it
is too early to make any conclusions without the required science
data".

Most people just want an answer to "what the hell is that?", where
Steve unlike the rest gives it his best shot. Sure, he could be wrong,
but he does always point out that it is just a theory.

This consensus attitude in science is bad news, and
not very exciting if you are trying to turn young
minds onto science subjects. Its like trying to
get blood out of a stone.

Well, conservative is the word that I would use, when they want ideas
confirmed well enough in the science community before they give out
their "We think that it might be...".

Atleast Oppurtunity is about to egress; lets the action begin :-)

And hopefully Steve Sqyres will be there in order to give some insight
into what they have been looking at.

I am just wondering what is going on with the briefings there days,
when to begin with they started at 17:00 my time, where they soon
moved to 18:00.

However, just the other day I started watching at 17:30 and there I
was at 19:30 wondering why there was no briefing. Due to work I cannot
check every day, but hopefully things will soon be back to normal.

The other thing that I will mention is that the interface between
these MER teams and the public is not as good as it was during the
Pathfinder mission.

One factor of this is that the Mars Rover's site is not doing a too
good a job showing off all these great photos, which is why at least
one person here said that they looked rubbish.

Take a look at these two sites in order to see what I mean...
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/index1.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Their problem is with indexing these photos, when with Pathfinder they
used to show off their best new photos right on their welcome page,
but with these MERs you only get today's truncated feeble set.

One good example of this is that on the Pathfinder site they have an
easy to reach 3D photos section, which expands into a vast wealth of
photo choices, but you have to be really determined into order to get
a 3D photo out of the MERs site.

Another problem in this area is that they have photos divided into two
sections of Press images and Raw images. Someone forget to tell them
about photos for the millions of the general public to see?

Their indexing while logical is a total nightmare for anyone trying to
compile this into the minimum number of folders. As with Pathfinder
they used to index everything by "Sols", where any photos that were
taken/received within that Sol was just stored under that day.

Things start to become incompatible when the Raw images are stored
under camera and then under Sol, while the much more interesting Press
images are stored by Earth date!

Although I am sure that the Raw images are interesting to some, but I
do not like my photos assembled like bits of a jigsaw puzzle. What I
mean is that is it really hard to glue these together before releasing
them?

And did someone forget colour as well? When we know that they can do
it, even if the cameras do not shoot colour directly.

Some of these photos are so boring that I have to wonder why they
release such junk in the first place. Take this one for example...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...P2213L2M1.HTML

And so what they need to do is to do is to bring forwards all their
best photos in order to show off what they have to the public. And
certainly make all their photo sets available under easy one click
links. 3D photos, panoramic view photos, sundial photos, microscopic
imager photos, etc.

These (sometimes boring) raw photos should be better hidden in case
someone stumbles upon them and thinks that these are all there is,
like more than a few people have already done.

And most of all take a look at the Pathfinder site, which was so
successful simply because they, unlike the current MER system, could
get all their really cool stuff out into the public domain.

Cardman
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk

"Cardman" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:52:22 +0000 (UTC), "Mike Morris"
wrote:

Bring back Steve Sqyres; that lot today are really
boring scientists. Now I know why I wasnt interested
in geology in high school :-)

He does have a good personality and makes things not quite so boring.

I think he is brilliant. Too bad he is such a rarity
amongst scientists. Actually now that I come to think
of it: Matt Golombek (sp?) is pretty good aswell,
he has that goofy laugh at the weirdest moments.
Jim Bell is pretty good too, but the rest of them should
be kept in the lab :-)


The good thing about Steve Sqyres is that he'll share
his ideas about what they are seeing, and isnt afraid
to get it wrong. The others all seem so scared about
making any observation in case they are wrong.

I like it during one of the later briefings, when there were just two
scientists on the panel and a handful of journalists in the room. As
Steve Sqyres was standing to one side and helped out answering the
questions.

It looks like what they are trying to do is get more exposure
for each member of the various function teams. I guess
Steve was at the back to help out the less expressive
scientists/engineers.


He certainly does give a good shot at answering the questions with
like "here is our current top theory", when all the rest are like "it
is too early to make any conclusions without the required science
data".

Most people just want an answer to "what the hell is that?", where
Steve unlike the rest gives it his best shot. Sure, he could be wrong,
but he does always point out that it is just a theory.

Exactly. Its a breath of fresh air. Its understandable why
he was made head of project. I bet he has very
motivating effect on his team.


This consensus attitude in science is bad news, and
not very exciting if you are trying to turn young
minds onto science subjects. Its like trying to
get blood out of a stone.

Well, conservative is the word that I would use, when they want ideas
confirmed well enough in the science community before they give out
their "We think that it might be...".

Unfortunately, I think this science community conservatism
is based on fear of being wrong.


Atleast Oppurtunity is about to egress; lets the action begin :-)

And hopefully Steve Sqyres will be there in order to give some insight
into what they have been looking at.

I am just wondering what is going on with the briefings there days,
when to begin with they started at 17:00 my time, where they soon
moved to 18:00.

They were back on at 17:00 GMT yesterday. I think they are covering
the Opportunity egress live at about 11:00am GMT today. NASA tv.


However, just the other day I started watching at 17:30 and there I
was at 19:30 wondering why there was no briefing. Due to work I cannot
check every day, but hopefully things will soon be back to normal.

I think that was Thursday, because they didnt have any briefing
that day.


The other thing that I will mention is that the interface between
these MER teams and the public is not as good as it was during the
Pathfinder mission.

One factor of this is that the Mars Rover's site is not doing a too
good a job showing off all these great photos, which is why at least
one person here said that they looked rubbish.

Take a look at these two sites in order to see what I mean...
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/index1.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

SNIP
cheers

"Mike Morris" wrote:
Bring back Steve Sqyres; that lot today are really
boring scientists. Now I know why I wasnt interested
in geology in high school :-)

Because you have an attention span an intellect that can barely
encompass a MTV video?

D.
--
The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found
at the following URLs:

Text-Only Version:
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Enhanced HTML Version:
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Corrections, comments, and additions should be
e-mailed to , as well as posted to
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discussion.

"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
"Mike Morris" wrote:
Bring back Steve Sqyres; that lot today are really
boring scientists. Now I know why I wasnt interested
in geology in high school :-)

Because you have an attention span an intellect that can barely
encompass a MTV video?

Damn, your wit is remarkable.