On this NPR Science Friday episode, HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen and M.I.T. planetary geophysicist Maria Zuber discuss new results that illuminate the story of water on Mars with host Ira Flatow.

Also, available free on iTunes, are a collection of videos from the Phoenix Mission’s Open House, highlighting the University of Arizona’s Mars-related projects including UofA speakers McEwen, Phoenix P.I. Peter Smith, GRS and TEGA P.I. William Boynton, and planetary geologist Vic Baker.

Finally, during last week’s UofA football game, our marching band played a tribute to Mars and in particular Phoenix with a little ditty written by band director Jay Rees. I don’t know if a recording of the performance is available online, but here’s a snippet of the song:

“Follow the water” is NASA’s song,
UA’s happy to sing along.
We shall see what we shall see.
We might find biology!

(I originally posted this on another blog on Wednesday, April 11. It is also appropriate here.)

Once upon a time Richard Hoagland was my role model and Carl Sagan was not. While Sagan was a media hog, Hoagland fought the good fight against the government conspiracy that hid evidence of alien intelligences and the artifacts left throughout the solar system by an ancient alien civilization.

There was, after all, the “Face”.

During college, I overdosed on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. I left pseudoscience behind. I saw Hoagland for the charlatan he really was (and is), and I came to appreciate Sagan for his reason, his passion, and his inspiring desire to educate.

Now, years later I work for HiRISE, participating in an experiment to photograph the surface of Mars using a high resolution camera. We had to take yet another image of the Cydonia region on Mars, because of the history, because of the public interest, because of the desire to leave silliness behind and instead embrace the wonder of reality.

Today the image was released (see the various image options, including the highest resolution JPEG2000 version), along with other gorgeous views of the Martian surface.

This then is the real face of Mars, a boulder-strewn mesa carved not by imaginary entities but by the slow yet steady erosion caused by winds, impacts, physical failure of rocks, and perhaps temperature variations.

I think that while I believed in the “Face” I could not have had the dream job I do today. I would not know the joy I know today, the joy that comes from seeing Mars not as I use to want it to be, but Mars as it really is. This is the real Mars, far more exciting and full of wonder and mystery than Hoagland’s fantasy version.

If a dedication means anything at all, then I dedicate this post to Carl Sagan, a person I did not appreciate while he was alive, but who has taught me so much through the legacy of his words. I now look at Mars with “skeptical thinking and an aptitude for wonder,” the two skills he highlighted in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

Just as a follow up to the previous posts, here’s a picture of our Department Head, modified to appear to be taken from HiRISE, put on the HiWall for an April Fool’s Joke. This image has been shrunk, but otherwise is the same as the image that appeared on the HiWall.

On Monday morning, I started up HiPlan, our image planning and targeting tool (see this post for more about HiPlan), and this unexpected window popped up:

My first pre-coffee reaction was to panic, but then I read it more closely and realized what day it was. Turns out the HiCommander had snuck some “special” updates into a recent release of HiPlan.

The HiWall was also displaying a certain department head’s “face on Mars” all day.

I baked blue-frosted rocket ship cookies yesterday, and Anjani came in to work this morning wearing a shirt that is the *EXACT* same color blue as my cookie frosting! Another Festivus miracle!

I thought I’d offer a few more words as to what is done with images at HiROC. Validation has been mentioned in the blog, and I’d like to explain a bit more about that. I’ve been involved in writing the primary validation tool, HiVali, and I will be the primary student validator for the next month. (The regular student validators are from out of state, and are going home for the Christmas holidays. I’m from around here, and offered my services to look at pretty pictures from Mars all day;-))

(more…)

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the third two-week cycle in the primary mission. However, it’s only my first cycle! One Targeting Specialist is assigned to each cycle, and I’m on for cycle 3. Because we spend almost four weeks planning before the cycle even starts, there are three Targeting Specialists overlapping at any one time, in various stages of the planning process. Plus there’s a backup — HiBUTS, which stands for HiRISE BackUp Targeting Specialist. (I can’t take credit for that — that’s one of HiKu’s!)

Since before PSP started, we’ve all been working long hours. We haven’t had much time to blog, but right now I’m just waiting nervously for my commands to be radiated, so I thought I’d share this recipe. For all you faithful blog readers out there (all 2 of you? ), here’s my secret to surviving long workdays and cold nights:

(more…)

A few of us were at HiROC Saturday, getting our parts of the operations process in order for the upcoming start of primary science (PSP).

That’s GuyMac on the left, HiCommander (me!) in the middle, and HiKu on the right.

(more…)

I decided the blog does not have enough pictures, so a few of us gathered around a MacBook Pro and said “Cheetos!”. Audrie is on the left, I’m next, Kite is next to me, and Tahirih is on the right. Yes, Kite has Princess Leia hair. No, I’m not a nerf herder. Who’s scruffy-looking?

Audrie, Tahirih and I did not previously appear in pictures on HiBlog because during transition imaging we were busy working in our offices and Tuvas for some reason did not visit us. We feel so left out (joking)! The three of us make up HiRISE Downlink Operations, which includes downloading new images, processing them, and image validation (the Student Validators also participate in this task). Audrie also works on instrument monitoring and safety. Tahirih also does most of the geometry processing. I also eat cheetos and chocolate cake. When Kite is not busy with HiRISE Uplink tasks – which is generally NEVER – she is blasting her way out of impossible situations that often involve walking carpets.

And I would like to thank the HiCommander for giving us the software that allowed us to plan these wonderful images. Without your work we wouldn’t have them. So, even though you make fun of my attachment to my cell phone, thank you!