We didn’t have any crazy April Fool’s Day jokes here at HiROC yesterday, but there were a few fun incidents. One of our post-docs announced he had been offered a tenure-track faculty position (which isn’t that unrealistic, actually!). Despite the lack of any actual job opening, he got a few congratulatory emails before someone spilled the beans.

Our HiPlan developer, the HiCommander, had a little surprise for us in our planning software, like last year. I was forced to click “Authorize” in order to use HiPlan, and now I owe HiRISE $620. Hopefully that’s a tax-deductible business expense.

On another topic, a number of us have signed up for Google’s new Mars expedition. It seems like the next logical career move after MRO’s mission is complete. In fact, we’re scouting potential sites for Virgle City right now. That’s assuming their references to the first “manned journey to Mars” are not to be taken literally, and that women will be considered as potential colonists. (ahem.)

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.