"Mars or Bust!"...Gonna have to go with "Bust"

Well, the tour of the Science Operation Center...a pretty big let down. No big rooms filled with computers and harried scientists. No giant screens with maps and images. There was an auditorium where we saw a 40 minute presentation on the project, and an area with several displays with information about planets and the mission.

Exciting, isn't it?!

Maybe it's just a few scientists with laptops running the whole thing, which while amazing in and of itself, doesn't have a whole lot of pizazz to it.

Oh, there was a 'twin' of the Phoenix Lander which the scientists use to practice commands, which was neat. You can see the arm extended as they were practicing digging.




Perhaps if I hadn't already seen most of this stuff during the Landing Weekend, I would have been pretty impressed. But, I did, so I wasn't.


Oh well. Not every nerd adventure can be magical.