alcaray wrote:
That being said, have you heard anything lately about landing site selection for the MERs?

Alex writes:
The two rovers are on schedule, but selecting acceptable landing sites is proving to be a headache. Six sites (four primaries and two backups) had been identified; however, the engineers are VERY worried about wind shear and surface roughness on the MER EDL system. It seems as if the hematite region in Terra Meridiani is the *safest* candidate for either MER-A or MER-B, though there are some low temperature issues there. After that, it's anyone's guess. Gusev Crater (my personal favorite) has possible wind shear problems, which might be ameliorated by a newly-proposed rocket system (combined with a "descent-type imager") to counteract horizontal velocity at impact. The proposed landing ellipses at Isidis Basin (close to the rim near Libya Montes) are judged rough, with possible wind shear problems as well. There was a recommendation to move the ellipses further north into the basin, towards what many scientists describe as the "crummy" proposed landing site for Beagle 2. The two landing sites in Valles Marineris (Eos Chasma and Melas Chasma) have been definitely dropped from consideration for roughness and predicted unacceptable winds. Athabasca Valles, which offers the possibility of access to "recent" fluvial activity, was previously thought too rough (from a radar standpoint). However, McEwen et al. are looking for better ellipses.

All in all, the site selection is still being debated, and it is possible that the latitude and elevation constraints may be relaxed (due to improved performance margins) to offer new candidates.

alcaray wrote:
A lot of Odyssey pix have been added to the data mix, by now.

Alex writes:
I'm not sure I would say that "[A] lot of Odyssey pix have been added to the data mix..."; the vast majority of the imaging support for 2003 MER has come from MGS MOC. At the recent landing sites selection workshop held in Pasadena Christensen et al. shared some of their preliminary THEMIS IR and VIS data (a couple of color images, some IR spectra, and B&W VIS images) of the 6 top landing sites candidates. The THEMIS team members noted that they are in the midst of troubleshooting a stray light issue in the THEMIS IR system, as well as in the midst of calibrating the VIS system.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii