Drove over to the Mars Center this afternoon. They were just closing when I got there. "We're closing now," said the guy at the desk. I could not believe my ears.

"Today??" I said.

"Yeah, we close at 4:00."

"You are aware that the Mars landing is tonight?"

"Yeah, but that's late. After 8:00. But if we get some pictures, we'll have them tomorrow."

Swell. I was so flabbergasted I still can't quite get around it. The Mars Center opened just last Monday, and they can't figure out that maybe opening the place late tonight just might be a good idea. They said something about how they didn't have the personnel to do that, but that sounds like a load of crap. They could have pulled together volunteers from local space groups or something. I doubt security is a real issue...they are not located on the grounds inside the Ames gate, but right outside.

This says something important about how NASA thinks, but I'm not sure what.