re: In conversation during the briefing....
What's the flatish rocky-surface-looking thing in the low left and low right corners? Surely it can't be a real rock surface where the dust has been blown away. We've been told to expect so much dust that the surface will be unreachable.
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They're just calling it 'cohesive sand' right now... when the top layer of sand (on a beach, maybe near the shore) is removed to expose the 'packed' darker sand underneath. What's holding the sand together, they don't want to say or speculate. Something seems to be holding it together (I heard 'salt' being mentioned once).