MER-B has successfully landed on Mars and appears to be healthy. MER-B appears to be in the bottom of a shallow crater with a rock out-cropping that maybe stratified (could still be volcanic). The local regolith also appears to have a different color which means we'll learn something totally new about soil chemistry. Also the forward ramp seems to not have any air bags blocking it (that means a quick and easy egress to the surface). This is almost as good as it can get.

Shortly after MER-B landed, Wayne Lee commented that the G loading on the first bounce was only 2 gravities. The peak atmospheric entry deceleration load was about 6.8 gravities (I calculated 6.3 G). In theory, an astronaut curled up in the fetal position could have landed on Mars in MER-B's aeroshell and survived (not a recommended way to get to Mars). The peak G load that a rover can tolerate is 40 gravities. JPL showed amazing excellence with MER's design.

It also appears that MER-A is on the mend. They've got MER-A's main fault isolated to the flash memory. They still don't know what toasted the flash memory and that's the $64,000 question. If the fault is common to both vehicles then it could raise its ugly head again. I'm sure this possibility is one of the worst worries for the people managing MER.

This is good news and it is truely excellent. However there is bad news. It's going to be a long, long time before we again do anything this cool on the surface of Mars. There's the Phoenix lander that is currently scheduled to launch in 2007. Unfortunately Phoenix was the Mars 2001 lander that was the near twin of the MPL lander. The MPL Lander augered in because it was built under the Dan Goldin management dictum of Faster, Better, Cheaper. The Mars 2001 lander is tainted and should have been hauled off to a museum. For Phoenix, Lockheed-Martin engineers will have to subject every component and line of software through remorseless quality assurance. Will they do this or just bandaid it? It would probably be cheaper to build a whole new vehicle from scratch. Even if Phoenix does not auger in, it will be a stationary lander and not a rover. MER-A and B are a very tough act to follow.

Finally there's the Mars 2005-2007-2009-[Mars Smart Lander]-[Mars Science Lab] that keeps being pushed back in time and having its name changed. IF it ever gets off the drawing board, it'll be very cool indeed. Unfortunately MSL is currently designed to use the suicidal "sky crane" EDL concept. If they opt for the sky crane then it may auger in and the long wait will be for nothing.

So the bottom line is: Revel in the moment! It's going to be a long time before it is this good again.

Gary