re: You're missing the point
"Don, don't let your past dislike of Barry color your judgement of a mission's worth."
Indeed - I dont quite see his problem with the science package - it was the most sensitive and powerfull yet sent to mars. It shared much of the ability of the MER's - plus the added abilities of a much MUCH better, multispectral microscope, the mass spectrometer, and PLUTO to sample at some considerable depth.
Doug