Some people were wondering how they would manage to scrape up the ice, hard as it would be under those conditions. A simple question. I've seen ice at altitude which is so darned hard that the pick of an ice axe can bounce off.

I know I finally figured that if I, for one, could understand exactly how hard that ice could be so would they. And they wouldn't have spent that much time and money without also knowing how to work around it. After all, how often do they get a chance to dig on Mars?

And, apparently, that took them by surprise.

Their experiments seemed to be quite fragile, too. Anyone who has worked around a rock crusher knows that screens plug. They are temperamental bastards, actually.

I don't know. They jury is out, I realize, but just from reading the tabloid versions of this mission it seems as if everyone did great except for the folks at the experimental end. And they didn't do good.

I hope I'm wrong.

Arf