TheBanyanTree: NASA

[Sachet]

I'm home sick today, so I tuned into the NASA channel out of curiosity.

I sat and watched Garrett Reisman 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Reisman) complete some tasks on 
the space station. As I gazed at the TV screen in utter awe I took a 
moment to let the "wow" factor sink in. When I was growing up, any 
images from space, and certainly all missions off Earth, were given 
extensive media coverage. Which was only as it should be, considering 
the incredible accomplishments taking place. Momentous historical 
milestones!

Now, media coverage is iffy at best. Which has puzzled me no end! We 
landed on Mars this past Sunday! (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/)
That is so fantastically amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the last few minutes, I've been watching the media conference on 
"This Week in NASA". The excitement and joy on the faces of the team is 
so infectious. Their eyes sparkle as they share the fascinating new 
discoveries and anticipate the next 3-6 months of planned projects. I 
learned how the robotic arm will work as it explores within the radius 
of the Phoenix Mars Lander. They explained their goals; one of which is 
digging far enough to see if their expectations of finding ice 
underneath the surface will be proven true. I grinned along with the 
team as they told about choosing to name the rock, troughs and other 
discoveries after fairy tale characters in order to let the team have 
some fun and not get bogged down with long identifying numbers. It was 
intriguing to hear them talk in "Sol time" since the "days" on Mars are 
slightly longer than on Earth, although a Mars solar year is 
tremendously longer. http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/allison_02/

I feel somewhat pacified that the exciting accomplishments are being 
noted on the NASA channel. This is fun, fascinating stuff!!!!


...Sachet