March 12, 2004

On Earth preparations continue for tomorrow’s robotic vehicle race through the Mojave Desert. Carnegie Mellon’s Red Team’s Sandstorm was the first to complete the testing course followed by others such as the huge TerraMax truck. Wired notes that the rules have been changed to allow most vehicles entered to take part in the race even through some work not even moving under their own power. Provided they allow the vehicles that successfully completed the testing course to go first these other less qualified vehicles should not get in the way. The race can go on while they try to exit the starting area. Who knows maybe all some needs a last minute Jolt-fueled all night debugging session to get them going? Live webcasts of the event with on-line tracking of vehicle positions will start at 6am Saturday PST. 10:13:44 PM

Having journeyed for weeks to the edge of the Bonneville crater the Mars Rover Spirit’s initial pictures of the crater’s insides show that it is rather uninteresting – being shallow with sandy walls rather than a deep crater with exposed bedrock. Mission controllers may now call off the exploration of the crater in favor of other targets. The Eastern Hill Complex which is described as a series of peaks that show clear variations in colour and composition and strong suggestions of layering might be the next target. But at 2500 metres from the landing site reaching the hills will be beyond the designed range of the rover through it is currently expected to survive longer than its 90 day design life span. 10:12:27 PM