August 31, 2001
Dear Colleagues:
The dates for the Mars Exploration Rover Landing Site Workshop in Ithaca, NY, are fast approaching. If you have plans to attend the workshop and have not contacted John Grant or Matt Golombek, please do ASAP for planning purposes. This note also serves as a reminder to all needing maps of the Cornell campus and parking permits to contact Pam Smith immediately. She will need the dates you will be in attendance, and your address, e-mail, and phone number. She can be reached at psmith@astrosun.astro.cornell.edu or 607-255-2672. The program for the workshop and logistical information are attached below (originally sent on 7-31-01). Hotel reservations in Ithaca should have been made before now in order to take advantage of the special rate listed.
If you are presenting at the workshop, please provide an electronic copy of your presentation materials to Matt Golombek, John Grant, Trent Hare, and Ginny Gulick by COB on September 14th, as they will comprise an important part of the workshop report.
"Science Spokespersons" for the various sites to be discussed at the workshop are reminded that their presentations should focus on how a particular site is best suited for achieving the stated MER mission science objectives. Presentations should provide specific examples of how the MER rovers and Athena science instruments could be used at the proposed landing site to meet the mission science objectives. A complete description of the MER mission science objectives is available at: http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/nra/current/AO-01-OSS-04/ .
Presenters should also be aware that MOC image coverage of each of the highest priority proposed landing ellipses is now approximately 30%. "Spokespersons" should be sure and review relevant images for their sites and include discussion of them in their presentations. The calibrated MOC images are available on the USGS website. Other versions of the images are available on the Ames landing site website and the MSSS website.
Regards,
John Grant and Matt Golombek
See attached files (MS Word files):