LAPIS 3

LAPIS 3 all-team communications are logged below. Comments will be consolidated onto linking pages from time to time. Respond with questions or comments to be posted to cdbowman@stanford.edu

May 31, 2001:

  • Telecon tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Dial 1-800-367-5754, tone, 575, tone, 46873. We will discuss the Analyst's Notebook and work on developing goals for how LAPIS might improve in the future.

    To prepare for the telecon, please be ready to give an update on your work on the Analyst's Notebook and please look at the ratings that everyone gave for LAPIS.

April 17, 2001:

  • Great job at the Mars Yard test! Everyone was very impressed that you dug the trench and got such good data. Ray is working on some suggestions for work he would like you to do with those data and I will send that on to you. Also, remember that you are the trenching experts for the field trials--the trench you dig will be the only one of the entire field test, so the data you gather are vital.

  • Here is a shirt design submitted by the LA Team. Please take a look at it and send me your comments. We need to do this right away so we have time to have shirts made before the tests.

  • Don't forget that I need all teachers and students to please complete the interim survey at http://ldt.stanford.edu/survey/20.php by April 18 (a bit later for the Norwhich team, who are on break).

  • Teachers - please coordinate medical releases from your students. The releases should first indicate you and then indicate me (as Catherine Bowman) as a back up. The releases should also contain parents names and contact information (both home and work numbers). Please keep a copy for yourselves and send a copy to me: 777 W. Middlefield Rd. #170 Mountain View, CA 94043. I need to have these by May 2--the last day I will be home before heading for the field tests.

  • At this point, airfare, lodging, and rental cars will be covered. With what's left over, we will try to help pay for food, but otherwise that is up to you to cover.

  • I will send out detailed itineraries and contact information to everyone soon.

April 9, 2001:

  • Norwich/Ithaca update: Working on WITS; looking at images from December Mars Yard Test; sent picture to St. Louis team for website; will be at Cornell for Lapis ORTs.

  • The LAPIS Mars Yard tests will be on Wednesday, April 11. Teams should be dialed in to the telecon line for as much of the day as possible between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PDT. The telecon line is 1-800-367-5754, tone, 575, tone, 46873.

    All teams should be dialed in from 8-9 to take part in a special WITS training.

    LA team will be at JPL from 8:00 to ~5:00.
    St. Louis team will be at Wash U for most of the tests.
    Norwich/Ithaca team will be at Cornell for most of the tests.
    Haltom team participation is TBD.

    If you have questions, please contact Jeff Norris at jnorris@jpl.nasa.gov or Cassie at cdbowman@stanford.edu.

  • Check out more team photos.

April 5, 2001:

  • LA update: You can view the Q&A and article from the LA team's interviews at JPL.

  • View Ray's outline for April 11th Mars Yard activities.

  • Haltom will provide the spectral library by April 12.

  • Please send Cassie the following information: Times your team will participate on April 11; design ideas for the LAPIS 3 t-shirt; team pictures.

  • The next telecon (a WITS training) will be on Monday, April 9, from 1-2 PDT. Dial 1-800-367-5754, tone, 575, tone, 46873.

March 18, 2001:

  • Below are the mission and science goals from the Ithaca team. Please read over them and have your comments ready to discuss at the next telecon.

      Mission Goals
      1. Use PanCam and NavCam to take pictures of areas within the test site both to establish the position of the rover with respect to the landing site and to initiate exploration of the site.
      2. Use PanCam and NavCam to take pictures of areas of suspected erosion and deposition.
      3. Find soft, loose soil to dig the trench. Dig trench using trenching wheel.
      4. Use the Infrared Point Spectrometer to analyze the mineral composition of areas that are determined to show erosion and deposition.
      5. Use the Infrared Point Spectrometer to analyze the mineral composition of areas other than those that show erosion and deposition in order to compare results.
      6. Use the Microscopic Imager to look for evidence of current life and fossils in sediment and rock.
      7. Use the Microscopic Imager to look for evidence of current life and fossils in the trench wall.
      8. Use the IPS to analyze the bottom of the trench and/or any rocks found in trench.

      Science Goals:
      1. Analyze the mineral composition of the trenched out soil and rocks.
      2. Compare the spectrometry to the graphs in the spectral library.
      3. Look for evidence of crystalline hematite. Crystalline hematite shows evidence of water.
      4. Search for magnetite which infers that bacteria was present which to intern create the magnetite.

      Pre-mission Necessities:
      1. Learn everything needed for digging trenches.
      2. Learn tier measurements and formulas (for the cameras) used in WITS.
      3. Know how to compare the mineral composition information to the information in the spectral library.
      4. Use lab to know the dimensions inside the descent images.
      5. Know how to eliminate the possible errors due to the sun’s interference when taking pictures.

  • WITS Update: All computers on the telerobotics network at JPL have been shut down due to a hacking incident. This network includes all of the WITS and FIDO machines, as well as around 60 other computers. They have been told that the machines will not be online again until at least early next week. Due to this problem, WITS will not be made available to the teams on March 21, as previously planned. I will keep you updated on the WITS schedule as information is made available.

  • Check out the updated telecon/test schedule!

March 12, 2001:

  • Team Updates

    Ithaca/Norwich Team: We are still finalizing our basic mission plan and outlines for the upcoming missions. Also we are working on a new web page for our Ithaca team.

  • Mary Hardin is the JPL Public Affairs contact. She would like to see any news release that is issued before it goes so she can make sure the language about the rover, the mission and JPL/NASA is correct. The best way to contact her is by email: mary.a.hardin@jpl.nasa.gov.

March 5, 2001:

  • According to Jeff Norris, the current plan is to make the new version of WITS and the new user's manual available to the Athena science team and LAPIS 3 team on Wednesday, March 21.
  • Please send Cassie a virtual copy of whatever you talked about on the telecon on Wednesday so they can be posted on the team site. ASAP!!!
  • Nick, Nick, Cameron, and rotating Norwich communicator--please send me a group update if it is different than what you will send me from your group's telecon report.
  • The teacher survey is online at: http://ldt.stanford.edu/survey/26.php. Teachers, please complete it by Saturday, Mar. 10.
  • The next telecon is planned for Friday, March 9 from 1-2 PT.
  • Here are some good links from the Ithaca/Norwich team:
    Volunteer classification of craters on Mars http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top
  • Mark from the Haltom team also sent a good spectral library site: http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov.
  • Check out the meeting notes from the last telecon.
  • Take a look at our first team photo from the St. Louis team!
  • Team update from LA: We have a date setup next Thursday , March 8th to do interviews and begin WITS training. Here is the list of questions the we plan to ask. We plan to add more to the list before we go to JPL. Please send suggestions to: Dbzkiwi@aol.com:
      What changes have been made to ensure that the rover will not be lost? Are there any chanceinstruments on the rover to be damaged on mars? I.e. mast, arm, etc Is there any way to get the rover back from Mars after it has been on the planet? Why aren’t you doing wet experiments? Why is a micro-imager used to instead of one that has microscopic abilities? Why does the rover only take the core of an object? Would it be advantageous to pick up an entire small rock? Will the weather have any effect on the rover? I.e cold, wind, etc What specific elements are you hoping to find in the rocks? Are there a maximum number of objects the rover can store? If there is and the storage is full what would be done if more rocks were found? Why does the aluminum have steel spikes and cleats? Wouldn’t it move better without them? Can’t the wheels be rubber or a different material so it can travel faster on a rocky terrain? Are there any plans of using the rover for somewhere else besides mars? What will happen to the rover after its done with its mission? Would Why is the rover made of aluminum? Wouldn’t steel be stronger? Have you considered a shovel if it needs to dig? If dust gets onto the solar panels, how would you clean it? Have you considered flipping the solar panels over and have double sided solar panels. Can the rover be made bigger to fit more instruments? And which ones? Is there anyway to make the rover go faster? Why can’t you record noise on the planet?

February 23, 2001:

  • Hooray for (almost) all the people who completed the survey. Thank you! There's still time if you haven't filled it out (http://ldt.stanford.edu/survey/10.php).
  • Meeting notes for the February 16 telecon are available.
  • Please note Cassie's new phone number: 650-938-2587 and address: 777 W. Middlefield Road, #170, Mountain View, CA 94043.
  • The awesome volunteer communicators for each team are: Nick Bennette (St. Louis), Nick Bryant (Haltom), Cameron Cobb (L.A.), and a rotating group from Ithaca. So far the updates have been great--lots of information! Please keep sending them to me weekly. You can read everyone's updates below.
  • The next telecon will be Wednesday. February 28 from 1-2 Pacific Time. The dial in number is 1-800-367-5754, wait for tone, 575, wait for tone, 46873. The agenda is TBD.
  • You are a great LAPIS team--keep up the good work!

Team Updates

    LA Team: So far we have been writing down questions that we will be asking the three FIDO scientists or engineers at JPL. As we go through the questions that we write down, Steven Dworetzky gives us more information by disscussing with us, the questions that we write down. This helps us understand more about the rover and what it will be doing on mars. If any of the teams have a question that they would like to ask, send us an e-mail and it will be added to the list of questions that we have.

    Ithaca Team: We had meetings this week on Wednesday and Friday. Both days we worked on the mission plan and the science goals. We have also decided to work on certain things that are just necessary to know when doing LAPIS. We have found an article that deals with magnetite and it's connection with bacteria. In magnetite there might be bacteria which if this is true and we found magnetite on Mars then this would show the possibility of there being life on Mars. We have also found a site which has a spectral library on it. We feel this might been a very valid research and all around helpful site. We are looking forward to the telecon on Wednesday and we are trying to schedule to meet with Cornell. Our spring break is 4/13-4/22.

    St. Louis Team: Thursday was our first true work meeting and although we initially had planned on dividing our group into two teams, Dr. Arvidson suggested that the entire group come twice a week if at all possible, at least until we divide up work and are settled. Yesterday, we started some formating with the website and got a little better intro into the WITS and Viz system. Next week we'll begin to bear down and I think I'll have some REAL info for you then. Our team is really psyched and the support team at Wash U is spectacular.

February 15, 2001:

  • Minor changes have been made to the Program Plan schedule regarding times for teleconferences. Please take a look.
  • All students should complete the LAPIS 3 survey at http://ldt.stanford.edu/survey/10.php. Thanks to those who have already taken the time to do it!
  • The next telecon will be tomorrow, February 16, from 2-3 Pacific Time. The dial in number is 1-800-367-5754, wait for tone, 575, wait for tone, 46873. The agenda will include group updates and progress reports.

February 9, 2001: Welcome to LAPIS 3! We're really excited that you're going to take part in this year's test mission. Along with starting to work with your mentors, please take a look at the following web sites to get more familiar with FIDO, Athena, and Mars in general:

FIDO Science Server - http://wufs.wustl.edu/fido
Athena Web Site - http://athena.cornell.edu
JPL Mars Web Site - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov"
JPL Telerobotics - http://telerobotics.jpl.nasa.gov

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