Walt's resting his fingers after his marathon blogging sessions at WBF, so to fill in the gap, I'm taking over the blog. In between WBF session, Walt send me the following news release from NASA.
March 12, 2008: Little noticed by the general public, February 23 was a special day in space exploration. For the first time in history, an all-woman team of scientists and engineers guided a major NASA mission—the Mars Exploration Rovers.
"We were in control of Spirit's activities for the day," explains Barbara Cohen of the Marshall Space Flight Center who headed up the science team. "It was a milestone in mission planning to be able to staff the uplink team with all women."
The occasion was Women's History Month—March 2008. (By meeting in February, "we got an early start," says Cohen.) According to a resolution by the US Congress, March is the time to recognize and celebrate achievements by American women. Cohen's team felt that an all-female "Spirit day" would be a fitting tribute.
Cohen and colleagues laid their plans for Spirit via conference call. From all around the country, more than two dozen female scientists and engineers dialed in to help. (Scroll to the end of the story for a list of participants.)
"Hey, any ladies in the house?" asked Cohen as the call began.
"Any guy attending today is required to wear a tutu," came one response.
"Does this webcam make me look fat?" joked another.
The banter quickly subsided and the team got down to the business of scheduling Spirit's day. At the moment, notes Cohen, "Spirit is hunkered down for the winter, covered with dust." But that doesn't mean the rover can’t stay busy. With a bit of "women's ingenuity," Spirit was able to gather important data on Feb. 23 just by watching the landscape and studying its surroundings.
"During the winter, we study how the landscape of Mars changes over time," says Cohen. "This gives us valuable information about Martian seasons."
"We also study rocks right in front of the rover. That's important because when the rover is traveling, it passes by them quickly and leaves them behind. Right now we can really zoom in on some of these rocks and understand them in depth."
Finally, "we look at things on Spirit itself, like the composition of the dust that collects on its surface."
