[SVXRide]

Jeez, how do I respond and not provide more fodder for Ron and Randy?
Well, here goes....
1. Spirit is now "off of the critical list, now on the serious list" according to the folks out at JPL. They think they've isolated the current problems to some flash memory used... my guess is that it will still take a couple of days before they come up with a work around
2. Opportunity successfully landed on Saturday...early data indicates that it may have found rocks that have typically contained water (a very good thing!)
3. the "Beagle 2" lander was part of ESA's Mars mission and has been declared a loss - my guess is that it is scattered around the Martian landscape. It was done on a shoestring due to a lack of interest by the British government and, as I've heard, only had one successful test done of its airbag landing system prior to launch (in contrast to Spirit and Opportunity which each had over 40 successful tests done prior to launch). The good news is that the ESA orbiter that Beagle was ejected from is operating very successfully in orbit around Mars
4. The "fight" for the lead in managing the effort to establish a base on the Moon is now underway. We had the Admiral that is now the new Associate Administrator for this effort out at Goddard last week. Don't be surprised if the DoD isn't involved in this effort. Is there enough money to do this - not by a long short. Are we (okay, I can only speak for myself, not NASA) concerned that this initiative might seriously impact future science missions? You bet!!
-Bill (NASA Civil Servant for over 12 years...)