Reflections on "Lunar Mode"

My name is R. Aileen Yingst, and I serve on the North traverse Science Team for the K10 field experiment. I've been a Participating Scientist on the Mars Exploration Rovers mission for 4 years now, and this experience with a "lunar" mission has been a real eye-opener.

On the one hand, getting your data immediately, being able to watch your progress real-time, is fantastic. Changing plans midstream to take advantage of good science targets that have just been imaged — or seeing an obstacle well in advance and being able to plan around it and not lose a day of planning by doing so — are all new to me and a bit of a heady experience.

On the other hand, we have very little time to analyze the data as it comes down. How does one prioritize possible science targets with only a few seconds to examine each one? How much have we missed because we had to make such rapid decisions?

The trick for us will be to use the benefits of real-time data return, while learning how to ingest and understand that data as quickly and efficiently as possible.