| RHF Joke Archives |

What follows are the better of the Pathfinder quickies I've received.
Your mileage may vary - ed.

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: larry@imii.com (Laurence Gordon)
Subject: Mars Pathfinder renamed

The Mars Pathfinder was renamed today in honor of the late Astronomer, Carl
Sagan.  The craft will henceforth be referred to as BHA Memorial Station.

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: Richard_Vireday@ccm.jf.intel.com (Richard Vireday)
Organization: Intel Corporation
Subject: NASA gets indications of life on Mars


It is not conclusive yet, but the NASA believes the Mars Pathfinder has found
proof of life on Mars.

The CD player was stolen.

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: gudath@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch (henrik 'boris grishenko' gudat)
Subject: Pathfinder

Nasa just disclosed details why the Rover wouldn't accept any commands. They
took a picture of the Rover's built-in display which showed a Windows 
screen and the text "press any key to continue".

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: mark@good-stuff.co.uk (Mark Goodge)
Subject: Mars Landing

So the Sojourner vehicle is finally rolling around Mars, after
initial problems with the control software. According to press
reports, Mission Control solved the problem by "resetting the
modem overnight." A spokesman is quoted as saying "this seems to
have fixed whatever it was that wasn't working."

In other words, they hadn't a clue what to do, so they switched 
it off and on again.

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: jono@acme.demon.co.uk (Jonathan Nicholson)
Subject: Mars Explorer

One question has bugged me, how did they get it to land the right way up?

The answer is obvious, it's applied Murphy's law, they covered one side
with butter.

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: tcomeau@stsci.edu (Tom Comeau @ Space Telescope Science Institute)
Subject: A little Pathfinder music...

Recently the Hubble Space Telescope* conducted a series of observations
of Mars, to monitor dust storm clouds and other seasonal phenomena on
Mars.  Some of these observations were taken in parallel with
observations of the Martian atmosphere from below by the Imager for Mars
Pathfinder (IMP) from the Sagan Memorial Station.

Which led to one Institute staffer softly singing:

		I've looked at clouds
		From both sides now
		From up and down
		And still somehow...

 -------------
(*Science operations for HST are conducted for NASA by the Space
Telescope Science Institute, which is where I work.  MPF, of course,
is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.)

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: snowman@onr.com (Robert Simons)
Subject: Pathfinder's Provider

Despite the near flawless achievements of NASA's Pathfinder Mission, two
things caught my eye:

*  There was a potentially significant modem synchronizing problem between
Sojourner and Pathfinder early on in the mission.  
*  The first images the Mars Pathfinder transmitted back to Earth came at a
mere 2,250 bps.

Perhaps the scientists at JPL should use a local internet provider instead
of relying America Online, eh?

        =       =       =       =       =       =       =
From: andreas@holmium.cchem.berkeley.edu (Andreas V. Kadavanich)
Subject: The new NASA

After the rousing success of the Pathfinder landing, NASA has decided to
install airbags on Mir as well.

| RHF Joke Archives |