Word: terrain
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True, you have seen a Mars landing before. Pathfinder's spectacular little rover, Sojourner--a remote-controlled vehicle about the size of a microwave oven--toddled across the Martian terrain in the summer of 1997. But you won't want to miss the show the two new ones promise...
Unlike little Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity are full-blown Mars cars, about the size of golf carts and fairly stuffed with instruments--including a bristle of cameras atop an almost 5-ft. antenna mast that will provide an eye-level view of the terrain, as opposed to the shin-level view Pathfinder provided. Like their predecessor, they will be visiting areas of the planet that scientists believe were once deluged with water, precisely the kind of spots extraterrestrial organisms would, at least in theory, love. If Mars ever harbored life, the 90 or more days Spirit and Opportunity will spend...
...brakes, which will help prevent you from skidding out of control when descending a steep incline. A few years ago, the technology appealed mainly to downhill racers, but it has since become widespread. New rear suspensions allow bikers to alter their mount's shock-absorbing capacity to accommodate the terrain. This year Specialized launched a line of bikes, Epic ($1,900+), whose suspension system, called "the Brain," automatically adjusts the rear shock according to the impact of the bumps...
...Blood then took the stick, punched it forward and dove us to 1,000 ft, where he activated the TF (terrain-following) radar program. He instructed me to take control again, but to only gently guide the aircraft's direction and to "let the plane fly itself." True to its name, the program maintained a constant altitude, rising when we crossed mountains and dipping when we were over valleys. It was easy to imagine the value of such technology when flying low over a foreign land during conditions of poor visibility...
...While Iraq is a very different situation from the one that confronted the U.S. military in Vietnam - the enemy has no regional or international backers to support and sustain its insurgency; the terrain and technological capability of the U.S. precludes any concentration of forces; as long as the rebellion remains confined to Sunnis its maximum political support base is no bigger than 15 percent of the population - it's the idea of U.S. troops confronting an enemy indistinguishable from an often hostile civilian population that gets alarm bells ringing. A report in London's Evening Standard last week contained disturbing...