Big Sky Country

This article originally appeared on Ryan Anderson's "The Martian Chronicles" blog and is reposted here with permission.

Well folks, I'm headed off to Big Sky Country tomorrow (aka Montana)! I'll start the week at the MSL camera team meeting, where I will get all sorts of cool news about the MastCam, MAHLI and MARDI cameras which I will not be able to share with you.* After that, the lot of us will pack up and head to Glacier National Park to learn about the geology of the Belt-Purcell supergroup, and more generally, how to apply terrestrial geology to martian geology. I always enjoy field trips like this because I get to hike around on the rocks with a bunch of experts as well as many with less field experience, so there are lots of educational discussions. Also, did I mention the part where I get to drive and hike around in spectacular scenery? Yeah. Times like this I'm reminded that my job Does Not Suck.

I'll try to write a post or two about the trip once I actually understand the geology we're going to see a little more. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll have some pretty pictures to share too!

*One of the difficulties with actually being involved in missions is that I can't just write about all the cool stuff I hear about. I got scolded when this blog was just starting out for posting information before JPL or NASA had approved of it, so I tend to err on the side of caution now. It's frustrating, but there's nothing I can really do.