space.com: Did the camera system change from Pathfinder to Mars Polar Lander?
Smith: We improved the pointing a bit. The more accurate we can be, the smaller the picture can be. So we were able to improve our accuracy on pointing.
Q: What work is on tap for the camera after landing?
Smith: The first four days will yield our highest and best product -- a color panorama in stereo. That stereo will give us a virtual reality capability, so we can fly through the panorama. That will be a great product.
Q: Any worries as Mars Polar Lander closes in on its target?
Smith: From my particular perspective as the imaging co-investigator, we are having some difficulties with our software. While it works just fine, there are some aspects of it that haven't been tested quite at the level they need to be tested. And now we're discovering a few little anomalies and having to do some work-arounds. The basic picture taking is rock-solid. But in auto-exposure, in certain cases, it does something it's not supposed to do. It is distressingly late to find them. But we found them early...and not after the mission.
Q: How important is the Robotic Arm Camera?
Smith: We built parts of the Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) -- the lamps and the lenses -- and our partners, Germany's Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy designed and built the RAC's housing, detector and focusing mechanism. Using the arm, you kind of roll back the carpet and see what's going on down there. Digging down in the layered terrain, are there some layers and, particularly, is there ice down 5 inches like it has been predicted?
Q: And if ice were found?
Smith: That would be a stunning result if we dug down the exact theoretical depth and, wham, we hit an ice layer...or it could be solid ice...or just a small percentage of crystals mixed with the soil. The robot arm camera is capable of looking down in a trench to see layering in the walls. If it's dark in the trench, we have lamps to turn on and we can get color. That camera on the arm can take a microscopic look at a higher resolution than a human hair.
Q: How much of your Mars Pathfinder experiences have prepared you for this upcoming landing?
Smith: There is pressure that you're under as you get close. You've got to be calm in the eye of the storm. Frankly, I had never even given a press briefing in my life until Mars Pathfinder. It was quite something. My background is atmospheric studies...I wouldn't know one composition of a rock from another. I've never taken a geology course. So in Pathfinder, when I had to talk about geology of the landing site, I just talked about the wonder of being on Mars...'imagine yourself on this spot on Mars,' is the way I handled it.
Q: Did operating equipment on Mars offer any surprises?
Smith: The difficulties of operating a live spacecraft on the surface are always a little bit shocking. It's hard to maintain up and downlink all the time. You lose link...you lose lock...the signal is gone...you try to recover...and you've lost four days of your sequences. It's like being down in a submarine. The alarm keeps going off. It gets to you after a while because you know the water is out there and it's going to come in and you don't answer all the alarms. It is quite a challenge to balance all of the demands on your time.
Q: The Mars Polar Lander team includes first-time Mars explorers, as well as old hands, such as yourself, correct?
Smith: Since the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter, JPL has sounded the clarion call. It's wonderful that they've rounded up some of the troops from the Pathfinder days and are sending them over here. Yes, for some, this is their first mission, and they might not have that sense of urgency yet. But, hey, it's panic time!
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