An artist’s rendition of the two Mars Exploratory Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The robots are designed to study the geological features of Mars and find evidence of water in the planet’s ancient past. (NASA)

I’m sifting through the logs I alluded to yesterday at a relatively speedy rate. So far, I’ve read through 6,500 lines (just under 2/3 of the transcript) and pulled 293 candidates. (These numbers are mainly here so I can keep my place .

I didn’t follow yesterday’s conversation live – it’s hard to pick out individual discussions in an IRC channel of over 150 people – but I’m picking up some fascinating tidbits about the mission.

I’m positively thrilled that JPL let this chat take place. I think a lot of people were genuinely impressed by the depth of the answers by the staffers – particularly Justin Wick, who, somehow, stayed patient the entire evening.

I’m truly fascinated by Spirit and Opportunity. They’re probably the most sophisticated robots Earth has ever sent into space. More on my observations tomorrow.