Space Cadet Report: 1st Mars pics tonite!

from spaceref.com,

The University of Arizona's High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to take its first images of Mars at 9:41 p.m. Mountain Time Thursday night, March 23.
[...]
The NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined. HiRISE is the most powerful telescope camera ever sent to another planet.

The first images will be highly experimental because the team is trying a number of algorithms and systems for the first time, so things could go wrong, said UA planetary sciences Professor Alfred McEwen, who leads HiRISE. "However, we are sure to learn important lessons about how to operate the spacecraft and HiRISE."
[...]
Some of the camera's first targets next fall will be of potential landing sites for UA's Phoenix Mission lander, which is slated to reach the Martian surface in May 2008.

Also, spaceref.com has an article announcing a "call for Abstracts First Landing Site Workshop for the 2009 NASA Mars Science Laboratory Mission".

Yee-haw! Mars, here we come!