Ground rovers and orbiting spacecraft have peeled back many of the secrets of the Red Planet's desert landscape. We've even got pieces of Mars here on Earth - meteorite samples blasted from the planet's surface. What more are we looking for, and what are the prospects that we'll go there in person any time soon?

Clyde Simpson (B.A., Geology, Cleveland State University) is Observatory Coordinator of the Ralph Mueller Observatory at the CMNH and has been a member of the Astronomy Department since 1984. Clyde teaches astronomy and geology classes in the planetarium and Museum galleries and maintains the observatory with its 10½" Warner & Swasey refracting telescope built in Cleveland in 1899. He leads field trips of astronomical interest, including several to view total eclipses of the Sun, and monitors sunspots on a daily basis for the American Association of Variable Star Observers.