Greetings to one and all! I discovered the site today, and am very excited about the prospect of participating.
Allow me to give you a little background and explain my interest in the project.
I was born in the U.S. in 1960, and as such grew up at the same time as the U.S. space program was evolving. Although my university education was in the field of Art History, I never lost my enthusiasm for space exploration, and oddly, as certain discoveries were reluctantly revealed, (or far more often rapidly covered up), I realized that some of my expertise in the arts might actually be applicable. The interpretation of glyphs and other representations, for example, often lends itself to a certain subfield of Art Historical study which I have developed: Xeno-Art History. By collecting and studying all of the available examples of xeno-art, I have been able to detect certain trends and techniques which not only reveal the origin of the object(s) but aid in their interpretation.
Further, my basically scientific nature of inquiry has allowed me to become somewhat capable in a variety of analysis and tactical planning techniques.
While I certainly appreciate that a person cannot expect immediate acceptance into such a crucial and sentive project as Mars Dawn, I look forward to proving myself to the team, and offering whatever assistance I can.
I am currently reviewing the extensive data already collected, concentrating on probable locations for the pit-trap. Hopefully the probes will have completed the task prior to my making any suggestion, but in case they haven't I may be of some small help there.
Please forgive this extensive first posting, but I felt it important to completely reveal my intentions, and my excitement, to everyone as quickly as possible.
Warmly,
Maestro