First of all, congratulations to NASA and their successful rover bouncing at Mars this morning. Opportunity touched down at 0505 GMT and bounced around for a good ten minutes before it came to a halt in a 20-meter diameter crater. Science leader Steve Squyres calls the landing a 300-million-mile hole in one. It also looks like they might be able to get the Spirit rover’s systems up and running properly soon, too, after it started to misbehave a couple of days back. And on top of this, ESA claims that their Mars Express has found the signature of water at the Red Planet’s south pole. Still no word from Beagle, though, I guess they’re considering it lost by now. More news about the recent happenings in Mars exploration can be found at Spaceflight Now.

Tomorrow is test-day and I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. I’d usually be nervous as hell by now - I always am before big tests, oral exams and stuff like that. But in this case I have no idea what I’m facing and it’s totally beyond my control, which has resulted in me being much less nervous than usual. Almost not nervous at all. It might be that my brain has decided to try apathy as an alternative to cold sweet and an uneasy stomach.

Good luck to me!