On my last night in San Francisco, I decided to check out the newly refurbished iMax theatre in the Metreon down the street from Cycling '74 world HQ and catch Roving Mars.

For any space geek, it's a cool, if short, ride. But I found myself tsk-tsking about the use of the mammoth iMax sound system to depict ass-rattling multistage rocket separations, retrorocket racket, and the chest-whacking thump of the Platonic Solid Beachball thingie that surrounded the rover payload (however satisfying a physical experience it might have been). Noise doesn't work like that in a vacuum, and it would certainly work differently in a Martian atmosphere.

But this morning brought a new and interesting question: What does the Moon smell like? Hmmm.... Frying bacon?