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Your Situation
This is it! You are Captain aboard the good ship Low Bid,
the first manned spacecraft to orbit Mars. The trip has been a long one--18 months in a
minimum energy orbit (naturally). It has also been tedious, with only the pilot, and your
know-it-all computer, the SAL 9,000,000,000 (Sarcastic, Arrogant,
and Loquacious: "I'm 32 billion times smarter than you humans") to talk to. Now that you are
actually in orbit around Mars, it is time to choose a landing site and get off this flying
tin can. This has been a really cost-effective flight, so you have no big windows or
high-powered telescopes aboard, only an internal guidance system controlled by SAL and
some old Viking Orbiter images taken way back in the 70s to help you to find a good spot
to settle down. You and the pilot are a bit concerned about using the old images, but SAL
is very nonchalant: "Don't worry about it. You pick a spot, and I'll land you there
within an accuracy of a few millimeters."
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