Talk:Mars Desert Research Station

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The Location section for this entry is almost entirely incorrect. It is not in the Canyonlands Desert (in fact, I'm not even sure there is a such thing as the Canyonlands Desert). Although it is 45 or 50 air miles from Canyonlands National Park, the San Rafael Desert and the Burr Desert lie between MDRS and Canyonlands.

MDRS is 4.8 air miles from Hanksville. Over the road, it is 3.4 miles WEST of Hanksville on a paved road (UT-24), then 4 miles north along a dirt road to MDRS, for a total of 7.4 miles.

The exact coordinates of the station are as follows (in different coordinate formats):

DD MM.MMM: N 38° 24.385' W 110° 47.518' DD MM SS.SS: 38°24'23.39"N 110°47'30.68"W

I've never edited a Wikipedia entry and don't really care to, but I hate seeing incorrect info here. Maybe somebody else could first verify my info (though I'm sure it's correct) and then edit the page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.111.123.135 (talk • contribs)

Hmm, I'm not saying your information is incorrect in the slightest. I'd be willing to add the information, but can we get some sources? McKay 21:56, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I wish I could give you some hard sources to reference, but my sources are ExpertGPS (mapping software), the United States Geological Survey topographic maps of the area (1:24,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000), and my personal knowledge of the San Rafael Desert and surrounding area. The distance measurements were done by drawing a track over the roads in the aerial photo map in ExpertGPS. I actually got the coordinates from Google Earth, where the station is clearly visible in the satellite photos. As for the "Canyonlands Desert," well, I challenge anybody to find such a desert listed on any map.  :) The only references I can find on the Internet to the "Canyonlands Desert" are on Wikipedia and other similar encyclopedia-type sites that are probably derivatives of Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.111.123.135 (talk • contribs)

Hmm, all that sounds like WP:OR that doesn't quite belong in the article. Do you think that someone else might have written things like this about these things?

I created the Canyonlands Desert location a long time ago, I don't remember my reasoning, but it *might* have been something more than just OR, I don't know. In any case, which region of utah do you think it belongs in ? McKay 19:16, 2 April 2007 (UTC)