Mars rover Daily Updates -Spirit Making Ground - Opportunity-A Beautiful Grind

NASA - JPL ^ | 2-24-2004 | NASA/JPL

[My back yard]

That is so neat. I bought the movie Spy Kids 3D Tue. night and it came with 4 pair of 3D glasses. i kept meaning to make some but never did.

we all sat around and watched it looking really goofy.

But these shots are neat with them. lol

[RightWhale]

Industry would have major problems, e. g., aluminum smelting, but the agriculture sector is also heavily dependent on fuel. The big industrialized farms would be hurting. If you do a search on peak oil you may find some links of interest. Campbell's lecture is very interesting. Maybe this is all 'the sky is falling' stuff, but there could be a problem coming down the pike.

[Phil V.]

I'm glad you like 'em! Here's one of a rock that Spirit is going to be grinding on in the next few days. (Not officially, but that is what I've deduced from their updates and the name of the rock that they'll be working on. They've named it HUMPHREY. . . . As in HUMPHREY THE WHALE???) Anyway, I think that this is Humphrey. If not, enjoy the picture . . .

[null and void]

Will the price of gasoline ever return to $0.19 where it was when I started driving my own car?

Rather unlikely, given that the taxes are 34¢/gal...

[FireTrack]

I had in mind fuel cell technology for any new vehicle over maybe 20,000 lbs GVW by say 2008? These vehicles have far more room for larger fuel tanks giving them greater range and reducing the size a supporting hydrogen infrastructure. Truckers and truck stops are a natural for implementing these new and more complex refueling stations.

Other possible initiatives are a Manhattan effort to bring fusion on-line, rail electrification, high speed rail conveyance ferries along interstate medians, subways for all cities over a certain size and etc & etc.

Our dependency on cheap crude reminds me of the story about the cost of free corn. Time to put the spurs to America's industrial might to meet the approaching energy problem.

[Aracelis]

Wow! Just got a pair of 3D glasses. These images are great, Phil. Would you do a close up of the "critter"???

[Phil V.]

I'll mess around and see what comes out of Photoshop . . .

[Phil V.]

It's questionable . . .

I'll post just a blow up without 3-d

[Phil V.]

 

[Don Joe]

I was gonna ask "what's that thing that looks like a mass of roots" next to the "joystick", and then I saw that you posted that close up of it.

Any way you can post some L-R shots for those without R/C glasses (like me)?

Oh, FWIW from my "naked eye" look at the R/C photo, it looks sort of like a gutted/skinned chicken, that's had the meat cut off (ribs, and open abdomen).

No, I'm not saying it's a chicken, so nobody get started on me, eh? <g>

PS: I've been rounding my my "conch" links, I will try to post them in the morning. Had a few rough(er than normal) days, had a "thing" cut out of my back, have to go back later to have a much bigger one cut out too. I've felt better.

PPS: looking over the "conch" photos, I see what look like possible addition al "conch-like" things, maybe broken pieces of "conch-like" things (i.e., the "hub" and so forth). I'm increasingly beginning to entertain the idea that these may very well be "conch-like" rather than "conch-appearing-like" things.

[Aracelis]

This is wonderful, Phil...and thought-provoking. Thank you.

[Don Joe]

PPS: re the "mass of roots"/"chickenbones", it also (now) looks very reminscent of the "clam" found under that last grinding spot (albeit much larger).

[Don Joe]

I decided to post the pics tonight, incase I'm not functional tomorrow. Presuming I am, I'll post some more commentary on them then. Meanwhile please feel free to ping anyone who asked about this stuff, that I forgot to ping, thanks.

From the Mud on the 'magic carpet' could prove that there's life on Mars thread (my comment is in post 15 in that thread):

Note the "conch-like" thing lower-center. Since that was posted, I've found a better reproduction, it's been balanced to get rid of the red cast, and it's larger. The caveat is that I found it on a "tinfoilesque" site, but since it's just a plain ol' "corrected" photo (as I'd do myself if I had my image editor re-installed since The Crash), and I'm not going with any of the guy's "machinery in the rocks" nonsense, I don't feel any qualms about pointing to this photo:

Several other interesting things in that photo, IMO.

The same guy also found another "conch-like" thing, and put a comment of his own in the photo. (Maybe someone can find the Nasa original if they'd like.):

What he didn't spot is what looks like another eroded spiral shell, to the far left of the one in the photo. It's more eroded, but you can stll see the "hub", at about the 5:00 position, and the remains of the "core" of the spiral.

Here's a closeup he's got of the one he did see. The "hub" looks pretty obvious to me:

Here's one more, from The Mars "Thread" Thread.

(Click to enlarge)

In that picture, the item to the "southeast" of the big sphere in the lower-left of the picture looks like a tiny spiral-shell, looking down from the top (or up from the bottom), i.e., "hub" on top, and "chambers" surrounding it.

Maybe these spiral "things" with the obvious "hub" and "chamber" sections are "just rocks", but so many of them found in such a short period of time would seem like quite a coincidence to me.

And for the record, I am someone who has taken a very cynical view of the "rorschach kids" who see everything from rusty tanks (rocks) to "buildings on 'Twin Peaks" (jpeg artifacts) in the photos from Mars. I wince as I post this, fingers crossed that I won't be categorized as "one of them" (because I'm not!)

[Don Joe]

Half buried black clam
(From Aquascope|Facts|Black clam|More facts 1)

I've seen better pics of half-buried clams (heck, I've seen better examples with my own eyes) that showed the "soft tissue" better (the stuff that lines the insides of both shell halves), but this should give you an idea of what that picture reminds me of (as does the tiny one in the "grind" example from yesterday).

[Aracelis]

[Don Joe]

Yeah, I can see the resemblance (the "rotini look":) but still, both examples (the big one today, and the tiny one yesterday) were both in a classic clam-in-the-sand-with-'lips'-open configuration, so there's at least that one coincidence to make me consider the "clam factor" (hopefully without invoking any "body thetans", nyuk nyuk).

[Aracelis]

An Archimedes clamwich? :^)

[Don Joe]

What's your take on this stuff? Animal/vegetable/mineral? And what's your take on the NASA guys' take on it? Can you put yourself into fly-on-the-wall-emulation-mode and take a WAG as to what they're debating? Their silence (other than the occasional lame reference to "blueberries") seems increasingly strange.

[Aracelis]

Gasp! You're asking me to reveal that I am indeed a member of the lunatic fringe of geologists? Well, ok...here's what I think...

Aqueous environment? Yes, too much evidence of historical volcanism. Most of our terrestrial water was created during volcanic events.

Water or carbon dioxide? Again, probably a lot of juvenile water created by ancient volcanism, and this water was likely loaded with all sorts of goodies (like sulfur) that would be essential for life.

Clams? Sadly, Don Joe, I doubt it. I don't think there was time enough for higher animals to have evolved before Mars lost it's water.

Critters? I'm inclined to think we are looking at forams and bryozoa-like creatures (there, now I'm committed), which would make sense if Mars had shallow saline bodies of water.

As to what the NASA folks are thinking....yeesh......I imagine the staff paleontologists and geologists are engaged in rather "spirited" discussion, with geophysicists stacked against the pro-Martian life folks. We probably won't hear anything definitive for a while, and without seeing the data they have, all we can do is speculate.

[from occupied ga]

We're not going to run out, but cost will increase.

Absolutely! I agree, and it will continue to increase until the cost affects the consumption. Free market in action.

$0.19 where it was when I started driving my own car?

$.19? I remember $.20. You must be older :-), But also taking account inflation, in constant dollar terms, gas was cheaper last year than it was in the last 30 or so.