Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

NASA can't find the Mars rock sample that the Perseverance rover drilled - it mysteriously disappeared
The Business Insider via msn ^ | 09 Aug 2021 | Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Posted on 08/10/2021 12:04:53 AM PDT by blueplum

NASA has spent nine years and about $2 billion in its quest to drill and store samples of Martian rocks. The Perseverance rover was poised to finally make that happen for the first time on Friday.

The rover picked a rock in an ancient Mars lake bed that could have once held alien life, and attempted to drill. But then something strange happened: The sample seems to have vanished without a trace....

...To figure out what happened, NASA is instructing Perseverance to take close-up pictures of the bore hole it made. Mission controllers will then try to make plans for another sampling attempt....

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: geology; ghostrocks; mars; nasa; perseverance
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last
ok, geology sleuths and rock hunters - what happened?
1 posted on 08/10/2021 12:04:53 AM PDT by blueplum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: blueplum

Hunter sold it for crack and a good time.


2 posted on 08/10/2021 12:17:25 AM PDT by john drake (Lucius Accius-Roman,170 BC - "oderint dum metuant" translated "Let them hate so long as they fear")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

Some thief somehow got past security undetected, and onto the Set.


3 posted on 08/10/2021 12:18:57 AM PDT by C210N (You can trust government or you can understand history. But you CANNOT do both)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

It was one of those rock-people in the movie “Galaxy Quest”. It’s alive and didn’t want “to feel the pain”.


4 posted on 08/10/2021 12:41:13 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

or Apollo 18 maybe? rock spiders


5 posted on 08/10/2021 12:48:09 AM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

It may have just been a clod of soil, held together loosely, until the drilling and collection procedures broke it apart.


6 posted on 08/10/2021 12:48:50 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

It’s been buried under the millions of fake ballots used to elect Bid*n.


7 posted on 08/10/2021 12:50:09 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Chinese communism will look different once the masks come off.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jmcenanly

ah, but the hole is clean, no puddle of material at the bottom...


8 posted on 08/10/2021 12:50:18 AM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

Seems like I recall something like this happening before with an earlier rover. The rock under examination disappeared or got moved several feet, something like that.

These rovers are bandwidth-constrained and don’t generally take video, just still images. Don’t know what the integration time is for their large image sensors. It doesn’t need to be fast for taking pictures of stationary rocks, so it probably isn’t.

What all this means is that some fast-moving event or object would probably escape detection, except for whatever changes it left behind.


9 posted on 08/10/2021 12:55:41 AM PDT by JustaTech (A mind is a terrible thing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

Not a geologist but I suspect the “rock” being drilled into consisted of very fine, lightly compressed powder that disintegrated when being moved. They thought they were drilling into sediment rock created at the bottom of a lake but it turned out it was soft sediment of wind deposited material. There’s a lot they need to learn.


10 posted on 08/10/2021 1:09:37 AM PDT by House Atreides
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

I taught hand drilling (augering) of water wells in Africa & elsewhere. One of the first things I told my students was:

“This hole is magnetized! It will suck in any tool left lying around!”

I guess the same applies to very valuable rock samples on Mars.

:-)


11 posted on 08/10/2021 3:32:04 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jmcenanly
Yea. I don't know where the mystery is.
It's that little volcano shaped pile of dust around the hole.
Looks just like the mound of soil that ants leave while they are borrowing.
You'll also see a dust pile like that when you are drilling in concrete with a cement bit.
12 posted on 08/10/2021 3:37:14 AM PDT by Falcon4.0
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

The Martians came and picked it up before it could be destroyed by Earthlings.


13 posted on 08/10/2021 5:12:28 AM PDT by I want the USA back (We have more to fear from our government than from the bug that the chicoms made for us. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

It was made of antimatter so when the drill touched it…. Poof!


14 posted on 08/10/2021 5:28:47 AM PDT by Brilliant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

Check the Chinese robot, another case of intellectual property theft.


15 posted on 08/10/2021 10:42:09 AM PDT by PTBAA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

I think Howard was the one that lost it while showing off the rover to his wife.
He earlier got the rover stuck in a ditch when showing off for a girlfriend.

Big Bang ref...


16 posted on 08/10/2021 1:40:23 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
Gorrignak is pissed off right now.


17 posted on 08/10/2021 1:46:25 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

It’s stuck on the drill bit.


18 posted on 08/10/2021 1:54:00 PM PDT by Blogatron (I don’t know how to be less white, but I do know how to buy less Coke.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum; Daffynition; Phinneous
ok, geology sleuths and rock hunters - what happened?

An empty tube.

A new tube in the rock, no less.

there's nothing in the rover's sample-collection tube. And the rock core isn't laying around anywhere near the hole. It's just not there.

She is risen:

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Spots Perseverance From Above

Isn't that the point of Percy's mission, to seek out life on Mars? In an ancient seabed? Why's he looking in an empty tube? He gave birth to Ginny on Sat. April 3rd. Not like NASA had to worry about anyone stealing the body.

Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day

All the little birds on Jaybird Street
Love to hear the robin go Tweet Tweet Tweet.

This 3D view of geologic feature the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Raised Ridges” was generated from data collected by Ingenuity during its 10th flight at Mars, on July 24, 2021. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What next for "Percy & Small?" Locating a missing hull? :)

"The table below lists 44 of the 45 vessels that Percy & Small built: can anyone identify the missing hull?"

Odd little chart of 44 hulls but numbered as if they total 45.

It's like a certain Torah story about the souls in Egypt.

We do know that the "longest wooden ship ever built" was located off of Chatham MA in 2003, which is the same as the transliterated...

חתם to seal, set a seal upon.

— Qal - חָתַם 1 he sealed, set a seal upon; PBH 2 he signed, affixed his signature; PBH 3 he concluded, finished; NH 4 he subscribed (to a newspaper or periodical).

Ha, there's even a seal of the seal, with the date of the Torah, which adds up to "611".

ok, geology sleuths and rock hunters - what happened?

Ingenuity: a story of being lost... and found.

It explains why lil' GINNY (a nickname for VIRGINia) is the total substitution for the scarlet letter A in NASAs red WORM font:

"NASALIZATION" - because the Messiah judges by scent.

Smell the salt spray!

Aye Calypso!

John Denver - Calypso

Rebels are on notice that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt.

It's a weird little whirled out there..

19 posted on 08/11/2021 2:57:14 PM PDT by Ezekiel ("Come fly with US". Ingenuity-- because the Son of David begins with Mars.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

NASA has come up with an answer: it’s the rock’s fault

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-thinks-it-knows-why-that-mars-rover-rock-sample-went-missing/ar-AANd2HN?ocid=msedgntp


20 posted on 08/11/2021 4:54:02 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson