Posted on 02/24/2004 4:52:19 PM PST by Phil V.
Daily Updates - February 24, 2004
Spirit Status for sol 51 Making Ground posted Feb. 24, 2 pm PST
To inspire a morning "run" on sol 51, which ended at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, PST, Spirit woke up to Vangelis "Chariots of Fire." The rover deployed its arm, took microscopic images of the soil in front of it and then proceeded toward its target, "Middle Ground." Spirit drove 30 meters (98.4 feet), breaking its own record for a single-sol traverse. Along the way, Spirit paused to image rocks on both sides of the drive path with its panoramic camera.
The auto-navigational software that drove the last 12 meters (39.4 feet) of the traverse to the "Middle Ground" target warned Spirit that the slope into the hollow that houses it was too steep (according to parameters set by rover engineers). Spirit then paced along the rim, looking for a safe way down. Unable to locate a secure path into the crater before the sol ended, Spirit ended up facing slightly west of north instead of northeast, as called for by the plan. This orientation will reduce the amount of data the rover can return (due to interference between the UHF antenna and items on the rover equipment deck), but it will be corrected in the coming sols.
As of today, Spirit has moved 183.25 meters (601.21 feet) and is now roughly 135 meters (442.91 feet) from its landing site, Columbia Memorial Station.
The intent for the next several sols will be to drive Spirit into "Middle Ground" and take a full panorama of the surrounding area to identify scientifically interesting rocks.
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Opportunity Status for sol 30 A Beautiful Grind posted Feb. 24, 11:15 am PST
On sol 30, which ended at 2:56 a.m. Tuesday, February 24, Opportunity performed its first rock abrasion tool operation on a rock target known as 'McKittrick Middle Rat' at the El Capitan site inside the crater. The tool shaved the rock over a period of two hours, grinding into a total depth of about 4 millimeters (.16 inches).
The auspicious day began with the song 'Rock'n Me' by Steve Miller and some miniature thermal emission spectrometer sky surveys and sky stares to study the atmosphere. After completing these activities, Opportunity took a short siesta to recharge its batteries. The rover has been doing a lot of science work at night, and the season on Mars is changing to winter, so the rover has less energy to work with than it did earlier in the mission. The martian days are getting shorter and the sun angle is not allowing either rover to power up the solar panels as much as in the past.
Opportunity woke up from its nap at 11:30 Local Solar Time on Mars to run through the series of commands required to retract the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and close its doors; take several microscopic images of another nearby rock abrasion tool target called 'Guadalupe;' flip the wrist; take a microscopic image of "McKittrick Middle Rat;" and place the rock abrasion tool on its target to run at 13:00 Local Solar Time.
After the abrasion tool was retracted, a series of microscopic images of the scene were taken, and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer was successfully placed into the abrasion tool's hole late in the day.
Some additional panoramic camera, miniature thermal emission spectrometer readings, and hazard avoidance camera imagery was completed through the day.
The plan for sol 31, which will end at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday, February 25, is to continue getting long Moessbauer readings of the rock abrasion tool hole and to prepare the tool for more work again on sol 33 or 34.
Insufficient data!LOL
Great pics, but nothing jumps out at me and screams fossil.
I don't have the experiences and knowledge to say yes/no/or maybe.
Some of the earlier pics showed interesting objects, but the grind is hard for me to read.
Almost looks like eroded salt of some sort that has unusual shapes.
Let's go! :^)
:-)
That would explain the skull that null and void saw.
From the yahoo:
Vugs
Appearance
"Vugs" are squat humanoid creatures, standing about three -four feet tall with flat-topped, triangular heads and stocky bodies. Their arms are slightly longer relative to their body than would be the case for a human. Their eyes are small and solid black. They are totally hairless and their skin is smooth. It is either a mottled orange colour or mottled purple. They have no obvious nose, and a small lipless mouth. There are no genders discernable to humans, although some conjecture that the purple and orange varieties represent sexual differences. They are stronger than most humans, and have more resistance to extremes of heat and cold.
Culture Vugs have no culture of their own. They are only quasi-intelligent and seem incapable of existing by themselves. They do not speak and appear to totally lack the ability to think for themselves. They can, however, understand and follow out simple orders given in many languages. In fact, no language has been discovered yet that a Vug has failed to comprehend.
Vugs are common in the Empire as servants and laborours. Since the vugs do not seem to possess free will this use of them is not considered slavery by most citizens. Outsiders consider it another sign of the Empire's moral decay.
If given a task, they will carry it out tirelessly, although those giving the command must take care as to the wording since Vugs can sometimes be overly literal in their interpretation. They can follow simple commands like "Move all of those things over to there" easily. More complex commands like "Make me breakfast every morning at sunrise" must be broken down (in this case first to define "making breakfast" as a series of tasks. eg. toast bread, scramble eggs and then a further breakdown of those tasks. Think subroutines). They are incapable of tasks requiring any imagination or artistic skill (a vug could never become a portrait painter, although they would be able to whitewash a house). They also make poor fighters due to their lack of initiative, although sometimes they are used as cannon fodder. Their most common military uses are as bearers, sappers and any role that involves repetitive manual labour.
If a vug is not commanded, it will stand idle. They are known to eat a little (any organic matter seems to suffice), but do not seek food themselves. Most vugs live for about three-five years, the purple variety seemingly lasting longer.
That explains an ex-employee from many years ago. I got about one horsepower out of him for every three or four I applied.
Ummm...no. I have gone quite far enough out on a very shaky limb (thank you very much) with agreeing that some of the images we have seen lately from Mars do indeed resemble terrestrial fossils. However, I am stunned at your postulate that Mars was at one time populated with small, androgenous, humanoid creatures.
I can understand Don Joe wishing to open a clam bar on Mars, and thereby becoming the first interplanetary chef in our solar system...but you surprise me.
Are you thinking of turning these hapless (and likely docile) creatures into Martian slaves, ready to do your bidding? Will you sell them to NASA as an economical replacement for human astronauts...or even worse...to travel the solar system in little rovers to investigate the asteroids and moons of other planets? Please say it isn't so!
Snip: "Cavities in rocks are formed by a number of methods. For example, during faulting as a result of plate tectonic activity, uneven rock masses slide by each other creating empty spaces. These are called fissure veins. Gas bubbles form voids in volcanic flows. Caverns are examples of solutions dissolving rock and forming open spaces. Contractions related to the cooling of an intruding magma create numerous voids."
Snip: "So how do cavities become filled with crystals? The most typical mechanism is migrating hydrothermal solutions under pressure and saturated with dissolved minerals. In other words it is pressurized hot "hard water" similar to that which builds up mineral deposits in hot water heaters."
P.S. I SEE FOSSILS ALL OVER IN ALL OF THESE PHOTOS...TOO MANY AT A TIME TO BE NATURAL ANOMOLIES
Looks like the same thing to me as well.
These are so much more beautiful than anything that has ever come out of my hot water heater... ;-)
What is the difference between a vug and a geode?
Thanks!
LOL
No more than I when I did a search on Yahoo for "Vugs" and the above description was at the top of the list!
Besides, Martians are gray instead of mottled orange colour or mottled purple and they are also skinny frail instead of stocky. ;-)
"Please say it isn't so!"
It isn't so! LOL
However, somewhere in a galaxy far, far away (or maybe in this galaxy)is a planet with strange and wondrous life forms just waiting to be conquered!
:-)
french?
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