"They of the Great Rocks" - "Adirondack" Mars' first target for Spirit - 3-D pics

NASA - JPL ^ | 1-19-2004 | NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

This 3-D stereo anaglyph image was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit front hazard-identification camera after the rover's first post-egress drive on Mars Sunday. Engineers drove the rover approximately 3 meters (10 feet) from the Columbia Memorial Station toward the first rock target, seen in the foreground. The football-sized rock was dubbed Adirondack because of its mountain-shaped appearance. Scientists plan to use instruments at the end of the rover's robotic arm to examine the rock and understand how it formed.

This true color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just three days after it successfully rolled off the lander. The rock was selected as Spirit's first target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for grinding. Clean surfaces also are better for examining a rock's top coating. Scientists named the angular rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. The word Adirondack is Native American and is interpreted by some to mean "They of the great rocks."

[Phil V.]

Notice that this is not a rocK at all but, rather, a canabalistic "THING" THAT HAS SLITHERED OVER another object . . . just visible at the lower left of "THING"!

;)

[Phil V.]

If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please freep me

[Eaker]

This thing travels at .00677 mph. It makes sense to examine the first rock it sees.

If it could travel 24/7, which it can't, it would take it 7.33 days to go one mile.

This is going to drive the research, not better targets.

[ambrose]

I can't quite fathom why this thing can't move faster. Mountains are off in the distance, where things get more interesting. Too bad the rover won't make it.

[Prime Choice]

I know I'm going to sound like a geek for saying this, but what the heck...

Those 3-D pics from Mars are so freakin' COOL!

(And yeah, I'm typing this with my 3D glasses on...)   : )

[blam]

Mars Rover Makes Its First Moves Forward

[Prime Choice]

I can't quite fathom why this thing can't move faster.

1. Weight limitations for our probes prohibit bigger batteries and more powerful motors.
2. It's solar powered.
3. It must keep energy stores for the on-board systems.
4. The terrain is a massive unknown from Earth. You don't want a multi-million dollar rover scooting off into quicksand because of human impatience.

And uh, oh yeah...there ain't no roads there!

[Stars N Stripes]

HEY! We're all Bozos on this bus...

[Dubh_Ghlase]

Adirondack may have been derived from the Iroquois word "ha-de-ron-dah", meaning "bark-eater". I had heard from the curator of the Six Nations museum that it stood for "Land of the Bark-Eaters". In other words, a pretty desolate place.

Looks about right...

[Eaker]

You are so right. If one lands in the middle of anywhere, 100 yards in any direction is moot. If you land at the border of two different "regions" it could make all the difference.

Kinda like landing in the sand dunes and then going 100 yards to the beach and the ocean.

I did the speed calcs, but I am a bozo, but I am pretty sure that they are accurate base on previous movement. Anyone here that can correct me please do.

[Phil V.]

Here's a LINK to an animated "*.gif" of rover's first drive to the "thing".

[MHGinTN]

So we sent a multi-million dollar SUV?... No wonder the leftist dnc is carping about Mars exploration!

[ambrose]

It's solar powered.

Mistake number one. They should have made it nuclear powered.

[BARLF]

I see a Pop bottle in the lower right side. I just knew, man has been on Mars before!

[Phil V.]

(And yeah, I'm typing this with my 3D glasses on...) : )

. . . your secret shame is safe with me . . .

[squarebarb]

Any suggestions on where a person could get the red-green spectacles? I am dying to see these in 3-D.

Secondly, most claims that names mean something or other in a native american language are usually bogus. If the native people around the Adirondacks were of the Algonquian language family the word would have begun with the prefix 'assin--'. But maybe they were Iriquoian.

Picky picky picky. At any rate these Mars fotos thrill me to death.

[RightWhale]

why this thing can't move faster.

It isn't necessary. Nothing is known about this site, so they can jam the microscope at the ground right where they landed and learn just as much as driving a mile and doing the same thing.

[adam_az]

"And uh, oh yeah...there ain't no roads there!"

...yet!

[BobS]

That rock looks like it was hit by some .22s!

[BushCountry]

Free 3-D glasses.

http://www.rainbowsymphony.com/3d.html