I dunno, but it kinda reminds me of this:
Posted on 02/05/2004 6:43:50 PM PST by Phil V.
February 05, 2004
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status
NASA's Opportunity rover drove about 3.5 meters (11 feet) early Thursday toward a rock outcrop in the wall of a small crater on Mars, and mission controllers plan to send it the rest of the way to the outcrop late Thursday.
Opportunity's twin, Spirit, successfully reformatted its flash memory on Wednesday. Flash is a type of rewritable memory used in many electronic devices, such as digital cameras, to retain information even while power is off. Problems with the flash memory interfered with Spirit's operations from Jan. 22 until this week. Engineers prescribed the reformatting to prevent recurrence of the problem.
On Thursday, Spirit’s main assignment is to brush off an area on the rock nicknamed "Adirondack" to prepare for a dust-free examination of its surface. On Friday, controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to have Spirit grind off a small patch of Adirondack’s outer surface and inspect the rock's interior. Spirit may start driving over the weekend toward a crater about 250 meters (about 270 yards) to the northeast.
For Opportunity, halfway around Mars from Spirit, controllers changed plans Thursday morning. They postponed a trenching operation until the rover gets to an area of its landing-site crater where the soil has a higher concentration of large-grain hematite. That mineral holds high interest because it usually forms under wet conditions. The main science goal for both rovers is to find geological clues about past environmental conditions at the landing sites, especially about whether conditions were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.
Instead of trenching, Opportunity will be commanded after it next wakes up to drive about 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) farther, possibly to within arm's reach of one of the rocks in the exposed outcrop.
Before it began driving on Wednesday, Opportunity finished using its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for the first time. This spectrometer, which assesses what chemical elements are present, took readings on an area of soil that the rover had previously examined with its microscope.
Each martian day, or "sol," lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 34rd sol on Mars at 3:22 a.m. Thursday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 14th sol on Mars at 3:43 p.m. Friday, PST. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu .
### Guy Webster (818) 354-5011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Donald Savage (202) 358-1547 NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. NEWS RELEASE: 2004-052
And I asked the same thing two days ago when I first saw this. I didn't believe it until I went to NASA/JPL site and found it. If this doesn't turn out to be part of the space craft/airbags, I'll be happy. It's my opinion that it's no rock.
???How?? The last thread is 44, woopps 45.
Here is the JPL site that shows the "Mars rabbit". It's the top image on the right, you'll need to hit the largest image to see the rabbit. WARNING, it a large image/file. Slow download of a panoramic image. But well worth it. It shows everything including the rocks this thread is referring to.
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040202a.html
Gurlz are driving?
Easy there, big fella... :^)
I've seen quite a few male drivers pull boneheaded stunts while driving. Not too long ago, a couple of young males were driving/racing a brand-new truck (still had the stickers on it) on a highway near my home. When they reached a sharp bend in the road, they flipped it several times, but landed back on all 4 wheels. They proceeded on, but at a much slower pace...and in a significantly depreciated vehicle.
Stupidity knows no gender.
I dunno, but it kinda reminds me of this:
ANY "Artifact" on Mars "suggesting That" the Planet was EVER "Other than a 'Dead Planet,'" is Probably a "Fluke!!"
After ALL; we ALL KNOW that "Mars" is a "Dead Planet!!"
WHAT FUN!!
Suppose our "Experts" are WRONG!!??
BUT THEN--WE have ALL been taught that Mars is a "Dead Planet!!"
Doc
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