MARS rover - Daily Updates - February 12, 2004

NASA - JPL ^ | 2-12-04 | NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 39 of Spirit's mission to Gusev Crater at approximately at approximately 10:04:57 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS
View Full Image

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I'm surprised that NASA/JPL has not commented about "spheres" at Spirit's site. Apparently these items are a planet wide phenomenon.

[Phil V.]

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

[GeronL]

frog prints!!

[Viking2002]

Gravel. It looks like friggin' gravel. If these rovers are so sophisticated, why haven't they ground one up and analyzed it yet?

[Central Scrutiniser]

Dude, that is the kooldecking beside my pool!

[John H K]

I'm surprised that NASA/JPL has not commented about "spheres" at Spirit's site.

They were discussed at great length during the Feb. 9 news conference (archived at cspan.org).

You have to remember that geologists, with the exception of vulcanologists at dangerous volcanoes (a TINY fraction of geologists) work and think VERY slowly.

When a field geologist gets a PhD he'll spend YEARS walking all over a surprisingly small area of the earth (bigger than the area either Opportunity or Spirit have roved so far, but still pretty small) examining EVERY outcrop in detail, turning over and over in his head how everything got there and the sequence of geological events in that location, possibily going back BILLIONS of years.

And the rovers gather info and cover ground at a FRACTION of the rate a human would walking around on earth.

Give them a break. You're not going to see new conclusions and analyses from geologists every day. People could be debating what Opportunity has found for YEARS before final conclusions are reached. Geologists are careful, and they like to be sure what they are saying, because in geology you work with such incomplete info.

[SShultz460]

could you put me on the mars ping list please?

Thanks!

[LibWhacker]

This makes it look like Opportunity is finished at the rock outcrop. Is that right?

[Phil V.]

stereo set . . . Spirit . . . somewhere in Nevada? . . .

 

[Phil V.]

No. Opportunity is just casing the joint. It'll spend many days there.

[js1138]

Anybody else see this as depressions in the ground rather than gravel? This is a classic optical illusion.

[Phil V.]

yes. My first view saw concave rather than convex.

[steve86]

Anybody else see this as depressions in the ground rather than gravel?

Looks to me like someone pressed pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters and half dollars into the soil.

Martian foreign exchange?

[js1138]

Try turning your monitor upside down.

[steve86]

Try turning your monitor upside down.

I was going to turn it inside out.

[MainFrame65]

Anybody else see this as depressions in the ground rather than gravel? This is a classic optical illusion.

Yes, at first. But I turned my laptop upside- down to correct it, and after that I could always see it correctly, even right side up.

[NYTexan]

BUMP!

Thanks for all the pings!
Keep em coming

Any fossils been found yet?

[Phil V.]

another stereo set . . .

 

[RadioAstronomer]

Sorry for being gone so long all. I have been up to my eyebrows in quaternions, Kalman filtering, rotational acceleration, angular rates, etc.

[Bernard Marx]

Geologists are careful, and they like to be sure what they are saying, because in geology you work with such incomplete info.

In addition JPL's Marsologists ("geo" is the Latin root for "Earth") have to infer planet-building-and-altering processes on a body with about 1/3 Earth gravity which could alter them a lot from Earth norm. They have no absolute proof that water ever existed there (again, only an inference from topology, etc.) and the atmosphere is entirely different. The average temperature around the planet is far colder than Earth's. All these matters and many others have to be taken into account before any theories are put forward. Here on FR we have a lot of fun playing at "science" but most of us don't really know what the hell we're doing.