Opportunity Examines Trench as Spirit Prepares to Dig One February 19, 2004

NASA - JPL ^ | 02-19-2004 | NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

Hey, JPL guys & gals!!! Please tell us what this sparkle thing is. Crystals? Diamonds? Rubies? Martian lazer defenses?

[Phil V.]

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

[Revel]

"The accuracy of the tool placements -- within 5 millimeters, or less than a quarter inch -- is remarkable for mobile robotics on Earth, much less on Mars."

Keep dreaming on that one... Imagine your a machine tool company and you tell your customer that your VMC can put its tool within a quarter of an inch of the intended target...LOL
These machines are acurate to more like a ten thousandth of an inch.

[Revel]

What would be really funny...And I have not seen it yet. Would be a photo of a rover being grabbed by one of those creatures from the movie Tremors.

[Phil V.]

links to two pictures from Spirit's sol 45 showing "sparkle" . . .

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/045/2N130364919EFF0900P1817L0M1.JPG


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/n/045/2N130364919EFF0900P1817R0M1.JPG

[Frank_Discussion]

MOBILE robotics. MOBILE, not leveled and vibration dampened on a flat, rigid floor.

Put that VMC on some wheels and run it over to the workpiece and try it. You'll never find that ten-thousandth inch target.

[GeronL]

dig, dig, sig... why didn't we send a dog?

[Revel]

Well I guess you might be right on that.

[Phil V.]

. . . ... why didn't we send a dog?

That reminds me of the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  . . . he stayed awake all night wondering if there really was a doG . . .

large gif animation - 1.8MB

[Revel]

I wonder if the rovers having anything like a "Probe TLI".

[Frank_Discussion]

Hey, would I lie to you? :-)

[non-anonymous]

Haha - it'd be great if suddenly an image came back with hundreds of footprints all over the place.

In any case, I can't wait to see the view from the edge of the upcoming crater. From the looks of it the lip is raised quite a bit, so it should be a nice panorama.

[Revel]

I am kind of hoping that in the end the first rover has the juice to make it to those distant mountains. I know it was not really designed to do that and it would take for ever to get there...But just imagine the view from the top of there.

[quantim]

 

OK. I'll bite.  I super-imposed this zoomed "thing" on top.  Look closely and you will see a darker ravine roughly east-west orientation that did transpose in an enlargement.  I postulate that this darker area is cut away by thin wind erosions, recently, hence the color differentiation.  Unless we are being served a fake, only a dimwit would argue against a cast shadow.  The foreground brightness of the subject is enormous.  It must be a "pure"  reflective metal.  I suggest that these 'items' are debris from recent Mars failures.  The question is, whose debris?

[GeronL]

LOL!!

[mrsmith]

Logically, NASA should have sent at least three other rovers to stand around leaning on their trench arms looking into the trench too.

If this novel idea works there are going to be some angry Public Works employees in my state!

[quantim]

I forgot to mention the explanation for the different orientation of this bright object. It is debris less than paper thin and could 'flutter' in a thin Mars atmosphere, but is thick enough to stop Sun emitted photons and cast a shadow.

[non-anonymous]

Let's just hope the solar panels keep clean, although a while back I think they said Spirit was accumulating dust as expected. It's too bad they didn't pack on any dust sweepers, but who knows - maybe some fortuitous gusts of wind...

[RightWhale]

What is that white thing in the middle of each frame that looks like a scratch on the film? Even though they don't use film, of course.

[Phil V.]

What is that white thing . . .

Ah! the $64,000 question.

Diamonds
Emeralds
Rubies
broken freemason jar
quartz crystal
a smooth, highly reflective rock "lazing" the rover
broken end of a fiber optic cable