Mars rover Daily Updates-Trench Exam Continues(Spirit)-Busy Microscope at "El Capitan"(Opportunity)

NASA - JPL ^ | 02/22/2004 | NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

Daily Updates - February 22, 2004

Spirit Status for sol 49 Trench Exam Continues posted Feb. 22, 1 pm PST

Spirit continued its inspection of the trench dubbed "Road Cut" during the rover's 49th sol, ending at 1:56 p.m. Sunday, PST. It used three instruments on its robotic arm to examine the subsurface soil exposed by the sol 47 digging of the trench.

Before dawn on sol 49, Spirit switched from its Moessbauer spectrometer to its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for analysis of soil on the trench floor. Later, controllers played "Coisinha do Pai," by Beth Carvalho, as wake-up music. The rover inspected targets on the wall and floor of the trench with its microscope, then placed the Moessbauer spectrometer against a target on the trench wall for identifying the iron-bearing minerals there. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer took remote readings on the rover's wheel tracks in the morning and afternoon.

Plans for sol 50 (ending at 2:35 p.m. Monday, PST) call for finishing inspection of the trench, then resuming the journey toward the rim of a crater dubbed "Bonneville," followed by a longer drive the following sol.

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Opportunity Status for sol 28 Busy Microscope at "El Capitan" posted Feb. 22, 1 pm PST

On sol 28, which ended at 1:38 a.m. Sunday, PST, Opportunity moved its arm repeatedly to make close-up inspections the "El Capitan" part of the street-curb-sized outcrop in the crater where the rover is working. Opportunity took 46 pictures with its microscope, examining several locations on "El Capitan" at a range of focal distances. It also placed its Moessbauer spectrometer and its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on the rock target to assess what minerals and what elements are present.

Controllers chose the song "I am a Rock," performed by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, as Opportunity's sol 28 wake-up music. The sol's activities included observations by the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and the panoramic camera, as well as the use of the tools on the arm.

The arm's complex maneuvers totaled 25 minutes of actual arm movement. Rover planners' success in accomplishing them drew a round of applause in the Mission Support Area at JPL during the afternoon downlink from Mars.

During the martian night, early on sol 29, Opportunity woke up and moved its arm again to switch from the Moessbauer spectrometer to the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Additional close-up inspections are planned for later in sol 29, which ends at 2:17 a.m. Monday. Plans for sol 30 feature the use of the rock abrasion tool to grind through the surface at one target on "El Capitan."

[Phil V.]

Microscopic image "El Capitan" sol-028 . . . (used to be "wet" then dried???)

VIEW FULL IMAGE

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Microscopic image "El Capitan" sol-028 . . .
view full image

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stereo strip . . . notice fractured spherule . . .

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Stereo strip "El Capitan" . . .

[Phil V.]

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

[Phil V.]

Strongest evidence yet of "WET MARS" . . . input please! ^ . . . earlier discussion

[blam]

Looks like those little nodules outgassed. ...or, is that 'breathing holes'?

[Buffalo Head]

Good post. Thanks again.

I finally devised a crude system to view the stereo photos in 3-D. Very interesting.

[Phil V.]

Here's another interesting one with another possible mystery . . .

full image

Is that another "fiber" seen in the full image on the spherule, lower right corner?

[neutrino]

These are great! Thanks for posting them!

[Phil V.]

Thanks . . . here's a couple more stereos of "El Capitan" . . .

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[Aracelis]

It also placed its Moessbauer spectrometer and its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on the rock target to assess what minerals and what elements are present.

Why aren't we getting any data? Anybody seen any results? Maybe I've missed them...

[Phil V.]

because the bas&*$#s are PIGS!!!!!!!!!!1

[Porterville]

Look like Wasabi Peas:

[tet68]

Notice space.com has an article on the threads.

Basicly Spires says "We don't know what they are."

[GeronL]

Sure looks like it was wet once, maybe for many years before drying. They keep calling that a 'trench' as if its several feet deep instead of something measured in centimeters.

Hey my cat crapped in a trench and buried it!! =o)

[GeronL]

Those are eggs!!!

I saw ALIEN!! didn't you???

[John H K]

Why aren't we getting any data? Anybody seen any results? Maybe I've missed them...

Because the scientists that designed the instruments for NASA have exclusive rights to the data for one year as part of the deal.

It's so they can be the first to publish on it. It's common. A scientist isn't going to go to all that work getting data and then other scientists get it for nothing instantly.

And publishing in scientific journals is EVERYTHING to scientists.

And geologists don't work quickly or jump to conclusions.

They can put out whatever they wish on their own (there were a few early spectrographs of the basalt from Spirit) but basically the more interesting one is the less likely you are to see it.

[RightWhale]

Looks like cave drippings. Stalagmites and stalagtites.

[Phil V.]

Exactly my impression. But what was the process? Water or some other more exotic liquid or blend of liquids, brines . . . ???

ANSWERS! WE WANT ANSWERS!!!

[John H K]

May not get any till a scientific journal publishes a paper by the scientists involved in 6 months to a year.

Sorry.

[Phil V.]

Do you have an opinion on the "fractured spherule" in the 2nd and 3rd photos?

[RightWhale]

The researchers will publish first and then hold press conferences. They want to be correct, of course; the report will wait until they are sure of their data and analysis. They have a year of grace before the data is made public, as the poster above mentioned. That should be plenty of time for the scientists, and they sure don't want to declare something that might be disproven right away. No doubt Popular Science, Nature, Scientific American, and all the rest of the popular science magazines are tripping over each other to get the story, if there is a story.