Mars Rover Spirit Mission Update Thread

[thechemist]

There are images where 4-5 dustdevils are seen at the same time, so you are seeing it as it is. <br />JPL has shown us just the nicer ones.<br />If you look at the raw images (or google for the animations made by amateurs) you 'll find a lot of DDs <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[yurkin]

This is so cool!<br /><br />How wide do you think that larger dust devil is?

 

[bobw]

Wow! Thanks for posting that; and Leo thanks for the link. That is amazing. I'm taking it to work on my pen drive. <br /><br />There does seem to be a small one between the two big ones after (or before, I haven't stopped the loop yet <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> ) they are gone. I looked some and couldn't see it anywhere else but I'll look some more. It is a very cool picture! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

Another Spirit update from Steve Squyres.<br />http://athena1.cornell.edu/news/mubss/<br /><br />Spirit will be working hard this weekend.<br /><br /><i>"...we're now parked right in front of Methuselah, and this coming weekend we're hoping to take... some spectacular high-resolution Pancam images. It's too early to tell exactly what we're dealing with here.... We're going to look the Pancam stuff over on Monday, pick our spot, and then move in close for some work with the instrument arm."</i><br /><br />Looks like the same proceedure that Opportunity went through in ivestigating the outcrop in Eagle crater. This is Spirit's first encounter with an outcrop which rivals in complexity those seen by Opportunity. What excitement!<br /><br />Also...<br /><br /><i>"The really fun thing this week has been the dust devil movies we caught with Spirit... they're truly amazing. These things are big -- quite a few tens of meters in diameter..."</i><br /><br />Wow, a hundred or more feet in diameter!<br /><br /> <br />And I didn't know that...<br /><br /><i>"There were several cleaning events spread out over several sols, and it's hard to believe that we got hit by several dust devils..."</i><br /><br />I thought it was just once. Dr. Squyres goes on to speculate that the cleaning events were the result of being on a windy "mountain" ridge as opposed to being hit by dust devels.<br /><br />I LOVE these updates! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Fang: I am in Vienna for the the EGU so have only just got round to seeing this. I agree that this looks remarkably like cross bedding. I can't tell what sort though - it could be related to wind, water, or volcanic action. The steep dip is also very interesting. I have suspected this since Spirit first approached the hills, but this is now a cert. To me it strongly suggests tectonics, and that the Columbia hills are eithere the rim of an old crater or an inner rim of Gusev. Either way, these are the oldest rocks we have seen so far. Very interesting. Still so sign of a lake or water activitzy, unless this is a impact disturbed Gusev filling sediment.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[bobvanx]

Here's an anaglyph of part of Methuselah. Are these cup-shaped things similar to gypsum roses?

 

[JonClarke]

Wooo!<br /><br />My red-blue thingemy bobs are half a world away, but you might be right.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[kaanapali2]

Whatever that stuff is....don't bring any of it back here! I'd think differently if life was abundant on Mars rather than "this is proof that life once existed on Mars......" I have a feeling that Mars should be quarantined and set off limits to any other exploration other than un-manned one-way probes. Whatever caused Mars to "oxidize" as it has, is probably still present on the surface and I keep thinking,<br /> "curiosity killed the cat"...... Kaanapali2

 

[JonClarke]

"Whatever that stuff is...don´tbring anz of it back here!" What, even if it is just crystals?<br /><br />I am all for caution in maintaining high standards of biological safeguards as a precaition, but the bio harzard posed by Martian samples returned to earth is very remote. Hundreds of labs round the world each day work on materials of known extreme danger - anthrax, smallox, lassa fever. There are studies that can only be done on earth and, after recconiassance by future astrobiology rovers and construction of the neccessary facilities for handling, should b be done. We can´t let sensantional web sites and SF movies care us into not doing things.<br /><br />But this is off topic, if you want to discuss MSR, start another thread.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[thechemist]

Martian meteorites are frequent visitors to Earth, so if that oxidizing thing you assume exists on Mars was dangerous, we would have been destroyed already !<br />I would not worry ... <br /><br />P.S. Hope you having a good time in old Europe Jon <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

I am having a wonderful time in old (and new) Europe, thank you. Todaý was SMART-1 stuff. I will try and post summaries, all to brief, on some of the highlights in the next week or so. At the moment mybrain is very full.....<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[Leovinus]

Use this thread for Spirit mission updates. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>