Mars Rover Spirit Mission Update Thread

[peteb]

fangsheath -<br /><br />Does the image you posted appear to have small pits and depressions in the rock? It looks better to me inverted. Raw MI images are sometimes posted "upside down". <br /><br />The way I'm seeing it, the apparent pits and small depressions in the rock turn into sand sized particles lying on the surface or maybe small protrusions/grains in it. There are still some linear patterns, maybe due in part to aeolian action, or perhaps some is the rock itself.

 

[thechemist]

New micro-images have been posted at the Exploratorium site, with greater detail resolution. Have a look they are very interesting:<br /><br />http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/micro_imager/2004-07-20/2M143589885EFF7600P2937M2M1.JPG <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[fangsheath]

The MI images often make bumps look like depressions and ridges look like grooves. The human eye (brain actually) is accustomed to the light coming from above. If the shadows happen to fall upward in an image the topography often looks inverted. In this case I believe we are seeing mostly bumps, not depressions.<br /><br />To my eye there is definitely lamination there. Such fine-scale lamination is seldom the result of wind, but of course it is too early to be definitive.

 

[exoscientist]

That micro-image definitely looks like a sedimentary process, TheChemist.<br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[fangsheath]

Check out the first image of the RATed surface. I am unable to properly post it from this machine. Hopefully some more will go up soon. Doesn't look like any basalt to me.<br /><br />http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/micro_imager/2004-07-22/2M143770801EFF7600P2909M2M1.JPG

 

[thechemist]

Well, exoscientist, then I hope Spirit has a bathing suit with her, it seems soon it might get pretty humid in Gusev also <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[zavvy]

<b>Rovers to get extra time on Mars</b><br /><br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3917343.stm<br /><br />The US space agency's Mars Rovers will be given another seven months to explore the Red Planet, says Nasa. <br /><br />Dr Firouz Naderi, director of Solar System exploration at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told BBC News Online that he had recommended the missions be extended. <br /><br />Spirit and Opportunity were supposed to be on the planet for 90 Martian days. <br /><br />But back in April, Nasa announced that it would be extending the rovers' mission until September. <br /><br />Although Nasa headquarters has said the project will not get any new money, Dr Naderi - who manages the rover finances - says the money will be found from elsewhere within the organisation. <br /><br />Mixed news <br /><br />"We were doing about $5m a month during the primary mission, and during the first extended mission we were doing about $3m a month," he said at a space exploration conference in Paris. <br /><br />"Maybe there is another couple of hundred thousand dollars we can [shave-off]. <br /><br />He added that the extension was both good and bad news for the mission. <br /><br />"The good news is that they're lasting far longer than we had anticipated. <br /><br />"The bad news is that we had not planned for it to go on this long so we have to squeeze other things to come up with the money." <br /><br />The rover team would be carrying out an operational experiment, with rover scientists back at their home institutions working five days a week through distributed processing, Dr Naderi said. <br /><br />Winter hibernation <br /><br />Opportunity is now about 10 to 12m inside Endurance Crater, a 130m-wide depression at Meridiani Planum on Mars. <br /><br />The rover will continue to proceed deeper into the crater until the gradient approaches 30 degrees, the limit at which scientists think it will become diffi

 

[marslauncher]

Again I think BBC has got some facts wrong, Oppy just went down comfortably 30 degree slopes, I think they even tested higher than that as well so I am sure they will continue to go down and down and down.<br /><br />Sometimes I am ashamed to say I am English ( But then I think about it, I shrug my shoulders and say to myself "No im not" )<br />

 

[aaron38]

I don't understand this crap! They didn't plan for this? How could they not plan for this? How can you spend $800 million for 3 months of science, and then not be prepared to spend $20 million for 7 months of additional science????<br /><br />It just doesn't make any sense. They should have been budgeted for at least a year from the start. If the rovers die young then you put the funds back in the budget. You don't scrimp and scrounge for loose change though once you've got working rovers on the surface!<br /><br />Either you do it right, or you don't do it at all.

 

[fangsheath]

Opportunity has already passed the steepest part of the wall in this area, as stated on the JPL site. The difficulty on the wall below is not steepness per se, but increasing amounts of soil as opposed to surface rock. As long as we avoid deep soil, there should be no problems with getting stuck.<br /><br />Meanwhile, here at Gusev, here is another MI of the RATed rock. Unfortunately, the bottom of the RAT hole is a bit out of focus. I have tried to sharpen up the image a bit.

 

[yurkin]

Judging from that BBC article I’d say you guys are still a little sore about losing Beagle.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">Mixed news</font><br />How could the rovers lasting over double their expected lifetime possibly be considered “mixed news.”

 

[alexblackwell]

<i>It just doesn't make any sense. They should have been budgeted for at least a year from the start. If the rovers die young then you put the funds back in the budget.</i><br /><br />I can see why it "doesn't make any sense" to you. Apparently, you have no idea how the budget process works. Unspent monies cannot be reprogrammed by NASA without the Administration going back to the U.S. Congress for authorization.

 

[JonClarke]

Yes, this is true of government organisations elsewhere and arge companies. Underspending is considered just as reprehensible as overspending in budget management<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>

 

[exoscientist]

It looks soft and crusty, fangsheath.<br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[decepticon]

I noticed that after the rover RATS a Rock the debri seams to be all around the hole and embedded. Can't the arm brush away the small particles?<br /><br />

 

[fangsheath]

This MI covers some of the same area as the one I previously posted but the bottom of the RAT hole is more in focus. I have contrasted it up and sharpened it.<br /><br />This definitely looks quite different to me from the basalts we have seen out on the plain. Perhaps it is my imagination but I seem to detect fine-scale lamination running about 30 degrees off the horizontal in the clockwise direction.

 

[JonClarke]

What is interesting is the slighly darker angular and elongate features in the smooth surface image. These could be altered grains of some kind, 0.5-1.5 mm across. My first reaction is to wonder if they could be altered glass shards, possibly from volcanic ash, or altered crystals in a tuff.<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>

 

[fangsheath]

And here is a portion of the area shown in the other MI, but in better focus this time and processed a bit to bring out detail. Sure makes me wish for better resolution on the MI. Not that I'm complaining, it has done a superb job.

 

[dtb99]

<br /> />altered glass shards in volcanic tuff?<br /><br />Or impact breccia, perhaps? It has always seemed to me like these hills are the remnant of an old crater rim, or perhaps where two rims intersected.<br /><br />On the other hand, I could imagine some pyroclastics leading to layered, friable rocks like the ones we saw at the base of the hill. <br /><br />Anyway, interesting stuff. Wish we knew the details on exposure and sun angle for the exposure, so we would know more about the material (i.e., is it lighter than the basalts? the outcrop looked that way, but maybe just dusty).

 

[fangsheath]

Here is a second RAT hole rather close to the above. Again I seem to detect lamination running about 30 degrees clockwise from the horizontal.

 

[JonClarke]

An impact breccia is another possibility. Perhaps the hills are the exposed innter ring of the Gusev impact structure. As for colour, the material does look light in colour, consistent with either/or fine grain size or alteration.<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>

 

[fangsheath]

This rock, imaged several sols ago, provides a nice contrast to our current target. It seems to be an almost classic example of a basalt riddled with vesicles. It will be interesting to see of such diiverse geologies are juxtaposed higher up in the hills.

 

[silylene old]

Jon, I agree on the impact breccia. I always thought those hills looked suspiciously like a heavily eroded basalt flooded crater wall remnant. But I think it might have been a different old smaller impact. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

I think we would need geophysical information (gravity, mag, maybe MARSIS) to tell whether this was a multi ring basin or a small separate crater rim <br /><br />However, in the meantime, I am going to disappear for a while http://chapters.marssociety.org/canada/expedition-mars.org/ExpeditionTwo/<br /><br />See you in 5 weeks<br /><br />cheers<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>

 

[imran10]

Spirit reaches another milestone - 200 sols. <br /><br />Go Spirit!