Phosphorus and clays.

[exoscientist]

In this post I discuss the connection between phosphorus and clays on Earth:<br /><br />exoscientist<br />rock<br />01/05/05 10:36 AM<br />Phosphorus and clays. [re: exoscientist] <br />http://uplink.space.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=123012<br /><br /> The suggestion there might be clays in Wishstone rock came from imaging of the brushed area showing smooth, dark inclusions. Close up here:<br /><br />http://sciforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3654<br /><br /> Wishing Well rock is also supposed to be high in phosphorus. There was a great image on the Mark Carey Mars forum of Wishing Well rock:<br /><br />http://www.lipfordm.com/wtsi/p-2M158146955EFFA269P2959M2M1-90.jpg<br /><br />On the right side, inside the rim of the RAT hole there is dark material that has a soft appearance as of clay. <br />NASA needs to find means of determining the chemical makeup of this dark material. <br /><br /><br />Robert Clark <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

To Rlb2, there does not seem to be much interest at NASA in investigating the chemistry of the dark, smooth material in Wishstone and Wishing Well rocks. I was thinking of using the methods of "superresolution" to get better images of these inclusions and possibly getting spectra of them using the mini-TES.<br />Here's one article that describes the technique:<br /><br />THE SUPERRESOLVED SUPER PAN: IMPROVED RESOLUTION OF THE MARS PATHFINDER LANDING SITE USING SUPERRESOLUTION ON THE IMP SUPER PAN DATA SET. <br />http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2000/pdf/1753.pdf<br /><br /><br />There are alot more articles on the net you can find by searching on "superresolution".<br />The method increases the resolution by combining several images. The technique can improve the resolution by a factor n^(1/2) by using n images.<br />It appears to be highly computer intensive and you have to be able to be match up the images closely. Both of these you seem to excel at.<br />Perhaps we could collaborate on this?<br /><br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Bob, I think that attempting "superresolution" is an excellent idea to try. Your idea of a collaboration on this with rlb2 sounds great. <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>

 

[yurkin]

Super-resolution of images isn't going to make the mini-TES anymore accurate. They are two different systems. <br /><br />Super-resolution itself is a good idea but won’t work in this case. Unlike Pathfinder the rovers are moving about. So you will never get the same images taken multiple times as you did you did with Pathfinder. And the rover’s have more important things to do then take twenty pictures of the same rock just to make the image a little prettier. It is still going to be a rock.<br />

 

[rlb2]

We use three raw images to process color images out of the rover raw images we get , red, green, blue,(RGB) channels on top of each other. This doesn’t only increase the resolution of the image compared to a single image by doing it this way but it helps block out artifacts that a single image may have. A while back Swampcat did a great job of combining more than three filters together with different equipment. <br /><br /><font color="orange">In theory, the method produces an<br />improvement in resolution of a factor of n1/2 for n input images.<br />Approach: The Superresolution algorithm was applied to<br />the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) Super Pan[4, 5, 6], a<br />product that was designed to acquire image cubes using all<br />15 IMP filters at each camera position of a full landing site<br />panorama. The filters are distributed between the left and<br />The Superresolved images have been submitted to the PDS<br />for permanent archive. They are also posted on the world<br />wide web at url:<br /><br /> http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayesgroup/group/super-res/2d/mpf/. <br /><br />The data are accessed via a<br />unique interface; by clicking on a color panorama of the<br />landing site at the desired location, the Superresolved image<br />at the corresponding location is displayed, along with the<br />input images which can be individually examined. For the<br />right eye, the Superresolved result can be viewed in color.<br />Color products were produced by registering the 530nm and<br />440nm-filter images against the grayscale Superresolved<br />result and using them as the green and blue channels for the<br />color product, and the grayscale Superresolved result as the<br />red channel, producing an intermediate color image with a<br />resolution somewhat degraded since the green and blue<br />channels are of the original resolution. To preserve the<br />sharpness, the final color</font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Ron Bennett </div>

 

[exoscientist]

Yurkin, superresolution has already been used with Pancam on the MER rovers to improve resolution. <br /> But you are right that mini-TES is a different system. It will require some different tweaking to get it to work, if it can be made to work.<br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

Remenber that whenever they have wanted to use the mini-TES on a rock they have brushed about 6 or 7 spots -- giving a flower shape. That gives an idea of the minimum area the mini-TES can image. Much larger than one RAT hole, never mind one dark inclusion.<br /><br />They could use a method similar to that used to determine that the "blueberries" were largely hematite. Find an area lacking in dark inclusions but (apparently) made of the same material as the matrix around the inclusions. Compare APXS and Mossbauer readings of this with those of an area rich in the inclusions. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

Thanks, centsworth. Do you have a link for that?<br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

You may find the following from Science Magazine, August 6, 2004 interesting:<br /><br /> Initial Results from the Mini-TES Experiment in Gusev Crater from the Spirit Rover<br /><br />A couple of quotes from pages 837 and 839 (don't worry, the link is only 6 pages long): <br /><br />"...the hole produced by the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) is only 4.5 cm in diameter, or about one-third the size of the ~12 cm Mini-TES field of view directly in front of the rover. Several targets have been observed with the use of 5X spatial oversampling and spatial deconvolution techniques to improve spectral isolation, together with multiple RAT brushings to clean larger areas."<br /><br />"The surface of Matzatzal was brushed with the RAT in a pattern of six placements in an effort to remove dust from an area large enough to fill the Mini-TES field of view." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a read.<br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

I found this interesting link that says <b>phosphorus</b> was detected in some rocks at the Pathfinder landing sites in proportions that were more consistent with sedimentary rocks than igneous rocks:<br /><br />1999 Fall Meeting <br />P32A-06 <br />TI: Possible Indication of Sedimentary Products at the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site: Phosphorous in APXS X-Ray Spectra. <br />AB: A refined method of searching for small peaks in the APXS (Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer) x-ray spectra permitted the determination of phosphorous in soils and rocks at the Mars Pathfinder landing site. Surprisingly, only small differences of the P concentration between soils and rocks were found. A mean P content of about 0.3 % was obtained with the exception of 0.06 % P measured in Scooby Doo (A8). The soils at Viking and Pathfinder landing sites have high and very similar sulfur and chlorine concentrations when compared to the rocks analyzed with the APXS [1]. The observed good correlation of S versus Mg, Si, Cl, K, and Ti for the Pathfinder samples reflects the fact that sulfur poor rocks are partly covered with sulfur rich soils. The absence of a correlation of P versus sulfur in all Pathfinder samples indicates no enrichment of P in the rocks compared to soil as it was found for the other analyzed incompatible element potassium. Commonly, during magmatic fractionation processes P behaves as an incompatible element like potassium and chlorine. <b>A lack of a correlation of P and K in the Pathfinder rocks would be more in accordance with a sedimentary origin of these rocks rather than an igneous origin. </b>On Earth, a well mixed average sediment is remarkably similar to upper continental crust composition [2]. On Mars, the similar composition of soils at Chryse, Utopia and Ares Vallis is a strong indication of good mixing of surface material. Hence, the average chemical composition of the martian soil can be taken as the average composition of the near-surface crust on Mars [3]. When the <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>