Mars Exploration Rovers Update - February 13, 2004

"Carla Schneider" wrote in message
...
Ron wrote:

[...]
The plan for sol 20, which will end at 8:20 p.m. Friday, PST, is to
do a "touch and go," meaning Opportunity will touch the soil with its
instrument arm around the outpost area Charlie, then stow the arm and
drive. It will head for an area of soil that the rover's miniature
thermal emission spectrometer indicates is rich in hematite. Over the
following few sols, engineers intend to use one of Opportunity's wheels
to spin into the soil and "trench" a shallow hole so scientists can
check
what's below the surface early next week. Knowing more about the
hematite
distribution on Mars may help scientists characterize the past
environment
and determine whether that environment provided favorable conditions for
life.

Any guesses what they will find in the trench ?
I bet they will not find a lot of hematite below the surface,
because it is concentrated in the spheres and the spheres are only
lying on the top.

Gee Carla, where did you get that information? Even the JPL scientists have
said that they have had trouble taking readings from the spherules ecause of
their small size. They haven't said what they are composed of. In
addition, there is no reason to assume that the spheres are only sitting on
top of the soil. Let's wait until they conduct the trenching and report on
their analytical results before we all make such pronouncements, shall we?

There are no sand dunes like at gusev crater, because the spheres
prevent them from forming - is this possible ?

Actually if you look at the picture at the following link. you will see
small dunes in the foreground. Since the rover has yet ot even leave the
crater, nad since the dunes you refer to at Gustev crater are ver small, I
see no reason to expect that these dunes will not be found at the
opportunity site as well.

Could there be an other reason as density that prevents these spheres from
beeing
burrowed below the dust, maybe some electrostatic effect ?
If the spheres were very light the wind would blow them to dunes, if they
were heavy they would be buried below the dust, and there is a lot of dust
falling down if you wait long enough...


--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

George wrote:

"Carla Schneider" wrote in message
...
Ron wrote:

[...]
The plan for sol 20, which will end at 8:20 p.m. Friday, PST, is to
do a "touch and go," meaning Opportunity will touch the soil with its
instrument arm around the outpost area Charlie, then stow the arm and
drive. It will head for an area of soil that the rover's miniature
thermal emission spectrometer indicates is rich in hematite. Over the
following few sols, engineers intend to use one of Opportunity's wheels
to spin into the soil and "trench" a shallow hole so scientists can
check
what's below the surface early next week. Knowing more about the
hematite
distribution on Mars may help scientists characterize the past
environment
and determine whether that environment provided favorable conditions for
life.

Any guesses what they will find in the trench ?
I bet they will not find a lot of hematite below the surface,
because it is concentrated in the spheres and the spheres are only
lying on the top.

Gee Carla, where did you get that information? Even the JPL scientists have
said that they have had trouble taking readings from the spherules ecause of
their small size. They haven't said what they are composed of. In
addition, there is no reason to assume that the spheres are only sitting on
top of the soil.

Did you see the colored map of hematit concentration ?
No hematite where the airbacks compressed the soil, that means
the spheres have been pressed below the dust and the spheres are
the carrier of hematite mineral.

Let's wait until they conduct the trenching and report on
their analytical results before we all make such pronouncements, shall we?

It was a guess, I wanted to file here.
So if I am right I will be able to say I knew it in advance.


There are no sand dunes like at gusev crater, because the spheres
prevent them from forming - is this possible ?

Actually if you look at the picture at the following link.
???
you will see
small dunes in the foreground. Since the rover has yet ot even leave the
crater, nad since the dunes you refer to at Gustev crater are ver small, I
see no reason to expect that these dunes will not be found at the
opportunity site as well.

Lets see. usually a crater should be a place to expect such dunes if there
are any. There are no dunes visible that bury the spheres.


Could there be an other reason as density that prevents these spheres from
beeing
burrowed below the dust, maybe some electrostatic effect ?
If the spheres were very light the wind would blow them to dunes, if they
were heavy they would be buried below the dust, and there is a lot of dust
falling down if you wait long enough...


--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

"Carla Schneider" wrote in message
...
George wrote:

"Carla Schneider" wrote in message
...
Ron wrote:

[...]
The plan for sol 20, which will end at 8:20 p.m. Friday, PST, is to
do a "touch and go," meaning Opportunity will touch the soil with
its
instrument arm around the outpost area Charlie, then stow the arm
and
drive. It will head for an area of soil that the rover's miniature
thermal emission spectrometer indicates is rich in hematite. Over
the
following few sols, engineers intend to use one of Opportunity's
wheels
to spin into the soil and "trench" a shallow hole so scientists can
check
what's below the surface early next week. Knowing more about the
hematite
distribution on Mars may help scientists characterize the past
environment
and determine whether that environment provided favorable conditions
for
life.

Any guesses what they will find in the trench ?
I bet they will not find a lot of hematite below the surface,
because it is concentrated in the spheres and the spheres are only
lying on the top.

Gee Carla, where did you get that information? Even the JPL scientists
have
said that they have had trouble taking readings from the spherules
ecause of
their small size. They haven't said what they are composed of. In
addition, there is no reason to assume that the spheres are only sitting
on
top of the soil.

Did you see the colored map of hematit concentration ?
No hematite where the airbacks compressed the soil, that means
the spheres have been pressed below the dust and the spheres are
the carrier of hematite mineral.

Yes the spheres were pressed below the soil surface. That does not
necessarily mean that the hematite originated from the spheres. Why? Also
note that the uppermost topsoil itself was disturbed. In addition, and
spectral analysis of the rock outcrop from which the spheres apparently
orginated was very low in hematite.

Let's wait until they conduct the trenching and report on
their analytical results before we all make such pronouncements, shall
we?

It was a guess, I wanted to file here.
So if I am right I will be able to say I knew it in advance.

I can understand that sentiment. However, I'd be careful about making
statements prematurely. The often times have a habit of coming back to
haunt you.


There are no sand dunes like at gusev crater, because the spheres
prevent them from forming - is this possible ?

Actually if you look at the picture at the following link.
???

Oops, sorry. Here is the link.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...hem_strip1.jpg

Download the image, then open it in the image processing software of your
choice (I use Adobe Photoshop, and Corel PhotoPaint). Zoom in on the far
right-hand side of the image,and you will see small dunes. You will also
note that the soil appears to be thicker in this area. Also note that not
only is the soil disturbed by the airbags low in hematite, but a large area
of undisturbed soil from the center to the right of center in the image also
is low in hematite. So I would have to say that in my opinion the areas
where the hematite is highest in concentration must have some other unique
feature that is allowing the hematite to be concentrated there.

you will see
small dunes in the foreground. Since the rover has yet ot even leave
the
crater, nad since the dunes you refer to at Gustev crater are ver small,
I
see no reason to expect that these dunes will not be found at the
opportunity site as well.

Lets see. usually a crater should be a place to expect such dunes if there
are any. There are no dunes visible that bury the spheres.

As appears to be the case with this crater, it seems that the wind blows the
strongest in the area where the outcrop is exposed - since it has been
denuded of its soil, I would think this would be likely. Where the wind
speed drops, one would expect it to drop its load of sediment. One would
expect to find dunes only near the top of the crater away from the outcrop.
Low and behold, there are dunes in the right-hand side of the image shown in
the link, above, at the top of the crater. I would expect that soil
comprising these dunes may have originated from the exposed area of outcrop.
Whether these dunes have buried any spheres or not is unknown since they
have not taken the rover over to that area to investigate.


Could there be an other reason as density that prevents these spheres
from
beeing
burrowed below the dust, maybe some electrostatic effect ?
If the spheres were very light the wind would blow them to dunes, if
they
were heavy they would be buried below the dust, and there is a lot of
dust
falling down if you wait long enough...


--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

--
http://www.geocities.com/carla_sch/index.html

Interesting web site. Of course, it has nothing to do with this newsgroup,
or the subject of this thread.

" George" wrote
Yes the spheres were pressed below the soil surface. That does not
necessarily mean that the hematite originated from the spheres. Why? Also
note that the uppermost topsoil itself was disturbed. In addition, and
spectral analysis of the rock outcrop from which the spheres apparently
orginated was very low in hematite.

The relative cross-section of the spherules in the matrix facing the camera
is about 2%. They are much more concentrated on the ground, particularly in
oblique views.

The spherules tend to come out bluish when visible RGB images are combined,
leading to the moniker "blueberries.: It's interesting to compare such a
composite to the hematite map produced by the TES.

http://www.copperas.com/astro/spheres_hem.jpg

The more red areas in the right image (hematite) tend to correspond to the
more blue areas in the left image (spherules). Conclusion: spherules =
hematite.

Let's wait until they conduct the trenching and report on
their analytical results before we all make such pronouncements, shall
we?

Now what fun would that be?

Joe