Hematite Caused Spirit Breakdown?

Does anybody have an opinion on this, because hematite is a naturally
magnetic ore, and if Spirit landed in a field of it, might the fields be
enough to scramble her circuits?

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:30:20 GMT, John Schutkeker
wrote:

Does anybody have an opinion on this, because hematite is a naturally
magnetic ore, and if Spirit landed in a field of it, might the fields be
enough to scramble her circuits?

Well, all I know is that Opportunity went to the location (Meridiani
Planum) where there is lots of hematite, which certainly may explain
the colour of the ground in this region.

Spirit on the other hand went to Gusev Crater simply because there is
a massive channel flowing into this area, which combined with other
factors indicate that this was once a possible lake.

Since I cannot recall any claims that there is hematite at where
Spirit is, then I am not even sure that this could be a possible
factor.

However, due to the nature of things, then I do not believe that this
would be an issue anyway. Spirit's problem has already been defined as
a software fault, which indicates a strong "no".

Cardman
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:01:28 +0000, Cardman
wrote, in part:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:30:20 GMT, John Schutkeker
wrote:

Does anybody have an opinion on this, because hematite is a naturally
magnetic ore, and if Spirit landed in a field of it, might the fields be
enough to scramble her circuits?

However, due to the nature of things, then I do not believe that this
would be an issue anyway. Spirit's problem has already been defined as
a software fault, which indicates a strong "no".

When I first heard about this happening during grinding, I thought
about a stray fragment of Martian rock hitting something important.

But later, when the flash memory was mentioned, I thought that perhaps
all that friction, combined with an insulating atmosphere, might have
made static electricity.

But such things - in fact, everything but the low gravity - could be,
and I am sure were, simulated on Earth in extensive testing.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html

"John Schutkeker" wrote in message
4...

Does anybody have an opinion on this, because hematite is a naturally
magnetic ore, and if Spirit landed in a field of it, might the fields be
enough to scramble her circuits?

1. Opportunity landed in the hematite-rich area.

John Schutkeker writes:

Does anybody have an opinion on this, because hematite is a naturally
magnetic ore, and if Spirit landed in a field of it, might the fields be
enough to scramble her circuits?

I'm no geologist, but I very much doubt it. First, the orbiters have
detected hematite in only a few areas and not where Spirit is.
Second, the magnetic field would have no way of being any stronger
than the strongest magnetic field of Mar in the distant past, which
would have been much weaker than Earth's which is very weak and too
weak to scramble any circuits (which are hard to scramble with
magnetism).