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...NASA: Mars Soil Sample Discovery is "...one for the history books"!!!
Mars Rover Makes Discovery For "the History Books," but NASA Is Keeping It a Secret For Now By Josh Voorhees Posted Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, at 3:02 PM ET "This data is gonna be one for the history books," John Grotzinger, the rover mission's principal investigator, told NPR last week for a the buzz-inciting segment that aired today. "It's looking really good." What we do know is that the data comes from a soil sample analyzed by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, an on-board lab known as SAM, so if the data holds up to further testing it appears possible, and perhaps likely, that it is a discovery of an element on Mars previously thought not to exist on the Red Planet. Of course, the reason that NASA is keeping the potential find (mostly) under wraps is because it may turn out to be nothing but a false alarm, something that's happened before to the mission. NPR explains:" "So why doesn't Grotzinger want to share his exciting news? The main reason is caution. Grotzinger and his team were almost stung once before. When SAM analyzed an air sample, it looked like there was methane in it, and at least here on Earth, some methane comes from living organisms. But Grotzinger says they held up announcing the finding because they wanted to be sure they were measuring Martian air, and not air brought along from the rover's launchpad at Cape Canaveral. "We knew from the very beginning that we had this risk of having brought air from Florida. And we needed to diminish it and then make the measurement again," he says. And when they made the measurement again, the signs of methane disappeared. But the simple fact Grotzinger is willing to talk so openly (and excitedly) about the possible discovery in light of the past let downs would seem to suggest he has a good deal of confidence that it will hold up to further testing. No word on exactly how long it will take before we learn more, but Grotzinger told NPR that it will likely take "several weeks" before he and his team are ready to go public. Until then, feel free to take to the comments with your best (or worst) guesses. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...discovery.html Well I'll guess, organic material? It's very exciting that the very ...first soil sample yields a big discovery. The rover is in an ancient Mars riverbed. Curiosity Finds Ancient Riverbed in Martian Crater http://news.softpedia.com/news/Curio...r-295298.shtml Here's the pics of the soil sample site. PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...l20121018.html Close-up of scoop site, a crusted over dune http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-ima...000E1_DXXX.jpg Magnified close up of scoop site showing sphere crusted dune http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multime...00R0_DXXX&s=67 Jonathan |
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...NASA: Mars Soil Sample Discovery is "...one for the history books"!!!
On Nov 20, 4:55*pm, "jonathan" wrote:
Mars Rover Makes Discovery For "the History Books," but NASA Is Keeping It a Secret For Now By Josh Voorhees Posted Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, at 3:02 PM ET "This data is gonna be one for the history books," John Grotzinger, the rover mission's principal investigator, told NPR last week for a the buzz-inciting segment that aired today. "It's looking really good." What we do know is that the data comes from a soil sample analyzed by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, an on-board lab known as SAM, so if the data holds up to further testing it appears possible, and perhaps likely, that it is a discovery of an element on Mars previously thought not to exist on the Red Planet. Of course, the reason that NASA is keeping the potential find (mostly) under wraps is because it may turn out to be nothing but a false alarm, something that's happened before to the mission. NPR explains:" "So why doesn't Grotzinger want to share his exciting news? The main reason is caution. Grotzinger and his team were almost stung once before. When SAM analyzed an air sample, it looked like there was methane in it, and at least here on Earth, some methane comes from living organisms. But Grotzinger says they held up announcing the finding because they wanted to be sure they were measuring Martian air, and not air brought along from the rover's launchpad at Cape Canaveral. "We knew from the very beginning that we had this risk of having brought air from Florida. And we needed to diminish it and then make the measurement again," he says. And when they made the measurement again, the signs of methane disappeared. But the simple fact Grotzinger is willing to talk so openly (and excitedly) about the possible discovery in light of the past let downs would seem to suggest he has a good deal of confidence that it will hold up to further testing. No word on exactly how long it will take before we learn more, but Grotzinger told NPR that it will likely take "several weeks" before he and his team are ready to go public. Until then, feel free to take to the comments with your best (or worst) guesses.http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...discovery_nasa... Well I'll guess, organic material? It's very exciting that the very ...first soil sample yields a big discovery. The rover is in an ancient Mars riverbed. Curiosity Finds Ancient Riverbed in Martian Craterhttp://news.softpedia.com/news/Curiosity-Finds-Ancient-Riverbed-in-Ma... Here's the pics of the soil sample site. PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested *its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission.http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...l20121018.html Close-up of scoop site, a crusted over dunehttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00069/mcam/0069MR0419001... Magnified close up of scoop site showing sphere crusted dunehttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=0067MH0008000000R0... Jonathan Looks damp, as though clumping or molecular binding, though little if any salts. Why don't they simply give us the raw spectrometer and radiation numbers? |
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