Opportunity is stuck

Well, the LM may never have sunk in the dread Moondust, but Opportunity
has sunk into the dread Marsdune:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-05zq1.html
Wait till they discover that those "minicraters" they've been looking at
are actually sandtrout nests, and that they have driven up an a prespice
mass that is getting ready to blow. ;-)

Pat

Damn. All that BTW instruction, and the first time the ve-hi-kle gets
mired, the new guy pops the clutch...

(Sorry, but I've been waiting to use that one.)

wrote:

Damn. All that BTW instruction, and the first time the ve-hi-kle gets
mired, the new guy pops the clutch...

(Sorry, but I've been waiting to use that one.)


Looking at that wheel in the photo, I think they are going to have a
very difficult time getting it unstuck- but who knows? The rovers have
both been very lucky so far and they might pull it off. It would be
interesting to know why the soil was so soft where it sunk in- I wonder
if the "minicraters" were some sort of collapsed air pockets under the
sand, and the rover drove over one and caved in its roof. Another
possibility would be very loose soil caused by some sort of
electrostatic repulsion of its grains caused by its getting electrically
charged by the electricity generated by the winds and dust devils. The
dust devils are speculated to have a fairly powerful negative electric
charge at their base: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-dust-04a.html

Pat

discussion and pictures at
http://www.markcarey.com/mars/discus...portunity.html

Looks like it's time to call AAA and get Bubba's 24 Hour Towing on the
job!