Rovers on Mars

The first picks from the RAT hole drilled by Opportunity are below. It looks like at least two of the spherules have been sliced open by the drill.

One Spherule has striations inside it (or perhaps *on* it due to the drilling process itself), but the other shows no sign of variation in the internal structure at all. It's completely bland. The striations on the leftmost spherule do not appear to match the rotation angle of the RAT, which might indicate that they are part of the structure of the spherule, unless the spherule has shifted during the process, which also seems like a possibility.

The striation on the spherical on the right a definitely mechanical. The soil looks like mud that has dried out to me. I've excavated in material like that.

I agree that the striation on the spherule on the [left] is mechanical in origin. The sweep of the mark matches the curve of the RAT, even though it's not aligned with the main hole. I think the spherule has been dislodged by the activity, but not yet fallen out of the hole.

It's interesting that the spherules don't seem to have an internal structure. If they formed by accretion, then you would expect to see some evidence of banding. I'm still thinking that the spherules are tektites, since tektites probably don't have much internal structure either (due to the way they are formed).

Ok, I found it... here's that image of a spherule which seems to be melted onto another spherule (two different sizes).

And just for a bit of historical reference, here's that micro image from that Mars Meteorite they found a few years back. Is it my imagination, or is there a vague similarity of form between the micrograph and the close up images of the rockface?

That may or may not be two sphericals welded together it simple could be a hot liquid object that cooled differentially. What is more interesting to me is that the surface has pitting. That occurs when a hot liquid material, like glass is cooled rapidly in the presence of another liquid, like water, and pockets of steam form on the surface.

More rock abrasions, more blueberries sliced in half...

The spherical in the lower left (its right) corner is quartered. What ever it is made of it is strong enough to stand up to abrasion and not crumble.

Nice catch Acq, I didn't even see that before.

they need a spray bottle to wash off all the dust and crap from the cut face.
Am i seeing this correctly/ the drilling is about perpendicular to the apparent "bedding" correct?

That would be my guess. Also the sphericals, if I am reading the abrasion marks correctly. do not seem to be well seated in the matrix. but rotate when the are scoured. It you look at the upper right hand corner of the photo there is a depression left by one that popped out. (it is centered just to the left of the two in place). Also I do not get the impression that these sphericals dropped in at an great villosity. It looks to me as if they were on the surface and the matrix accumulated around them. This and the fact the one in a photo rosborne posted earlier has what looks to me to be steam pitting suggests that they fell into something (like a liquid) that slowed their speed and they settled on the surface.

The spherules do not necessarily move during grinding - see

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover-images/feb-25-2004/captions/image-2.html

Anyone noticed that Spirit takes around 40 or so images of test color target every day? I wonder why are they doing that - target practicing or what ?

I'm not certain what your point is, the text that accompanies the photo states the opposite.

"The scrapes on the bottom right blueberry appear to be caused by the
fact that the berry got dislodged slightly and its surface was
scraped with the grinding pad."

Hmm, looks like my speed while surfin' over that was a bit too great

I thought at first that the particular sphere had rotated in place - that is before I found the article.

Thanx, Tut

Are we finally gonna hear from the experts...

NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.


["We didn't want to sit on this information for a long time," NASA spokesperson Don Savage said, adding that the scientists felt they "had gotten the information they needed."

The panel assembled for the press conference includes top brass and a cast of important science characters.

Speakers will include Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space Science, Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, Cornell University's Steve Squyres, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, and MIT geologist John Grotzinger, among others.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. ET and will be carried live on NASA television.]

The only color pic of the dirt at Miridiani Planum that I can find:



Some of the little spherules appear to be light colored, and others appear to be dark colored.

Could the discoloration be associated with age? Or is it composition? If they are Tektites, they could be from different impacts in that area over a long period of time.

It is reported that the Mars atmosphere contains hydrogen peroxide. (Was Mars being oxidized?)

My bet is that they are going to announce that there is significant evidence to support a hypothesis of free standing water at one time on Mars but they are going to back away from an absolute statement. IMOH the evidences suggest free standing water, period.

I would venture a guess that it was even moving. I saw today at someones office that theyve released some 3D
pictures, anybody see the link? I forgot to ask to be sent the foto.