Rovers on Mars

Hey another announcement is coming. It's supposed to be as big or bigger than the first water-was-likely announcement.

It's set for 2pm (EST) tomorrow

http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2004a/032204marsnew.htm

Thanks for the information.

They now have evidence of flowing water.

NASA Press Release
"This magnified view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity of a portion of a martian rock called "Upper Dells" shows fine layers (laminae) that are truncated, discordant and at angles to each other. Interpretive black lines trace cross-lamination that indicates the sediments that formed the rock were laid down in flowing water."

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040323a.html

"According to Grotzinger, the environment at the time the rocks were forming could have been a salt flat, or playa, sometimes covered by shallow water and sometimes dry. Such environments on Earth, either at the edge of oceans or in desert basins, can have currents of water that produce the type of ripples seen in the Mars rocks."

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html

Satt thinks, if this was at the edge of ancient oceans (i.e., shore lines), this must be a very rare case to find.



"The discovery does not mean that there was ever life on Mars. But it is more evidence, Dr. Squyres said, that Mars may have once had a habitable environment, because water is the basis of life. It also raises "the possibility of the preservation of evidence," he said, meaning that biological or other clues might be buried in the sediment."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/science/space/23CND-MARS.html?ex=1080709200

Satt: It is regrettable that the rovers did not carry instruments with them for the fossil search.

well we gave up that moving water info before the JPL guys, we should publish the a2k moving water and brine analysis. I heard today that from the halide deposits , they think the entire solution was quite hostile , more like acid mine drainage than sea water. there are extremophiles on earth that can live in low phs but not a lot.

Peer reviewed?

We may consider life under such conditions as extreme, but that's because we consider the conditions extreme within Earth norms. But if those conditions on Mars are normal, then any life which evolved there should probably be considered normal by definition.

I think when speculating about exobiology we should be careful not to try to relate our definition of what is "normal" to Earth standards, just as we probably shouldn't restrict ourselves to the assumption of DNA as the only possibility for life (even though it's the only one we know of, and can imagine at this time).

Anything which acquires self replicative facility will inevitably do so in the environment which is available to it, just as it did here.

well, then , maybe just a research note. We beat the JPL guys on that, as such we are in some google data base .

Im too busy to write it up righht now. you know the story

From Opportunity


I am afraid this cliff is hard for the rover to examine closely.

if thhis were that movie with the friendly robot "Johny 5" Hed have a grapple line launcher.

The clift definitely show strata and the upper half seems to be the product of more turbulent activity than the lower half.

amazing image.....

Looks like the edge of a sinkhole ( Karst topography) to me.

What say ye

A dramatic jump from periods of laminar flows to that of turbulence. Does this show the typical history of the Martian surfaces?

The shape at the bottom of the crater is intriguing.

A few quick updates:

Opportunity is in Endurance Crater, and has begun microscopic examination of rock thought to be similar to the ones in Eagle crater.

There seem to be at least three distinct rock layers in Endurance.

The mystery of the thread-like features in previous images has been solved:
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/opportunity/opp_200403a_Thread_on_Mars.html

The Spirit Rover has developed a wheel problem, but it does not appear to be severe at this time.

Spirit is closing in on its destination cliffs.

For additional reference, the main rover web pages are here:
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Hey! In the crater and testing away. What a trouper!

Rosborne , interesting stuff. they can use those vectran fibers to assist in the windblown sedimentation patterns.On "earth" when stream geomorphologists try to evaluate the energy systems of braided streams , they pour "glitter" in the upstream area and watch how it collects in point bars and cut banks.
These vectran fibres can allow them to measure the stratigraphy as affected by wind.

Any word as to whether those three distinct rock layers are water deposited sediments or volcanic deposited tuffs?

I didn't see any specifics on the layers yet, but it would be nice if the layers represented distinct periods in water deposited sediment history.

Now that shallow seas have been confirmed, I think one of the big questions now is how long those seas lasted on Mars.