Posted on 08/18/2004 4:31:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The twin Mars rovers, one suffering from a balky wheel, have found a wonderland of weird rocks and enticing dunes along with more evidence that the Red Planet once had water, NASA scientists said Wednesday. The robotic vehicles landed in January and first found signs in March that Mars had water eons ago.
The Spirit rover has now rolled nearly two miles across the plains of its Gusev Crater landing site and into an area dubbed the Columbia Hills.
Perched about 30 feet above a plain, it recently found indications that water had altered an outcropping of bedrock dubbed Clovis, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said.
Sulfur, chlorine and bromine found inside the rock were in much greater concentrations than in rocks on the plain. Those elements are commonly emitted from volcanoes and could have combined with liquid water or water vapor, said Doug Ming, a science team member.
"Here, we have a more thorough, deeper alteration, suggesting much more water," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for science instruments aboard the rovers.
Spirit had a tough climb into the Columbia Hills. At its steepest point, the rover had a 34-degree tilt and once slid backward, Squyres said.
"We're doing some serious rock-climbing with this vehicle," he said.
Meanwhile, halfway around the planet, the Opportunity rover has rolled about 32 feet into Endurance Crater, a stadium-sized depression. At the bottom, it found rippled dunes and a bizarre rock with a lumpy, rounded appearance.
Scientists weren't sure how the rock was formed.
"I don't have an explanation for this one," Squires said. "It doesn't look like anything we've seen anywhere."
The team hopes the vehicle can examine the edge of the dunes, although it won't go out in them for fear of bogging down.
"We built a wonderful rover, but we didn't build a dune buggy," Squyres said.
Opportunity found profound differences in rocks that it bored into at different levels of a layered slope. Tiny ripples in a rock dubbed Millstone are clear signs that it had contact with flowing water, Squyres said.
The $280 million mission was designed to seek geological clues about whether ancient Mars had water.
In March, NASA announced that Opportunity found ripples in sedimentary rock that indicated a pool of saltwater - an environment that could have supported life - once existed at the landing site in the vast Meridiani Planum.
The next month, NASA said Spirit had found evidence that limited amounts of water had deposited minerals in a volcanic rock.
Overall, scientists said, the rovers are aging gracefully despite far exceeding their planned mission times of about 90 days.
There are a few "aches and pains," said Chris Salvo, mission manager.
Spirit previously was diagnosed with a balky right front wheel. Controllers have mostly been driving it on five wheels, saving the sixth for the steepest climbs and precision maneuvers.
On Sunday, Opportunity's drill stopped working. Controllers think a pebble has jammed the cutting head. Salvo said a fix was being considered, perhaps simply turning the grinding heads in reverse.
It's not considered a major problem, he said.
This approximate true-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a rock outcrop dubbed "Longhorn," and behind it, the sweeping plains of Gusev Crater. On the horizon, the rim of Gusev Crater is clearly visible. The view is to the south of the rover's current position. The image consists of four frames taken by the 750-, 530- and 430-nanometer filters of Spirit's panoramic camera on sol 210 (August 5, 2004).
Soft Rock Yields Clues to Mars' Past
This image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rock outcrop dubbed "Clovis." The rock was discovered to be softer than other rocks studied so far at Gusev Crater after the rover easily ground a hole into it with its rock abrasion tool. An analysis of the interior of the hole with the rover's scientific instruments found higher concentrations of sulfur, bromine and chlorine compared to basaltic, or volcanic, rocks at Gusev. This might indicate that Clovis was chemically altered, and that fluids once flowed through the rock depositing these elements. Spirit's solar panels can be seen in the foreground. This image was taken by the rover's navigation camera on sol 205 (July 31, 2004).
This false-color image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a group of darker rocks dubbed "Toltecs," lying to the southeast of the rover's current position. The rocks are believed to be basaltic, or volcanic, in composition because their color and spectral properties resemble those of basaltic rocks studied so far at Gusev Crater. Scientists hope to use these presumably unaltered rocks as a geologic standard for comparison to altered rocks in the area, such as "Clovis." This image was taken by the 750-, 530- and 430-nanometer filters of rover's panoramic camera on sol 220 (Aug. 15, 2004).
At a high point on the landscape of the "Columbia Hills," atop NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, sit antennas that send information to Earth. Two antennas can be seen in this image taken by Spirit on martian day, or sol, 210 (Aug. 4, 2004). The disk-shaped, high-gain antenna on the right sends and receives X-band microwave signals, similar to frequencies used in alarm-system motion detectors and police radar guns. Mission planners at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory send commands directly to the rover via the high-gain antenna. The tall antenna on the left, sometimes called a low-gain antenna, serves as a backup to the high-gain antenna and also sends, once a day, an X-band microwave signal to Earth. In the foreground, not visible in this view, is a smaller antenna that sends ultra-high-frequency signals, similar to frequencies used in some television broadcasts, to orbiting spacecraft. Orbiters such as the Mars Odyssey spacecraft relay the signals to Earth.
In front of the rover, at the top of the ridge on the "West Spur" region of the Columbia Hills, is a rock outcrop dubbed "Longhorn." On the horizon is the rim of the 165-mile-wide (103-mile-wide) Gusev Crater, inside of which Spirit landed Jan. 4, 2004. This image was taken with Spirit's navigation camera.
what's amazing to me is the vistas off in th background. It really gives you a feeling of being on another planet.
I've wondered what ever happened to an old set of car keys. Any chance they turned up on Mars?
Looks like Nevada... Just kidding. Cool pic.
It really gives you a feeling of being on another planet....
Or Saudi Arabia, or Utah.
lol . . .
Space ping.
See also:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1194269/posts
Remember that huge sound stage in the Truman Show with Jim Carrey?
This one is next door. ;-)
Clouds Roll in for Martian Winter
Using its left navigation camera, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity sought to capture some clouds on its 153rd sol on Mars (June 28, 2004). The presence of morning clouds in the area of Endurance Crater was established by spacecraft orbiting Mars. Mars has three kinds of clouds: dust clouds low in the atmosphere; water clouds near the surface up to heights of 20 kilometers (about 12 miles); and carbon dioxide clouds at very high altitudes.
Just as on Earth, clouds, especially water clouds, are good tracers of the weather. Based on orbital data, more clouds are expected during the martian winter. As this change occurs, the rover's cameras and miniature thermal emission spectrometer will track other changes that occur as the clouds accumulate.
The rovers provide a unique opportunity to examine the lower portion of Mars' atmosphere. The lower atmosphere is difficult to characterize from orbit, but it is critical because that is where the atmosphere interacts with the surface. Since the rovers landed, the science team has been using the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer instrument to see the weather at this bottom layer.
Thanks!
Yet more evidence that the sky on Mars is actually blue...
Just what is this strange thing called a "wheel" that they are having so much trouble with? Is it a new technology that is just in it's infancy?
i see places on mars are getting names. very good. we should name everything we possibly can. and give names that reflect our usa culture and language.
Personally, I consider this the best $280 million that the government has ever invested. The results have been beyond our wildest dreams and scientists will be studying the data for decades.
Oh well.....
It sounds like Spirit is a pretty good climber too ... crawling up 35% slopes and all... and they ain't done yet.
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