[blam]

My take on the soil: The water on Mars is in the form of tiny ice crystals mixed with very fine dust.

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[martin_fierro]

My take on the soil:

[Chunga]

"a mysteriously sticky form of soil"

Uh-oh.

[RightWhale]

The dirt that was dragged by the airbags now looks oddly folded, almost as if it were damp clay.

Pond scum

[mewzilla]

Interesting article. To me Mars looks a lot like Monument Valley without the monuments :)

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[Slicksadick]

Heres the sticky stuff

<IMG height=307 alt=" Click For Small photo" src="http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20040106/i/r593415438.jpg" width=410

[Fitzcarraldo]

[Viking2002]

This ought to be interesting. The rover has it's first mystery to solve, and it doesn't even have to leave the lander. As Spock might say, 'Fascinating.'

[asb3pe]

My take is that perhaps any remaining iron in the "iron oxide suface material" is slightly magnetized.

If you've ever played with iron filings and a magnet, I think you'll know where I'm coming from. The apparent cohesiveness of the soil may not be due to liquid content, which everyone obviously has a hard time with given the extremely low temps on mars...

Just my two cents, which is about all a wild guess is worth. :)

[BobS]

"a mysteriously sticky form of soil"

Now look for the toilet paper, guys!

[jaz.357]

A mysteriously sticky form of soil?

Look for the BLUE DRESS!

[ChefKeith]

a mysteriously sticky form of soil

Queso Dip?

After all the Moon is made of cheese so maybe the Moon came from Mars.

[Falcon4.0]

"It looks like mud, but it can't be mud,"

I love this kind of thinking. When they went to the volcanic vents on the Ocean floor they said "no life could survive there", but it teams with life. When they went 7 miles to the ocean bottom they said "no life could survive there", but as soon as they turned on the lights, a fish swam away.

[Batrachian]

It's 100 degrees below zero there, even in daytime. Ice crystals mixed with sand wouldn't produce any stickiness under those conditions, would they? Unless they melted from the impact and residual heat of the lander and instantly froze in those shapes. I guess Spirit will find out in a few days.

BTW, have you seen the full video (10 minutes worth) of this mission at www.maasdigital.com? It's amazing. Unfortunaterly it's down now because of the traffic.

[Unmarked Package]

Watch for NY Times Headline:

Mars Probe Commandeered by Halliburton to Search for Tar Sands on Red Planet

[Steve Van Doorn]

It’s the spice

[Brilliant]

Maybe it's just magnetic.

[proust]

"My reaction has been one of shock and awe," said Jim Bell, leader of the mission's imaging team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

With all the money we pump into this progam the least they could do was make up a new slogan. "Shock and Awe" is so 2003 anyway.

[Steve Van Doorn]

If there was life on Mars it could be oil.