New Mars Forums

Hi all,

Good to be back!

Missed the live egress yesterday, and most developments the past two days as I've been busy organising a day-long "Mars Fest" event here in the north of England. Spirit and Opportunity pics projected onto big screens, live internet surfing, Mars software demonstrations, Mars meteorites, eight different lectures, kids activities... it was an excellent day, and over 200 people came along to share in the "Mars Mania" during the day, despite lashing rain and gale force winds... so, disappointed I missed the hematite announcement, and the egress, and a whole new batch of pics, but I'm going to have fun catching up 

Really enjoyed reading everyone's posts from the last couple of days - welcome onboard 1smlstp, love your enthusiasm, you're definitely in the right place 

Just been looking at the latest hi-res image of Opportunity's crater landing site... some fascinating detail near the horizon don't you think Josh? I was *so* wrong about the exposed rock being a wall, it's more like exposed sub-surface slabs, almost like limestone pavement in fact. Reminds me of the rock structures seen on the surface of Venus by the Russian Venera landers actually... Great too to be able to see though a notch in the crater wall to the world beyond... 

The "pancakes" are fascinating too, and I really like the brine-saturated ideas being floated here. Liked the recent "hard ice cream" analogy too... maybe the dark spots are choc chips...  :;):

By the way, anyone wanting to read a very well-informed and thought-out web blog by a successful Mars writer, Oliver Morton ("Mapping Mars") should check out his website:

[http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal/]http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal/

When I saw the first pics of Gusev, the rock-hound in me was slack-jawed at the sight of what appeared to be an exposed bedrock layer on the far side of Sleepy Hollow, and the variety of rocks strewn across the landscape had me very excited. I thought it was a wonderland...

But now, looking at Meridiani, that layer across near the horizon there is just soooo fascinating, and I'm imagining what it would be like to be there now, and set-off across the crater floor towards it, my boots scuffing up puffs of dust and fines the colour of dried strawberries or powdered blood as I bunny-hopped my way away from Opportunity. Then reaching The Wall (I'm going to call it that from now on, I think  ) and running my gloved hands over the exposed, weathered blocks, kneeling down in front of it, knees pressing down into the dust, looking at the colours, textures and forms, maybe even glimpsing tiny curled-up fossils embedded in the stone...

And then there's the far horizon, too... imagining turning my back on The Wall and slogging my way up the slope, feeling the dust hissing away beneath my feet like sand on a dune, then reaching the top and seeing a sweeping, David Lean-esque vista of rippled sand-dunes the colour of red wine, scattered with jagged outcrops of hematite, shining and glistening in the sunlight...

So, sorry Gusev, you're great, but I want to be with Opportunity. The Wall is calling. 

Aaagh, .tiff again... I have no luck with those. Guess I'll have to wait for a fat juicy jpeg to appear 

Listen, this "Magic Carpet" material... they put it down to possibly being unique to the surface material at Gusev, but it's there at Medidiani too, so I think we need to consider the possibility that the Magic Carpet material is being *caused* by the landing process itself. How about this...

The lander hits the surface at a fair speed, right? And when the air bags hit the surface, hard, the gas inside them will heat up as it is compressed, right? Soooo... how about this for a process. The airbags must get hot on the outside as they compress, as heat from the internal gas reaches the outer skins... surely it's a possibility that there will be enough heat to cause some heating of the surface material beneath the bags, maybe enough to warm water trapped in the dirt and soil sufficiently enough to cause some muddification... and when the airbags deflate, the gas - warm gas, remember - has to go somewhere right? Surely that hot gas playing over the surface will warm the dirt, maybe enough to melt any ice particles trapped within it and cause the surface material to folow, or at least muddify, briefly? I mean, come on! What more do they need? Air bag seams pressed into it... rocks pressed into it, bow waves around the rocks... what are they looking for, a hippo wallowing around in it?!  :;):

I was prepared to believe that the Gusev Magic Carpet was an anomoly, but I;m not now. We're seeing it here too. I'm putting my neck out and saying that we must be seeing some kind of mud, caused by heat/friction/something from the impact of the airbags.

Anyone?

Just managed to get online and see the pics... missed all the fun of landing #2 this morning, and have been out of the loop for a day or so, ironically because I'm busy organising a huge "MARS DAY" science exhibition/Outreach event next  Saturday here in Cumbria. Good to be back - I missed you guys!!!... and great to hear that Spirit is looking healthier

But these first pictures...

Oh... My... God...

Have you ever seen such an amazing place? It looks bizarre, beautiful, enticing, beckoning... we are going to have SUCH fun exploring this place, all of us here, thru Opportunity's eyes.

And the look of almost rapture on Steve's face, how his heart must be flying right now, after fearing they'd lost Spirit. I am so happy for him! 

So what do you all make of the images so far? I think they are in a shallow crater, the horizon looks very sharply-defined and close too. And I'm sorry, but they really are going to have to stop pussy-footing aropund and admit that that could be mud around the lander, especially when you can see the imprint of one of the airbag *seams* in it!!

Going to do some serious surfing now, catch up on things...

Thanks for letting us know Josh. I do wonder how the tone of the briefings will change once the "gee whizz" stuff is out of the way and serious field geology takes over...

Was away over the weekend, good to see Spirit didn't drive into a crater or get eaten by a sandworm while I was unable to get online...

(shocked look) surely you don't mean me..?  :;):

Latest I heard was that the plan is to start Spirit moving late Saturday or early Sunday, after the spectrometers have taken some measurements. I'm not sure if it'll be heading right for the crater tho; I'd expect some limited exploration of the immediate vicinity, to get some baseline readings of rock types and surface material composition etc, before heading for more exotic - and, let'sface it, more dangerous - locations... just my guess tho.

Patience young Jedi, patience... 

It's a BIG hope... but my fingers are crossed, and I don't know, Spirit just feels destined for great things, don't you think? I must admit, when I heard the names I thought they were poor choices, less than inspiring, but "Spirit" seems quite a plucky machine so far, so the name might be appropriate after all. 

It's *so* encouraging that President Bush thinks Spirit is on Mars "looking for life", don't you think?

Getting a severe case of deja vu here... a pre-election President Bush stands up in front of flags and an audience of old astronauts and politicians, beams for the cameras, semi-quotes Kennedy, promises the Universe, sets up a Commission to look at the cost, sees the bill and then quietly forgets all about it.

Tell you what, let's all just calm down now and enjoy Spirit's egress, and look forward to Opportunity landing safely too, cos this "plan" puts us no nearer to going to Mars than we were yesterday or a year ago, and Spirit is just hours away from rolling onto Gusev's red dirt. I know which I'm more excited about.

(Listening) Oh get ON with it!!!! 

S

Conference: Everything looking good for Spirit's historic drive-off the lander and onto Mars... wheels-down should be around 12.45 PST, and there will be a live commentary of that available on NASA TV, and a Press Briefing is scheduled for 2am PST with details of how things went.

Good luck guys!

S