Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Stu · 2004-03-25 11:43:06

For our US members...

------------------------

[http://www.ljsilvers.com/press/freeshrimp.htm]http://www.ljsilvers.com/press/freeshrimp.htm

Press Release

NASA FINDS OCEAN WATER ON MARS!
LONG JOHN SILVER'S GIVES AMERICA FREE GIANT SHRIMP TO CELEBRATE

***

Long John Silver's President Calls Discovery
"One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Giant Shrimp"

March 24, 2004

LOUISVILLE, KY - NASA's March 23
announcement of evidence of the past presence of "a body of gently
flowing saltwater" on Mars is big news for America, and giant news
for seafood fans.

In January, Long John Silver's offered to give America free Giant
Shrimp if NASA found conclusive evidence of an ocean on Mars. To
celebrate the success of NASA's Mars Rover project, the company
is going to give America free Giant Shrimp on Monday, May 10.

"This is the big announcement that Long John Silver's has been
waiting for since January - that there is evidence of a past salty sea
on Mars," said Mike Baker, Chief Marketing Officer for Long John
Silver's, Inc. "We can't wait to celebrate NASA's
out-of-this-world success, and there's no better way to recognize
their giant accomplishments than with free Giant Shrimp for
America."

On Monday, May 10, between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., customers
can stop by any participating Long John Silver's restaurant and enjoy a
free Giant Shrimp (one piece per customer).

Long John Silver's President Steve Davis sent a personal letter to
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, congratulating NASA on their
discovery.

"We've been following the Mars Exploration project since the beginning,"
Davis wrote, "and we've been anxiously awaiting word of evidence of an
ocean on Mars. The rovers have been extremely busy since they arrived
on Mars - they've had 'plenty of things on their plate.' Now, with the
discovery of ocean water, America can add one more thing to its plate -
free Giant Shrimp."

Davis ended the letter by writing, "This is one small step for man, and
one giant leap for Giant Shrimp." He also again expressed interest in
Long John Silver's becoming the first seafood restaurant on Mars.

Baker added that the Giant Shrimp giveaway is the perfect way to
celebrate NASA's historic discovery, which has taken place at the same
time Long John Silver's Giant Shrimp introduction has been one of the
most successful product launches in company history.

"NASA is making history on Mars and Long John Silver's is making history
here on earth," added Baker. "Our faith in NASA has paid off. Their
giant accomplishment calls for Giant Shrimp."

The new Giant Shrimp are the largest shrimp Long John Silver's has ever
served. They feature the great-tasting secret batter that has made Long
John Silver's famous for fish, shrimp and chicken for 35 years.

Every person in the U.S. will have an opportunity to obtain one free
Giant Shrimp at participating Long John Silver's restaurants in the
United States. Redemption will take place on Monday, May 10, 2004,
from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., local time, while supplies last. Customers
can use the store locator at [http://www.ljsilvers.com]www.ljsilvers.com to find their nearest
Long John Silver's locations.

Long John Silver's, Inc. based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's
most popular quick-service seafood chain specializing in a variety of
seafood items including batter-dipped fish, chicken, shrimp and
hushpuppies.

Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island, Long
John Silver's, Inc. was founded in 1969 in response to growing
consumer demand for quick-service seafood. Today, there are more
than 1,250 Long John Silver's, Inc. restaurants worldwide serving
nearly four million customers each week. Long John Silver's, Inc.
is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE:YUM) the world's largest
restaurant company in terms of system units with more than 33,000
restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories.

----------------------

Wonder if Wimpy will do the same thing over here in the UK..?

clark · 2004-03-25 11:47:02

I posted this elsewhere in honor of the recent discovery. Well, perhaps it's not much of an honor, but hey, it's my way of saying, "cool."

By the Meridiani sea,
Waves of salt splashing free,
Upon a beach of fine red sand,
Along the shores of Martian land,
Where water sprays in oceans roar,
And sterile womb never bore,
Life, to swim or climb from thee,
Or was this the root of life’s first tree?
To grow, to branch, to spread its seed,
Was this planet the first to bleed?
To seep with color the blood of life,
Did it first know existence’s strife?
Or was she second to sister Earth,
Inheriting first children of Terran birth,
Who climbed, who crossed, who fell upon
Empty world and distant dawn?
Whose water first borne fruit,
Whose Pan was first to play their flute;
Among the gardens of paradise,
While thickened sky did entice
More life in ever splendid array,
Where did life’s green first greet the day?
Was it red, was it blue,
Is life returned to Mars old or new?
Discoveries afar now await,
To discern the Martian fate,
Of ancient life and Meridiani sea,
And the origin of all to be.

Bill White · 2004-03-25 11:54:56

Methane?

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

Thoughts?

cassioli · 2004-03-25 12:17:54

Is it me seeing things or are the plains also littered with some sperules?
[http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1333 … 1.JPG.html]http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1333 … 1.JPG.html

At the beginning, I though the "granularity" of these Mars photos where caused by low resolution; then, I discovered I was wrong: we just have spherules ALL AROUND, ANYWHERE, and they make photo look like low-res!
Try looking at those images thinking you are looking out of a window, not into a photo: convince your brain you are seing a REAL image, not a photo, and that it is REAL resolution. It's not easy, but if yoy can, you'll eventually see those little spherules everywhere!!

Definitely a strange terrain!

Luca

cassioli · 2004-03-25 12:30:15

*Yess*
Exactly what I was puzzled over...
How old is that crater? How come the sperules are intact after impact, not to mention the delicate outcropping...

The spherules arrived there AFTER the impact. They are just EVERYWHERE, I don't know why. They are over the surface, they are inside rocks, but they are just all around the rovers, both of them.

You can see them if you look with great care at all photos.
They are like spread around just sand grains in a beach!
Is there anything similar on Earth?

Luca

Rxke · 2004-03-25 13:31:55

I dunno for sure about the 'like sand grains on a beach' amount, as this latest microscope pic shows, [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1334 … 1.JPG.html]http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1M1334 … 1.JPG.html they're quite spread out, half buried in the sand... But still, it loos they *are* also on the plains, at least directly near the crater...

Rxke · 2004-03-25 13:33:52

*blink*

METHANE!

Wow!

Bill White · 2004-03-25 14:04:10

*blink*
METHANE!
Wow!

Let THAT sink it for a minute.

Rxke · 2004-03-25 14:37:42

Read the article, it's really an eye opener... There was mention of earlier findings like this, but that was only one measurement, Earth, based so it was inconclusive... (This was somewhere mentioned here on the boards, in the past)

Now it is... And,

"In the DPS poster, Mumma and his colleagues note that in one set of observations the strongest methane signal seems to come from the equatorial regions of Mars where the GRS has shown surprising amounts of hydrogen, and thus possibly water, in the surface. That fits the possibility of life quite nicely."

Geothermal activity is all but ruled out, for they don't see any IR 'hotspots'

Again: wow...

cassioli · 2004-03-25 15:05:45

[http://www.keithlaney.com/SCI/B3.jpg]This image shows very well how little spherules are spread all around the terrain, as you can see the edge between a zone with spherules and a zone without them.
Can you see the low-resolution illusion on the right part of the image?

Luca

Rxke · 2004-03-25 15:22:58

Wow... Stunning pic, even in false colours. Mars' beauty stuns us, every day...

Reds going to hate this, but that looks like a pretty decent amount of Fe2O3 up for grabs... Metallurgy has never been so easy...

And what does a BB bed like this signify? Any ideas?

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-25 23:42:42

Man. I avoided this thread until I could get a chance to see the NASA briefing about water. I know, I'm two days behind here, but better late than never!

First, let me just say that I told ya so. I believed this ever since I started coming here, and even before then. The MOLA data just intuitively told me this! So yeah, Sax was right, my friends!

I'm not knowledable about geology, so I can't really be speculating about 90% of the stuff you guys are talking about; at most I can say "Hey, pretty, let's build something there!" But the press briefing really managed to explain the formations they have found in laymans terms, which is really great.

Just to interject some replies to what some have said here. I think it's counterintuitive that fossils, if discovered, would hurt any manned exploration programs. Even Sean O'Keefe admitted this (that it would help manned exploration) while answering the question presented to him during the Q&A!

And I think that NASA is definitely being more forward with life/water/etc than before, but I think that's a natural consequence of actually knowing what in the heck is there, and having the data to back it up. I mean, it would just be really irresponsible for NASA or NASA scientists to up and claim stuff that can't at least be verfied or agreed upon by the scientific community. Like, you know, how "conspirists" claim to see magical formations using imagry at hundreds of meters per pixel.

So yeah.

atomoid · 2004-03-26 04:00:38

Yeah, lots and lots of spherules littered around everywhere, presumably the bedrock has been getting exhumed and blown away with the wind, leaving a huge littering of sperules everywhere like desert pavement forming as the bedrock dissolves and blows away from under them, concentrating them at an ever-sinking surface.

A large number of the spherules are broken in half. but why? how hard or brittle are they? now how is that, if theyre iron hematite, did they crack? temperature shock? shoudlnt they be more durable? note that some were half broken and still embedded in the bedrock so some had to have broken before the bedrock was created.

what in [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1334 … 1.JPG.html]the heck is this ? the heatshield? somehow i'd thought it would be much farther in the distance. oops! no its just that chunk of rock taken from [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1N1332 … 1.JPG.html]different positions and [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1333 … 1.JPG.html]vantage points so it only appears at first like it has different backgrounds. its deceiving how big this stuff seems to be but this is really pretty close given the parallax, so this chunk of rock that looks like its probably as big as a footlocker is probably only about a foot wide, whad'ya say?

The [http://www.lyle.org/mars/bysol/1-059.html]Opportunity SOL 59 images look most otherworldly, reminds me what an alien experience it is to watch new pictures from another planet get sent in every day. the closeups of the white soils almost looks like it could be an orbitter photo. so is this white soil merely exhumed bedrock dust collecting on the leeward side of the crater rim? is it also what composed the white crusts in teh little crater feature next to the lander that they bulldozed?

Gennaro · 2004-03-26 19:12:34

*blink*
METHANE!
Wow!

This could be a truly historical moment!

Rxke · 2004-03-27 02:22:26

Uhuh. I'm truly amazed, nah- STUNNED there has been virtually no talk about this, anywhere (even on this very boards!)

This is essentially what Beagle was built to be looking for, imagine Beagle landing successfully, and finding said methane, the world press would runn headlines. And now: nothing, absolutely nothing. The human mind is a strange thing...

METHANE ON MARS, people! Wake up!

Rxke · 2004-03-27 05:07:48

little update: Opp is now good and well on the plains, heading for one of the bouncemarks, judging from the navcam pics from sol61.

Spirit did 2 'grinds' on a large slab of rock, with jagged features. (Can't describe better, but it's an interesting rock: ) [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/2P1335 … 1.JPG.html]http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/2P1335 … 1.JPG.html esp the false-colour pics, that seem to suggest there's something underneath the dustlayer with a different composition (?) : [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery]http:/ … rs/imagery]

SohoBoy · 2004-03-27 05:14:00

METHANE ON MARS, people! Wake up!

ok... im awake..just..

so we've got methanogen micro-organisms of some sort, or Mars isn't totally volcanicly dead - any other options?

whatever it is, it has to be a current and active process - any methane in the atmosphere would be broken down fairly rapidly by the high UV flux.

are there any hotspots in the infrared band seen in the global surveyor imagery? vents where hot gasses containing methane might be escaping?

....and an article in New Scientist this week. In the last 'few weeks' NASA has agreed to provide development funds for a proposal to include a miniaturised Polymerase Chain Reaction machine in the next rover mission, 2009. The 'micro-lab' will look for one of the 500 'universal genes' found in all life on earth, which encodes for a molecule known as '16S ribosomal RNA'. Specifically it will look for a short highly conserved sequence within the gene which is, as far as we know, invariant in all life on Earth. Full page article, p19, issue of 27th March.

The proposal has been put forward By Gary Ruvkun, at the department of genetics at Massachussets General hospital ( the author of the article) in conjunction with a group of scientists at MIT, and engineers at MJ research - manufacturers of automated lab equipment.

Rxke · 2004-03-27 05:27:25

Hotspots... The original article ( [http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal]http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal a must-read... ) says not, but IIRC, there were some anomalies, seen in IR both during night and day periods, so it might be tiny hotspots...

Edit: erratum: the original entry is here: [http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijour … d_thu.html]http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijou....hu.html former link is to the blog in toto, but it gets updates about the mathane, so you might check it, too.)

Stu · 2004-03-27 05:30:55

Hi gang,

Been offline a couple of days so just catching up on the goss...

METHANE? What?!?!? I go away for 48 hrs and the detection of methane sneaks up on me?!?! (cough splutter) Wow, how cool is that? Or rather, how cool could that be if it's confirmed... going to have to do some serious catch-up reading, but if it's true then can open, worms everywhere!!!

Looks like some gorgeous new pics have been doing the rounds too... don't know about everyone else but I'm knocked out by the wide panorama of Eagle Crater, surrounded by gentle ripples and sand waves, just beautiful... getting quite close to being my favourite pic so far. There's a lovely 3D version here...

[http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA05619.jpg]http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA05619.jpg

Okay, time to do that reading...

Palomar · 2004-03-27 07:04:06

Wow... Stunning pic, even in false colours. Mars' beauty stuns us, every day...{snip}...And what does a BB bed like this signify? Any ideas?

*Maybe we should start calling some of these things "Marvin's Bullets." <smile>

Yep, enjoying the pics; thanks to the folks posting them.

--Cindy

Julius Caeser · 2004-03-27 11:20:34

Looking at pics of Meridiani plains certainly give us a completely different view of Mars like we've never seen it before.So its not at all surprising that Opportunity gave us the first hard evidence of water on the planet.Yet i find it puzzling that sites like pathfinder site and gusev crater look distinctively different in the fact that these areas seem to have been exposed to water as well:at least thats what it appears to be the case judging from orbital pics:Ares vallis being right at the mouth of a huge water flow and so is gusev.Could it be that the evidence of water at these 2 latter sites has been eradicated in contrast to that at Meridiani and hence signifying a different era (older era) of water history at pathfinder and Spirit sites?Any thoughts? ???

Julius Caeser · 2004-03-27 11:24:05

Still cant understand why dark areas exemplified by Meridiani are well preserved knowing that global dust storms occur on Mars! ??? would appreciate if someone could give me some feedback regarding this matter. :;):

cassioli · 2004-03-27 12:52:02

I did a bit of experimentations with raw Spirit data, and I eventually obtained an interesting color mircoscope image.

I would like to read your comments about it:
[http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini/index.html]Color spherules

Luca

Julius Caeser · 2004-03-27 13:45:06

Cassioli,are you trying to suggest that some of those round objects or 'pebbles" could be spherules similar to the ones found at Meridiani?I guess the only way to confirm that is to show that some of these are made up of haematite or not but that would be difficult since individually they wont make up a strong signal as to give themselves up in moss spectra!

cassioli · 2004-03-27 14:05:50

Cassioli,are you trying to suggest that some of those round objects or 'pebbles" could be spherules similar to the ones found at Meridiani?I guess the only way to confirm that is to show that some of these are made up of haematite or not but that would be difficult since individually they wont make up a strong signal as to give themselves up in moss spectra!

In my opinion, it looks like all the planet is covered with those damned spherlues, as we can find them on two opposite sides of the planet! But I can only base my judgement on their color&shape, until we'll have chemical evidences.

[edit]
Maybe Spirit could examine the huge quantity of blue spherules inside Bonneville? They should be enough for its instruments!!

Luca

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#51 2004-03-25 11:43:06

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#52 2004-03-25 11:47:02

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#53 2004-03-25 11:54:56

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#54 2004-03-25 12:17:54

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#55 2004-03-25 12:30:15

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#56 2004-03-25 13:31:55

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#57 2004-03-25 13:33:52

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#58 2004-03-25 14:04:10

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#59 2004-03-25 14:37:42

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#60 2004-03-25 15:05:45

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#61 2004-03-25 15:22:58

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#62 2004-03-25 23:42:42

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#63 2004-03-26 04:00:38

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#64 2004-03-26 19:12:34

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#65 2004-03-27 02:22:26

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#66 2004-03-27 05:07:48

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#67 2004-03-27 05:14:00

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#68 2004-03-27 05:27:25

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#69 2004-03-27 05:30:55

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#70 2004-03-27 07:04:06

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#71 2004-03-27 11:20:34

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#72 2004-03-27 11:24:05

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#73 2004-03-27 12:52:02

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#74 2004-03-27 13:45:06

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

#75 2004-03-27 14:05:50

Re: Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Board footer

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Re: Spirit & Opportunity 5 - Let's start with new NASA conference!