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#226 2005-08-11 13:28:41

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

...And then, at the outpost's dining table:

-"Spacenut, have you washed up, prior to dinner, you smel, ugh!"

-"Aaw, mom, I just got me a nice dustdevil-cleansing, like the ole' rovers used to get, waaay back in 2005, and they came out spiffy clean, remember?"

lol

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#227 2005-08-11 16:13:05

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Yup great looking but I would rather feel the pelting of those grains of sand against a thickly armored Mars suit and to feel the force of the wind as it washes over me trying to push me along with it. lol

*Oh come on.  Where's your sense of fun?  Besides, you couldn't -feel- the stinging sand with a suit on.  neutral  I've allowed a dust devil to run over me.  Squeezed my eyes shut and ow ow ow ow!, like being lashed by zillions of tiny furious whips...but no lacerations nor scratches afterwards.  And what a way to get your hair mussed up, LOL.  Quite a rough tugging at the clothing, too; every-which-way and crazy.

I highly recommend allowing one's self to be run over by a dust devil.  'Taint no big deal.  And on Mars?  With its low atmospheric pressure?  Bah, nothing to it.  wink

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#228 2005-08-12 01:02:32

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Cindy, the crazed-out, wild-haired,  self-flagellating desert hermit!

lol  tongue

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#229 2005-08-12 05:36:28

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

*Good morning, Rik.

Dust]http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-base-05f.html]"Dust devils help to

...crack the whip on many a day, all across Mars."

Rik mentioned self-flagellation in response to my previous post...now this.  We've got a bit of S & M going on with regards to Mars, eh?  LOL!

Article is accompanied by an animation.  Look at those devils zipping along.

For many months we received no images of dust devils from either S or O.  Remember my bemoaning that more than once?  Now it's dust devils galoresmile

This article deals with static electricity and the like. 

"On Mars, we think the soil is so dry and insulating that if an astronaut were out walking, once he or she returned to the habitat and reached out to open the airlock, a little lightning bolt might zap critical electronics," explains Geoffrey A. Landis, a physicist

Mentions triboelectric charging.  Hmmm...tribbles causing trouble again?  wink

"On Mars," he continues, "discharges can happen at no more than a few hundred volts. It's likely that these will take the form of coronal glows rather than lightning bolts. As such, they may not be life threatening for the astronauts, but they could be harmful to electronic equipment."

Suggestion:

On Mars, the best ground might be, ironically, the air. A tiny radioactive source "such as that used in smoke detectors," could be attached to each spacesuit and to the habitat, suggests Landis

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#230 2005-08-12 07:12:15

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

That alu mesh solution to static buildup seems a bit... unwieldy, no?

Midnight Mars Browser... Heh.

I'd like to call this: 'you can have it all.' Michael Howard, the writer of the browser, posted this screenshot: a dust devil AND sunset!

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=33329866&size=l

8)

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#231 2005-08-12 07:21:18

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

I'd like to call this: 'you can have it all.' Michael Howard, the writer of the browser, posted this screenshot: a dust devil AND sunset!

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=33329866&size=l

8)

*That's terrific.  smile  Sol a tiny ball of light near the Martian horizon, so unlike the vastly bloated Solset via optical illusion on Earth.  I have a feeling future Martians will sort of envy Earth on that count.  wink  (Unless of course the M atmosphere will be artificially replenished at some point...but this isn't a thread for terraforming discussion anyway).

It's so cool to be able to realize and say "I've seen dust devils moving about on Mars.  I've seen a Martian sunset."  Thanks to the MERs' "eyes," we have.  big_smile 

Can't take it for granted.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#232 2005-08-12 08:44:37

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

...And then, at the outpost's dining table:

-"Spacenut, have you washed up, prior to dinner, you smel, ugh!"

-"Aaw, mom, I just got me a nice dustdevil-cleansing, like the ole' rovers used to get, waaay back in 2005, and they came out spiffy clean, remember?"

lol

But I washed on the way in with the Co2 bath.... gee I just got washed by a dust devil...

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#233 2005-08-14 21:41:34

marscat
Banned
Registered: 2005-08-14
Posts: 1

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Midnight Mars Browser... Heh.

Hi all... I am the author of Midnight Mars Browser, Michael Howard in real life. Found out about this forum from Rxke and via MMB's website stats, just checking it out and saying "hi" smile (I'm jumping in here without getting a "feel" for the place, hope I'm not violating any 'net etiquette.)

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#234 2005-08-15 05:56:35

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Rik:-

:shock:  :shock:  :shock:

Biggest tornado-twister-whatever!.... Ever!  big_smile

Only just caught up with this thread again.
That 'widescreen' movie of all those dust devils is fantastic!  I felt just like I was there watching those things swirl by. As Cindy said later:-

It's so cool to be able to realize and say "I've seen dust devils moving about on Mars. I've seen a Martian sunset." Thanks to the MERs' "eyes," we have.  big_smile

... those MERs have taken us as close to visiting Mars personally as we're ever likely to get, I suppose. Unless or until the Mars Science Laboratory arrives in about 5 years.  smile


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#235 2005-08-15 13:00:49

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Great update on Oppy

*Lots of news.  Oppy's currently "several kilometers" south of Eagle and Endurance.  More blueberries discovered, and unlike the blueberries previously seen:  Some are smaller than previously seen, some don't appear to be quite round and there's many more of them. 

Article mentions that hematite is distributed a bit differently here than at any other rocks at Meridani.

Another mystery:  "Cobbles."  Are they impact crater ejecta?  Possibly meteorites?
Oppy's currently parked in front of a field of cobbles. 

Yet another mystery:  "Rinds." 

Update on Spirit too.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#236 2005-08-16 04:44:30

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

I've been looking hard at the latest imagery (thanks to the MMR software) and it is indeed very interesting.

The blueberries esp. Some closeup pictures seem to tell me, as a total amateur, they are close to the AHA-Rosetta stone point. Some rocks seem very 'telling' about their origin, lots of 'evolutionary' layering, embedding, etc...

And the landscape is just....

like driving on a frozen, wavy sea.

Then the cobblestones. The look like they're waiting to tell a story, all by themself.

Must be truly heady times for geologists and rockhounds!

And it looks like Spirit is mere meters from the summit!!! boyohboyohboy!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=34274152&size=l   (MMR screenshot  by marscat / Michael Howard)

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#237 2005-08-16 06:08:51

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

00000003.gif  smile


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#238 2005-08-18 06:29:12

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

*Spirit Update:

Nearly at the summit of Husband Hill

Yay!  Predictions are Spirit will complete the climb later this week.

Mentions "Assemblee," which Squyres says has a "crazy composition."  Also possesses the highest levels of chromium yet detected on Mars by the MER team.

Once the summit of HH is reached, they're hoping to have Spirit inspect a basin to the south.  Everyone's looking forward to the view from the summit...including me.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#239 2005-08-19 05:40:27

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Oppy entering field of cobbles

*It's been using RAT and all spectrometers, imaging instruments, etc.  They mention a cobble target which has been named "Arkansas." 

Oppy had a backlog of data difficulty; the backlog was offloaded via Odyssey, as it made overnight passes.  It's cool how the probes and MERs are interacting.  They're trying to avoid too much new data accumulation. 

Seems Oppy will be taking an easterly route to the Erebus Highway.  Lots of other info in the article too.  Total current odometry is 3.56 miles.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#240 2005-08-19 06:28:58

REB
Banned
From: Houston, Texas
Registered: 2004-04-07
Posts: 555
Website

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)


"Run for it? Running's not a plan! Running's what you do, once a plan fails!"  -Earl Bassett

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#241 2005-08-19 06:35:41

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Looking at the horizon you can just make out a dust devil.

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#242 2005-08-19 16:21:43

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

(jumps up and dow)

First pictures of homeplate and SE basin are in!!!!


YAAAAYYYYYY Spirit made it!!!

ho-hahookey-ha yeaaaaah!

And maaaaan... Looks like *very* interesting stuff ahead.

The view isn't that great, now, but another short run and we're bound to see a super-jawdropping panorama! Already some interesting features to make out, hmmmmm... Interesting days ahead.

Oh, and some good 'rind' pics in, too, at Oppy's side.

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#243 2005-08-19 16:57:37

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Strange, eh? Steve says Home Plate is about a mile away, but from the pictures, thats's really hard to tell, looks a lot closer.

Nothing to compare with makes for a very hard job to judge distances. Imagien there were no orbiters, providing overhead imagery, to judge distances, driving would become a lot harder.

Aaaah, what amazing technology...

And... Homeplate being 'hundreds ofdays of driving away'... They say that so casually... Over at Djellison's site, someone is taking extrapolations of the solarcell output, to guesstimate the lifetime (if nothing else breaks)

Make a guess?  tongue

(it's quite stunning, and sobering at the same time... to read the prediction I found out, no matter how long before the 'end date' ...it comes as some kind of shock. In the back of my head, these rovers are there for eternity, in a way....)

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#244 2005-08-22 19:26:08

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

New dust devils movie

During early spring on Mars, dust devils typically wind their way from southwest to northeast across streaks that can be seen from orbit.

I think I've read that before.  If so, will note again that that is the direction tornadoes usually (9.5 times out of 10) travel in the Midwest of the U.S.  Very interesting.

But then:

As the season moves forward, the windy objects move from northwest to southeast in the same direction of the streaks

Whoa.  neutral

"My hope is to be able to take what we know now at Gusev and then apply it to the rest of the planet,” Whelley said.

I wonder.

Researchers condensed the windy devils’ 12-minute, 17-second passing into a short black and white movie clip. [Click here to see the movie.]

-also-

Spirit first observed dust devils on Mars near the beginning of the region’s spring season. While they increased in frequency as the season wore on, they dropped off for about two weeks during a dust storm only to return in force once it had passed

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#245 2005-08-24 05:41:11

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Spirit has arrived  big_smile

*Includes update and photo.  Spirit has as much power as the day it landed; very healthy.  Great. 

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#246 2005-08-24 05:53:08

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Maybe you noticed the article was written by someone we know, hmmm?

big_smile

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#247 2005-08-24 06:12:15

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Maybe you noticed the article was written by someone we know, hmmm?

big_smile

*Actually I didn't look at the author's name (I seldom do).  :oops:  Usually just jump right into the article itself.  :oops:

Congratulations, Doug.  He got to break the news about this milestone at spacedaily.com.  big_smile

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#248 2005-08-25 06:44:17

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

And... Homeplate being 'hundreds ofdays of driving away'... They say that so casually... Over at Djellison's site, someone is taking extrapolations of the solarcell output, to guesstimate the lifetime (if nothing else breaks)

Make a guess?  tongue

(it's quite stunning, and sobering at the same time... to read the prediction I found out, no matter how long before the 'end date' ...it comes as some kind of shock. In the back of my head, these rovers are there for eternity, in a way....)

*Yeah, I know what you mean.  We've gotten spoiled by how fabulously the MERs continue doing.  Is it even necessary to mention how far beyond the 3-month warranty they've gone??  Somehow I too have this notion in the back of my mind that they'll go on and on for years more.  The view from Husband Hill is "tempting"...more hill/mountain ranges in the distance, beckoning.  It's a definite "want to see what's around the bend/over the next hill" thing. 

It's never enough.  And shouldn't be.  wink 

At least Spirit made it to HH's summit.  Shortly after its mission began, remember it was having data accumulation troubles causing all sorts of nightmare glitches, and mission controllers nearly pronounced Spirit dead?  And that bum leg hasn't stopped it yet either.

Really don't want to think about...the inevitable. 

--Cindy

P.S.:  And Rik, wasn't it Spirit which landed on Mars on your birthday??  Or was that Oppy?  Maybe I'm confusing it with another event, but I'm certain it was Spirit's landing which coincided with your birthday.

Oh--and it's a pity Stu isn't around to see your current avatar, LOL!  He always "loved" those photos.  wink


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#249 2005-08-25 07:21:49

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

We've gotten spoiled by how fabulously the MERs continue doing. Is it even necessary to mention how far beyond the 3-month warranty they've gone?? Somehow I too have this notion in the back of my mind that they'll go on and on for years more.

Yup and Nasa funding will be the issue for when we will no longer be getting these great images from Mars. Who knows what we will see or discover with the rovers.

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#250 2005-08-25 07:43:26

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

We've gotten spoiled by how fabulously the MERs continue doing. Is it even necessary to mention how far beyond the 3-month warranty they've gone?? Somehow I too have this notion in the back of my mind that they'll go on and on for years more.

Yup and Nasa funding will be the issue for when we will no longer be getting these great images from Mars. Who knows what we will see or discover with the rovers.

*SpaceNut, this isn't a funding issue.  The MERs will, like other vehicles, eventually wear out, break down and die.  Unfortunately, as we know, there's no one on Mars to mechanically maintain them.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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