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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 27.06.04 12:45l 111 Lines 4659 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : E80067ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Spirit's "Pot of gold" puzzle
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ON0AR<7M3TJZ<ZL2BAU<ZL2BAU<ZL2AB
Sent: 040627/1022Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:43012 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
*Spirit's 'Pot of Gold' Perplexes Researchers*
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 04:30 pm ET
25 June 2004
NASA's Spirit rover has found a Martian rock unlike anything researchers
have seen before -- on Mars or Earth -- but they hope it may finally
hint at a watery past of the Gusev crater landing site. Mission
engineers are also pushing the rover Opportunity to its robotic limits
inside a crater on the other side of the planet.
Sitting at the foot of Gusev's "Columbia Hills," Spirit is studying "Pot
of Gold," a softball-sized rock covered in knobby nuggets atop short
rock stalks.
"This is a fiendishly difficult target to study," said Steve Squyres,
rover principal investigator from Cornell University, during a mission
briefing Friday. "I don't know how these things formed and it's driving
me nuts, to be honest."
So far, the rock's most telling quality is its composition. According to
Spirit's science instruments, "Pot of Gold" contains hematite, a mineral
known to form in water, though it can also be produced through volcanic
processes. The mineral has not been found in any other rocks at Spirit's
Gusev crater landing site, but was found in quantity at Opportunity's
Meridiani Planum landing site.
"The science team doesn't have a real clue as to how this hematite
formed," explained Doug Ming, a rover science team member from NASA's
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "Could it mean water? Yes. Could
it mean something else? Yes."
Spirit has taken panoramic and microscopic images of the rock and
studied with two of its robot arm-mounted spectrometers. The robot is
currently preparing to bite into "Pot of Gold" with its rock abrasion
tool (RAT), but the RAT drill is typically suited for smooth rock faces,
not the uneven texture of the nugget-ridden
"This is a remarkably strange-looking rock, and we have not got this
thing figured out yet," Squyres said, adding that so far it resembles
nothing seen on Mars or Earth. "But it may be something uniquely Martian."
Mission scientists plan for Spirit to spend the next few days solely
studying 'Pot of Gold.' After that, the rover will conduct a series of
maneuvers in attempts to restore its front right wheel to normal
operations. The wheel has been drawing more current than its five
counterparts during Spirit's trek to the Columbia Hills. Engineers hope
they can stem that power drain by warming the wheel to redistribute
lubricant within its drive acuator.
*Opportunity on edge
On the other side of Mars at Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover is
sitting on the cusp of the steepest slope yet on its descent inside
"Endurance Crater."
The slope, roughly 35 degrees downhill, is right at the mission design
limits for the robotic explorer, but tests with an Earth-based rover
have shown that Opportunity should be able to proceed, said Chris
Voorhees, a rover mechanical systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL).
"It's very fulfilling to see us, at both landing sites, fully utilizing
the capabilities of these two rovers we sent to Mars," Voorhees said
during the mission briefing.
Opportunity is currently studying a series of rock layers about 16 feet
(five meters) inside the lip of "Endurance," grinding into each layer
with its rock abrasion tool. The layers appear very similar to those
seen at "Eagle Crater," Opportunity's first Mars home, where scientists
were able to conclude that water did soak the region at some time in
Mars' distant past.
But inside "Endurance," Opportunity has made some unexpected findings.
"There's a lot more salt here than we thought," Squyres said. "And there
was a lot more water involved in doing this."
As the rovers continues further inside "Endurance," it no longer sees
rocky ripples that indicated flowing water in the planet's past, and the
level of the salt bromine appears more constant that at higher regions
of crater.
One hypothesis is that these salts were deposited by evaporating water,
then stirred up by Martian winds to give the crater interior its current
appearance, Squyres said, adding that Opportunity should answer more
questions as it moves further down into the crater.
"What I hope is to be able to learn what the total amount of water may
have been," he added.
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
IP :zl2val@qsl.net
APRS:!3903.34S/17406.45E]
Message timed: 22:20 on 2004-Jun-27
Wackiest Warning Labels Ever
----------------------------
* A warning on an electric router made for carpenters cautions, "This
product not intended for use as a dental drill."
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