by MarkBour » Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:33 pm
Chris Peterson wrote:MarkBour wrote:I've looked for updates on this from NASA. I would think the rock and its suspected original location would be of great interest to them. Yet, I haven't seen anything. Has anyone else?
No. I think it is only of moderate interest. They've aimed some instruments at it to examine the mineralogy, but beyond that, I don't think it's creating much of a hiccup in the overall mission plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see a paper in the next year, assuming the mineralogy proves unusual- something that isn't obviously the case.
The Mars rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University the other day made the following comments:
[The rock] obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate.
. . .
The jelly part is like nothing we’ve seen before on Mars. It’s very high in sulfur and magnesium and it has twice as much manganese as anything we’ve seen before. I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, everybody on the team is arguing and fighting. We’re having a wonderful time!
. . .
It will likely be the target of considerable investigation over the next few days.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z2t1y45JTJ
And I know they have had the rover sitting there, trying a number of tough movements to bring its instruments to bear on the "Pinnacle Island" sample. Also, they would want to investigate the theory about its point of origin to verify that it was indeed flipped over by Opportunity. 10 years, this rover has been on the planet, and I don't think that in the previous 9.9 years, it managed to do this kind of thing before, at least not on a strikingly interesting sample. They named it Opportunity, and here it is. But I do hope they share some findings sooner than a year from now in a paper, if only to give answers to the questions they themselves raised in the public consciousness.
[quote="Chris Peterson"][quote="MarkBour"]I've looked for updates on this from NASA. I would think the rock and its suspected original location would be of great interest to them. Yet, I haven't seen anything. Has anyone else?[/quote]
No. I think it is only of moderate interest. They've aimed some instruments at it to examine the mineralogy, but beyond that, I don't think it's creating much of a hiccup in the overall mission plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see a paper in the next year, assuming the mineralogy proves unusual- something that isn't obviously the case.[/quote]
The Mars rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University the other day made the following comments:
[quote][The rock] obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate.
. . .
The jelly part is like nothing we’ve seen before on Mars. It’s very high in sulfur and magnesium and it has twice as much manganese as anything we’ve seen before. I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, everybody on the team is arguing and fighting. We’re having a wonderful time!
. . .
It will likely be the target of considerable investigation over the next few days.
[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2551778/William-Shatner-joins-calls-Nasa-investigate-alien-doughnut-Mars.html#ixzz2t1y45JTJ[/url][/quote]
And I know they have had the rover sitting there, trying a number of tough movements to bring its instruments to bear on the "Pinnacle Island" sample. Also, they would want to investigate the theory about its point of origin to verify that it was indeed flipped over by Opportunity. 10 years, this rover has been on the planet, and I don't think that in the previous 9.9 years, it managed to do this kind of thing before, at least not on a strikingly interesting sample. They named it Opportunity, and here it is. But I do hope they share some findings sooner than a year from now in a paper, if only to give answers to the questions they themselves raised in the public consciousness.