MSL: Curiosity Heads Toward Active Dunes

[bystander]

Curiosity Heads Toward Active Dunes
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2015 Nov 16

[img3="The dark band in the lower portion of this Martian scene is part of the
"Bagnold Dunes" dune field lining the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS"]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ima ... 929_ip.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

On its way to higher layers of the mountain where it is investigating how Mars' environment changed billions of years ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will take advantage of a chance to study some modern Martian activity at mobile sand dunes.

In the next few days, the rover will get its first close-up look at these dark dunes, called the "Bagnold Dunes," which skirt the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. No Mars rover has previously visited a sand dune, as opposed to smaller sand ripples or drifts. One dune Curiosity will investigate is as tall as a two-story building and as broad as a football field. The Bagnold Dunes are active: Images from orbit indicate some of them are migrating as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year. No active dunes have been visited anywhere in the solar system besides Earth. ...

As of Monday, Nov. 16, Curiosity has about 200 yards or meters remaining to drive before reaching "Dune 1." The rover is already monitoring the area's wind direction and speed each day and taking progressively closer images, as part of the dune research campaign. At the dune, it will use its scoop to collect samples for the rover's internal laboratory instruments, and it will use a wheel to scuff into the dune for comparison of the surface to the interior. ...

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<<Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was the founder and first commander of the British Army's Long Range Desert Group during World War II. He is also generally considered to have been a pioneer of desert exploration, an acclaim earned for his activities during the 1930s. These included the first recorded east-west crossing of the Libyan Desert (1932). Bagnold laid the foundations for the research on sand transport by wind in his influential book The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (first published 1941), which is still a main reference in the field. It has, for instance, been used by NASA in studying sand dunes on Mars. (Bagnold's sister was the novelist and playwright Enid Bagnold, who wrote the 1935 novel National Velvet.)

Bagnold and his travelling companions were early pioneers in the use of motor vehicles to explore the desert. In 1932, Bagnold explored the Mourdi Depression, now in Chad, and found implements dated to the Palaeolithic period in the valley. During the 1930s his group also began the practice of reducing tyre pressure when driving over loose sand. In addition, Bagnold is credited with discovering a method of driving over the large sand dunes found in the "sand seas" of the Libyan Desert. He wrote, "I increased speed. ... A huge glaring wall of yellow shot up high into the sky. The lorry tipped violently backwards—and we rose as in a lift, smoothly without vibration. We floated up on a yellow cloud. All the accustomed car movements had ceased; only the speedometer told us we were still moving fast. It was incredible ..." However, noted Fitzroy Maclean, "too much dash had its penalties. Many of the dunes fell away sharply at the far side and if you arrived at the top at full speed, you were likely to plunge headlong over the precipice. ... and end up with your truck upside down on top of you."

Bagnold continued to publish scientific papers into his nineties. He made significant contributions to the scientific understanding of desert structures such as sand dunes, ripples and sheets. He developed the dimensionless Bagnold number and Bagnold formula for characterising sand flow. He gave a constitutive relation for a suspension of neutrally buoyant particles in a Newtonian fluid. He also proposed a model for singing sands and made contributions to the science of sedimentology.>>

[Ann]

Sounds like the sort of man Stephen Spielberg might have modelled Indiana Jones after.

Ann

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Sounds like the sort of man Stephen Spielberg might have modeled Indiana Jones after.

• Why not

[b][color=#0000FF]Costume designer Deborah Landis noted that the inspiration for the series as well as Indiana Jones' outfit was Charlton Heston's Harry Steele in _Secret of the Incas_ (1954) and called _Raiders_ 'almost a shot for shot' remake of the Heston film, citing that Indiana Jones was 'a kinder, gentler Harry Steele': 'We did watch this film together as a crew several times, and I always thought it strange that the filmmakers did not credit it later as the inspiration for the series.'[/color][/b]

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<<Indiana Jones is modeled after the strong-jawed heroes of the matinée serials and pulp magazines that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg enjoyed in their childhoods (such as the Republic Pictures serials, and the Doc Savage series). Sir H. Rider Haggard's safari guide/big game hunter Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines, who dates back to 1885, is a notable template for Jones. The two friends first discussed the project around the time of the release of the first Star Wars film. Spielberg told Lucas how he wanted his next project to be something fun, like a James Bond film (this would later be referenced when they cast Sean Connery as Henry Jones, Sr.). According to sources, Lucas responded to the effect that he'd "got that beat."

One of the possible bases for Indiana Jones are Professor Challenger, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912 for his novel, The Lost World. Challenger was based on Doyle's physiology professor, Sir William Rutherford, an adventuring academic, albeit a zoologist/anthropologist.

The character was originally named Indiana Smith, after an Alaskan Malamute called Indiana that Lucas owned in the 1970s. Spielberg disliked the name Smith, and Lucas casually suggested Jones as an alternative. The Last Crusade script references the name's origin:

• Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"?
  
  Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery): That's his name.
  • [points to himself] Henry Jones...
    [points to Indy] ...Junior.
  
  Indiana Jones: I like "Indiana."
  
  Professor Henry Jones: We named the *dog* Indiana.
  
  Marcus Brody: May we go home now, please?
  
  Sallah: The dog? [starts laughing]
  You are named after the dog? HA HA HA...!
  
  Indiana Jones: I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog.

Lucas has said on various occasions that Sean Connery's portrayal of British secret agent James Bond was one of the primary inspirations for Jones, a reason Connery was chosen for the role of Indiana's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

• Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery): Those people are trying to kill us!
  
  Indiana Jones: [shouts] I know, Dad!
  
  Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery): This is a new experience for me.
  
  Indiana Jones: It happens to me all the time.
  ........................................................
  • The Seven Year Itch (1955)
  
  Marilyn Monroe: What happened? I kinda lost track.
  
  Tom Ewell: I don't know. This is terrible. There's nothing I can say, except that I'm terribly sorry. Nothing like this ever happened to me before in all my life.
  
  Marilyn Monroe: Honest? (It) happens to me all the time.

[saturno2]

Rover Curiosity , the new mission the Dunes on Mars.
I think is very important to study this topic

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At the dune, it will use its scoop to collect samples for the rover's internal laboratory instruments, and it will use a wheel to scuff into the dune for comparison of the surface to the interior. ...

Rover Curiosity , the new mission the Dunes on Mars.
I think is very important to study this topic

We'll see if Curiosity has the right scuff.

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Black Friday … on Mars 4
By Phil Plait

Photos by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151129.html