MER: Opportunity Keeps Finding Surprises

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bystander
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MER: Opportunity Keeps Finding Surprises

Post by bystander » Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:25 pm

Long-Lived Mars Rover Opportunity Keeps Finding Surprises
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MER Opportunity | 2018 Feb 16
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible “rock stripes.”

The ground texture seen in recent images from the rover resembles a smudged version of very distinctive stone stripes on some mountain slopes on Earth that result from repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of wet soil. But it might also be due to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a combination.

Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. As it reaches the 5,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was planned as a 90-sol mission, it is investigating a channel called “Perseverance Valley,” which descends the inboard slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. ...

On some slopes within the valley, the soil and gravel particles appear to have become organized into narrow rows or corrugations, parallel to the slope, alternating between rows with more gravel and rows with less. ...
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MER: Opportunity Approaching 5,000th Martian Dawn

Post by bystander » Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:30 pm

5,000 Days on Mars; Solar-Powered Rover Approaching 5,000th Martian Dawn
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MER Opportunity | 2018 Feb 16
[img3="The channel descending a Martian slope in this perspective view is "Perseverance Valley," the study area of NASA's Mars rover Opportunity as the rover passes its 5,000th Martian day. The view overlays a HiRISE image onto a topographic model with five-fold vertical exaggeration, to show shapes. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/WUSTL"]https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... 216-16.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
The Sun will rise on NASA's solar-powered Mars rover Opportunity for the 5,000th time on Saturday, sending rays of energy to a golf-cart-size robotic field geologist that continues to provide revelations about the Red Planet. ...

A Martian "sol" lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, and a Martian year lasts nearly two Earth years. Opportunity's Sol 1 was landing day, Jan. 25, 2004 (that's in Universal Time; it was Jan. 24 in California). The prime mission was planned to last 90 sols. NASA did not expect the rover to survive through a Martian winter. Sol 5,000 will begin early Friday, Universal Time, with the 4,999th dawn a few hours later. Opportunity has worked actively right through the lowest-energy months of its eighth Martian winter.

From the rover's perspective on the inside slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater, the milestone sunrise will appear over the basin's eastern rim, about 14 miles (22 kilometers) away. Opportunity has driven over 28 miles (45 kilometers) from its landing site to its current location about one-third of the way down "Perseverance Valley," a shallow channel incised from the rim's crest of the crater's floor. The rover has returned about 225,000 images, all promptly made public online.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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5,000 Sols... yet no Illudium Phosdex found?

Post by neufer » Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:04 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Dodgers wrote: <<Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers is the metafictional star of a series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros., featuring Daffy Duck in the role of a science fiction hero.

He first appeared in the 1953 cartoon short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, directed by Chuck Jones as a spoof of the popular Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Flash Gordon science fiction serials of the 1930s, casting the brash, egomaniacal Daffy Duck as the hero of the story. As of 2003 it is available in the DVD compilation Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, and is also available for download on the iTunes Store in the Daffy Duck collection.

The plot of the cartoon involves Duck Dodgers' search for the rare element Illudium Phosdex, "the shaving cream atom", the only remaining supply of which is on the mysterious "Planet X." Just after Dodgers has claimed Planet X in the name of the Earth, Marvin the Martian lands on the same planet and claims it in the name of Mars. The stage is set for a battle of wits, not to mention various forms of weaponry, most of which tend to backfire hilariously on Dodgers.

Considering the period in which the cartoon was produced (the Red Scare was in full swing during the 1950s era), some scholars have used the cartoon to parallel the supposed futility of the Cold War and the arms race.

The first sequel, also produced by Chuck Jones and with Mel Blanc reprising his roles, was titled Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century and was released in 1980. The plot of this sequel cartoon was nearly a carbon copy of the original though this time, Marvin says he is trying to solve the Earth's energy crisis (by blowing up the Earth); Marvin succeeds in launching his missile and at the end of the cartoon reminds everyone that it's only a cartoon.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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