Main Menu

Mars Lives.

Started by stephendare, June 27, 2008, 11:25:09 AM

Print
Go Down Pages 1 ... 3 4 5 6 7 ... 19
User actions

Bewler

#60
February 18, 2009, 05:09:56 PM
Just read your speech on the previous page from a couple of months ago DocK and would just like to say, bravo my good man!

I would just like to add that we're pretty much doomed if we don't eventually get off the Earth. Even if we manage to dodge or develop the technology to efficiently defend against extinction event causing meteorites there's still the issue of our sun burning up the entire planet. Of course this is all assuming that humans, or some variation of, are still around for the next few billion years.
Conformulate. Be conformulatable! It's a perfectly cromulent deed.

BridgeTroll

#61
April 02, 2009, 08:21:48 AM
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

Cliffs_Daughter

#62
April 02, 2009, 09:57:13 AM
 ;D Way cool! ;D
I got one for everyone in the family. Converted them to a .pdf to keep a bit longer.
Heather  @Tiki_Proxima

Ignorantia legis non excusat.

BridgeTroll

#63
April 02, 2009, 10:17:42 AM
They did the same thing for the two rovers currenty on Mars now.  My entire family has been on Mars for 5 years now! :)
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

Jason

#64
April 02, 2009, 12:44:18 PM
^ That explains a lot...   :)

BridgeTroll

#65
April 02, 2009, 01:17:24 PM
 :D :D
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

Jason

#66
April 02, 2009, 04:14:06 PM
Alright, I finally jumped the mothership for a plot on Mars too.  Hope you don't mind some wacky neighbors BT!  :)

BridgeTroll

#67
April 02, 2009, 05:17:49 PM
We will ride the rover together for eternity... :D
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

BridgeTroll

#68
May 20, 2009, 01:40:32 PM
The end may be near for our plucky Mars rover Spirit.  Covered in dust and driving backwards to drag rather than push a dead wheel... Spirit has gotten caught in deep sand and is buried up to its hubs.  Spirit has gotten stuck before but it was younger rover with less dust and more energy.

The wheel on the left is clearly buried, while the wheel on the left no longer works and is dragged by the other five wheels... :-[




http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

Jason

#69
May 20, 2009, 02:56:25 PM
Poor guy.  I'd say he had a good run though.

JeffreyS

#70
May 26, 2009, 03:53:22 PM
Looks like some of the dust has cleared from spirits solar panels increasing it's power.  Odyssey is testing some maneuvers that may be able to free spirit.
Those are some determined Rovers.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20090518a.html
Lenny Smash

Jason

#71
May 26, 2009, 04:02:52 PM
Too bad we can't send some of this rain to mars to wash off the solar panels....

BridgeTroll

#72
May 29, 2009, 09:19:53 AM
Rover Opportunity has just surpassed the 10 mile mark.  Spirit is literally "stuck" at 4.8 miles.  The good news for Spirit is it now has more power than it has had in a couple years thanks to another gust of wind blowing the dust off the panels...

Hail Rovers... Long live the Rovers... :)

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#spirit
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

BridgeTroll

#73
June 26, 2009, 01:40:44 PM
QuoteJune 25, 2009

Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil 

   

QuoteThe soft soil exposed when wheels of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit dug into a patch of ground dubbed "Troy" exhibit variations in hue visible in this image, in which the colors have been stretched to emphasize the differences.


PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.

In April, Spirit entered an area composed of three or more layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket. Scientists dubbed the site "Troy." Spirit's rotating wheels dug themselves more than hub deep at the site. The rover team has spent weeks studying Spirit's situation and preparing a simulation of this Martian driving dilemma to test escape maneuvers using an engineering test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

A rock seen beneath Spirit in images from the camera on the end of the rover's arm may be touching Spirit's belly. Scientists believe it appears to be a loose rock not bearing the rover's weight. While Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate, approximately 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) southeast of where Spirit landed in January 2004.

"By serendipity, Troy is one of the most interesting places Spirit has been," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We are able here to study each layer, each different color of the interesting soils exposed by the wheels."

One of the rover's wheels tore into the site, exposing colored sandy materials and a miniature cliff of cemented sands. Some disturbed material cascaded down, evidence of the looseness that will be a challenge for getting Spirit out. But at the edge of the disturbed patch, the soil is cohesive enough to hold its shape as a steep cross-section.

Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to examine tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil at Troy. Stretched-color images from the panoramic camera show the tints best.

"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and cemented by the action of thin films of water. We're still at a stage of multiple working hypotheses," said Arvidson. "This may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of Home Plate…or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the wind got to it?"

Team members from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston feel initial readings suggest that iron is mostly present in an oxidized form as ferric sulfate and that some of the differences in tints at Troy observed by the panoramic camera may come from differences in the hydration states of iron sulfates.

While extraction plans for the rover are developed and tested during the coming weeks, the team plans to have Spirit further analyze the soil from different depths. This research benefits from having time and power. In April and May, winds blew away most of the dust that had accumulated on Spirit's solar panels.

"The exceptional amount of power available from cleaning of Spirit's solar arrays by the wind enables full use of all of the rover's science instruments," said Richard Moddis of the Johnson team. "If your rover is going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so scientifically interesting."

The rover team has developed a soil mix for testing purposes that has physical properties similar to those of the soil under Spirit at Troy. This soil recipe combines diatomaceous earth, powdered clay and play sand. A crew is shaping a few tons of that mix this week into contours matching Troy's. The test rover will be commanded through various combinations of maneuvers during the next few weeks to validate the safest way to proceed on Mars.

Spirit's right-front wheel has been immobile for more than three years, magnifying the challenge. While acknowledging a possibility that Spirit might not be able to leave Troy, the rover team remains optimistic. Diagnostic tests on Spirit in early June provided encouragement that the left-middle wheel remains useable despite an earlier stall.

"With the improved power situation, we have the time to explore all the possibilities to get Spirit out," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We are optimistic. The last time Spirit spun its wheels, it was still making progress. The ground testing will help us avoid doing things that could make Spirit's situation worse."

In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

BridgeTroll

#74
June 26, 2009, 02:22:32 PM
Spirit is very interested in it at this time as it is currently buried in it.  It is general science and exploration.  More important than minerals on Mars is the search for water.
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."
Print
Go Up Pages 1 ... 3 4 5 6 7 ... 19
User actions