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Update On Mars with Cornell Astronomer Steve Squyers, Principal Investigator on the Mars Rover Missions

February 20, 2004  Pasadena, California - Only one month ago, the Mars Rover called Spirit started working inside the Gusev crater and extended its robotic arm for the first time toward that large pyramid-shaped rock, "Adirondack," to find out what it was made of.

Big "Adirondack" rock that was Spirit's first test of its Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). Turned out to be dark volcanic basalt under a layer of the reddish Martian dust. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
Big "Adirondack" rock that was Spirit's first test of its Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). Turned out to be dark volcanic basalt under a layer of the reddish Martian dust. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.

The answer is dark volcanic basalt beneath a dusty coating of red iron dust. In fact, many rocks in the Gusev crater seem to be basalt and scientists are trying to figure out if they came from a volcanic eruption IN the crater? Or were carried by a river of water into the crater long ago? Or maybe were even blown into the crater by strong Martian winds?

 

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Distorted Distance Perspective in Martian Rover Camera Images

Actual length of the entire bedrock outcrop is only 50 feet long and the distance from the outcrop to the small, white, unidentified object at the bottom of the frame is no more than about 14 feet. The small "horned" object, according to Prof. James Rice, is about "the size of a man's fist." Original Opportunity panoramic image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
Actual length of the entire bedrock outcrop is only 50 feet long and the distance from the outcrop to the small, white, unidentified object at the bottom of the frame is no more than about 14 feet. The small "horned" object, according to Prof. James Rice, is about "the size of a man's fist." Original Opportunity panoramic image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.

February 18, 2004  Pasadena, California - The NASA/JPL Martian rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, each came down near the Martian equator about 6,600 miles apart protected inside many inflated airbags. Each airbag was about 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter and had a stitched pattern of a ring with lines radiating from it. The idea was that each lander would be dropped from its orbiting spacecraft and fall to a bouncing landing inside the airbags. Soon after Opportunity came to rest on January 25, 2004, the rover's panoramic camera took a 360 degree image of the shallow crater surrounding it on the Meridiani Planum near the Martian equator.

 

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Another Puzzle On the Martian Soil

The upper arrow points at the end of a filament that starts at the spherule, appears to go under the soil grains and reappears near the upper arrow. The lower arrow points at a filament that bends. For size context, each of the pebbly grains below the larger round spherule and other rocks is about 100 to 200 microns in diameter, about the size of a sugar grain. So the two long, unidentified filaments laying on the little soil grains are about 1 to 2 microns in diameter. Source of image: Opportunity Microscopic Imager Non-linearizedFull frame EDR acquired on Sol 19 (February 12, 2004) of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 11:25:52 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS.
The upper arrow points at the end of a filament that starts at the spherule, appears to go under the soil grains and reappears near the upper arrow. The lower arrow points at a filament that bends. For size context, each of the pebbly grains below the larger round spherule and other rocks is about 100 to 200 microns in diameter, about the size of a sugar grain. So the two long, unidentified filaments laying on the little soil grains are about 1 to 2 microns in diameter. Source of image: Opportunity Microscopic Imager Non-linearizedFull frame EDR acquired on Sol 19 (February 12, 2004) of Opportunity's mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 11:25:52 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be OPEN. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS.

February 14, 2004  Tempe, Arizona - The NASA/JPL rover called Opportunity has been rolling along the light-colored bedrock in the Meridiani Planum taking spectrometer measurements of the rocks and stopping here and there to examine closely the soil through its microscopic imager (MI).

 

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Updated – Part 2: Opportunity Finds Martian Bedrock Has Lots of Sulfur and Small Spherical Rocks

"Such a high percentage of sulfur is unusual and this is what leads some folks to consider the volcanic origin (at the Martian bedrock). There are some minerals that have been identified in the infrared that would suggest the presence of water since they form in water. In particular, if this is a volcanic terrain that we are looking at, the presence of these minerals might suggest this was a hydrothermal area and sulfur is a component of such environments."

- February 11, 2004, Ronald Greeley, Ph.D., Arizona State University

Above: Opportunity Rover is now moving along bedrock after discovering a large percentage of sulfur in the rocks. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL/Cornell. Below: Could the Martian Meridiani Planum have once looked liked the boiling hot volcanic spring below?
Above: Opportunity Rover is now moving along bedrock after discovering a large percentage of sulfur in the rocks. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL/Cornell. Below: Could the Martian Meridiani Planum have once looked liked the boiling hot volcanic spring below?
Boiling hot spring on floor of east crater, Anatahan Volcano, North Mariana Islands, May 3, 1994. Photograph by F. Trusdell, USGS. Update on Opportunity
Boiling hot spring on floor of east crater, Anatahan Volcano, North Mariana Islands, May 3, 1994. Photograph by F. Trusdell, USGS. Update on Opportunity

 

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Part 1 – Opportunity Investigating Bedrock and Spirit’s Headed for Bonneville Crater

"There is some interesting data from the bedrock!"

- Astrophysicist at JPL

Opportunity approached light-colored broken bedrock for close-up inspection. "Interesting data" will be reported this week. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
Opportunity approached light-colored broken bedrock for close-up inspection. "Interesting data" will be reported this week. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL/Cornell.

February 10, 2004  Pasadena, California - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Update on Spirit

Today, NASA/JPL reports that the Spirit rover in Gusev crater on Mars "broke the record for the farthest distance driven in one day on the red planet, traveling 21.2 meters (69.6 feet). Today's distance traveled shattered the Sojourner rover's previous record of 7 meters (23 feet) in one Martian day. Right now, Spirit is driving towards the crater-inside-the-Gusev-crater nicknamed Bonneville."

 

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Scientists Create and Add Elements 113 and 115 to Periodic Table

The superheavy Element 115 was created in a Dubna, Russia, cyclotron by slamming a rare isotope of calcium that has 20 protons at americium which has 95 protons. Four atoms containing 115 protons from the combination and fusion of the calcium and americium were created for less than 100 milliseconds - Element 115 Ununpentium - and then decayed into Element 113 Ununtrium and others. Graphic courtesy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The superheavy Element 115 was created in a Dubna, Russia, cyclotron by slamming a rare isotope of calcium that has 20 protons at americium which has 95 protons. Four atoms containing 115 protons from the combination and fusion of the calcium and americium were created for less than 100 milliseconds - Element 115 Ununpentium - and then decayed into Element 113 Ununtrium and others. Graphic courtesy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

February 6, 2004  Livermore, California - Back in 1989-1990, I had several phone conversations and a meeting with an electrical engineer named Robert Lazar to talk about his alleged firsthand knowledge of non-terrestrial technology. Bob had previously worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and from the end of 1988 until March 1989 was doing part time work at a highly classified place called "S-4" built inside the Papoose Mountains near Groom Lake, Area 51, at Nellis AFB north of Las Vegas.

 

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Unexplained Objects in Opportunity and Spirit Images

February 4, 2004 Vancouver, B. C., Canada - This morning I received the following e-mail with images attached from Paul Anderson, Director, Canadian Crop Circle Research Network (CCCRN). He and others have been looking at Opportunity and Spirit images on Mars in some detail and have questions about yet unexplained features. Below is Paul's e-mail with images and I will follow up with planetary geologists for further comments in a future Earthfiles.com report.

 

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Opportunity Rolls Onto Martian Soil and Confirms Hematite

"For the first time in history, two mobile robots are exploring the surface of another planet at the same time."

- January 31, 2004, NASA/JPL

NASA's Mars Opportunity rover rolled out of its lander in the Meridiani Planum at 3:01 a.m. PST on January 31, 2004. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University.
NASA's Mars Opportunity rover rolled out of its lander in the Meridiani Planum at 3:01 a.m. PST on January 31, 2004. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University.

January 31, 2004 Pasadena, California - Early this morning, NASA got the Mars Opportunity lander moving a few days before schedule and out onto the soil of the Meridiani Planum shallow crater it landed in. Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation of the successful drive at 3:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time via a relay from the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth reception by the Deep Space Network. Cheers erupted a minute later when Opportunity sent a picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the Martian soil. Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform.

 

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Is There Living Green Algae in the Gusev Crater on Mars?

"Certainly like the green in the Gusev crater picture or by looking at the development of darker spots toward the South Pole which are tied to seasonal variations, it certainly gives rise to the speculation that there could be algae."

 - Michael McKay, European Space Agency

 

The center of the Gusev crater with the landing site of the NASA Spirit rover marked with a cross. The image was taken by the HRSC instrument in color and 3-Dimension on January 16, 2004, from a height of 320 kilometers (199 miles). Gusev is a large crater about 160 kilometers in diameter. Scientists believe that the crater was covered by standing water, maybe in the form of a lake, early in the history of Mars. Image by European Space Agency's Mars Express: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
The center of the Gusev crater with the landing site of the NASA Spirit rover marked with a cross. The image was taken by the HRSC instrument in color and 3-Dimension on January 16, 2004, from a height of 320 kilometers (199 miles). Gusev is a large crater about 160 kilometers in diameter. Scientists believe that the crater was covered by standing water, maybe in the form of a lake, early in the history of Mars. Image by European Space Agency's Mars Express: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).


January 31, 2004 Darmstadt, Germany - The European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter has been exploring the red planet from 186 miles (300 kilometers) altitude. Its high resolution stereo camera has been sending back extraordinary color images. Some, like the Gusev crater image above, show green areas. Some like the Reull Vallis ancient river channel below show blue and blue-green regions.

 

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