Oh - I'm sure they would. But the data the instruments they're flying instead they probably love even more

Doug

Might this hack it on MSL then?

"Sample Analysis at Mars with an integrated suite consisting of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer," Paul Mahaffy, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This instrument would perform mineral and atmospheric analyses, detect a wide range of organic compounds and perform stable isotope analyses of organics and noble gases.

If you google for it - lots od PDF's about, including one which says

(6) relative abundances of refractory elements, to trace levels, in solid phase samples.
From http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:KMPNx...lient=firefox-a


Doug

Yup - but as NASA data is copyright free, that is not an issue

Doug

Dare one say it - Opportunitys days are numbered as well

Doug

Well - MSL's initial payload is already determined - unlikely to shift.

but - let's answer this question ourselves.

1) How do you date a rock

2) What data does that require

3) What instrumentation gets that data

4) How flyable is that instrumentation

I'm a space nut, not a geologist, but thats the way to go thru it.

If anyone answers '1' with "Buy it flowers and take it to the cinema" I'll throw a chunk of granite at them.

Doug

I wouldnt - look

Sol 411
Sol 412
Sol 413

ALL of Spirits days are numbered.

I am absolutely, 100% sure that this is wrong. I stand by the fact that mosaics I have made are my own copyright and ditto the work of everyone else around here.

Case in point : The work of Michael Light with his Full Moon book is his own copyright. The source imagery isnt - but the published results are. That the publishing of mosaics and so forth by people here is online and not in print doesnt change anything.


That aside (and we'll have to agree to disagree on that one)


In email - Simon's explained to me where the imagery for Space Daily has come from, and in response to that, I'm apologising for jumping to a few wrong conclusions and culling a few posts to clear the air. I was in a bit of a mood anyway, and Alans pointing of a similarity had be switched to 'rant' mode

Anyhoo - enough of that - back to business - yes - it is odd the way the dust seems to hang as a 'curtain' a few km away. If you animated the L456 morning imagery taken in that direction you can see if move.

Doug

Well - just look at that tiny MOLA imagery - the altitude starts to drop off much more quickly and continues to do so until a 10's of KM sized crater

Doug

Actualy - you're right - I had Vostok a little further north in my head.

If I swivle my chair around, on my wall on a piece of epson panorama paper mounted in a portrait orientation - I have my http://moc.rlproject.com image printed - and I'm drawing the route on in silver pen as we go along.

From the exit of End to Vost is 10.5cm

From Vost to the gap in the Gate Post craters is 12

Gate Post to easter edge of Albert is 8

Then 16 more to Vic

So thats 10.5 down - 36 to go

Actually - I should take a photo of it and the other mars STUFF in my office Pics of Beagle 2 being built, MOC images on panorama paper - and two 54 x 18 inch panoramas ( The central part of the Lion King Pan, and the part of the Clovis pan looking back toward Bonne )

Add that to the lego MER rover, the hot wheels Sojourner and modified Pathfinder ( I put foil on the heatshield to make it more realistic ) and it's a mars fest in here. Heck - The walls are sort of mars coloured and theres a fine layer of dust around the place - but that's probably down to the sanding I've been doing of resin parts for a model of Bluebird CN7 I'm building. Land Speed Records are my other passion Other pictures include a pic of Thrust SSC signed by Andy Green, a photo of my other half who is about to get on a plane and fly home after a 3 day girley holiday in NYC, a lot of mess, and two tickets from the '03 Goodwood Festival of Speed - one signed by Derek Bell, the other by John Surtees. Oh - and a frame with a steering wheel and pedals for racing sims on the PC

Dragging it all back on topic a smidge


That tiny MOC image would suggest that actually - we're going to be climbing ever so slightly all the way to Victoria - only for Victoria to show all the strata we've seen back at End/Eagle and little if any more than that. If you consider Endurance - it's only the top half to two thirds of the depth of the crater that shows exposed material - the rest is noisey infill thereafter. I wonder if Vic will be the same.

Things get very interesting another 6-10k SE of there though.

Doug

Well - Opportunity has done 390 metres in one 3 day period. Given that allowing for stop-offs and days of downlinking autonav data - I think it's fair to say that - flat out with no interuptions - it could do that once every week - so 1km is a 1 month program

Doug

Nuh uh,

We're about 1km south of Endurance. Victoria is a further 5km away



Doug

You've never had a button on a calculator you had to press just right to get it to work only for it to be fine for a week Or a strange banging in the plumbing that starts for no reason then vanishes for no reason

It might well be something sticking in there. It's not just died, it's just working from time to time.

Doug

No - I think it's something actually inside the mini-tes hardware in the WEB

Doug

I dont see anything odd in that picture.

Doug

Yes - that's normal analysis of the RAT magnets.

They've also done some RAT imaging in the past to calibrate it's motion as well.

Doug

Yup - same reason the blue insulation foam is pink when you do L256. L23456 is just a toned down version of that really.

doug

Just a thought regarding the 'other' dark splat mark near by.

Whats the surviveability of the cruise stage after jettison 15 mins before EDL?

Doug

Western edge (which they appear to be planning to avoid, although I think they'll drive around that way to be honest ) - appears like it may have a baby-cliff, but it may just be a build up of dark dust against a small line of outcropping

Doug

Would the fact that I've already made mosaics from them count as 'confirmation'



Doug

Thankyou slinted - I was going to post the same thing in response to Stephen. There is no copyright on NASA/JPL/Cornell imagery. There is - however - copyright on the work people do using it.

Doug

I did a couple of test frames, and I'm not going to bother - there's no point L5 and L6 are so similar, that the slight offset I fudged from just using L5 to generate L6 worked just as well as the real thing

Doug

Ahh - even more cunning, set your screen res to something silly ( 2000 x something ) THEN screen grab it

Doug

Nope - not going there. The very fact that you have to register to post is a barrier to total trolls / morons. I'd never go reg-free - it'd turn into the Habitable Zone

Doug

The next MSSS MOC release isnt too far away is it? I'm looking forward to grabbing all the meridiani images and doing a better route-to-victoria map

FWIW - my strategy would be a drive straight south toward the pair of eagle sized craters that are just before the beginning of the major etching - I'll call them the 'Gate Post' Craters for now (NE Gate Post and SW Gate Post) - I dont see much point in heading off track ot look at other Vostok-like features. That they stopped for such a short time at Vostok suggests it's nothign we havnt seen before. (they are at the end of the 2nd leg on that map previously linked)

Also - a route to the Gate Posts from a slight NW direction would appear to give a slight lull thru the more rolling terrain whilst giving an Opportunity (damn pun not intended ) to observe the etched terrain from afar.

I would then tackle the Western route around the large erroded crater (call it Albert crater - Victoria's husband ) then pick my way SE to an area of exposed rock directly north of Victoria just after the Etched Terrain ebs out - simply because it looks a little out of place there -

Pah - I'm dreaming again..dreaming of being a rover driver

Anyone had that walking-on-mars-and-find-an-MER-still-working type dream.

Doug

I'd like to see us visit that large super-vostok feature in the Etched Terrain - but to be honest, despite some peoples concerns - I see no reason to expect the etched terrain to be anything other than more verbose and widespread versions of Vostok - possibly the dark parts in MOC images being drifts of the darker soil that lives under the blue berries - similar that that which we saw in one of the Triplet craters.

I've not seen any results of DEM generation from MOC stereo pairs to generate 3d models of the etched area - but MOLA shows it as flat to within a degree or two on a 250m scale.

Doug