True. But don't forget to try Google first for the easy ones....

(And, yeah, that is an awesome .gif!!!)

I can see the tailings moving downslope because of the vibrations. But another possibility is wind - we've seen that blow the scoop contents around.

I like this method, but there's a problem with it: you have to know the direction that the hole was drilled. That will likely be off from vertical because the ground is sloping somewhat and also possibly the hole wasn't drilled perpendicular to the surface. What makes you say it's 83.5 degrees?

You might think this uncertainty would have only a small effect, but these pics were taken with the sun near zenith, like you said. So a small error in hole direction can have a huge effect on the depth you calculate.

Just a warning: Megan Garber at The Atlantic wrote about this Thursday night, and I'm starting to see it make the social media rounds.

Um, What's This Weird Hunk of Metal We Just Found on Mars?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/arch...on-mars/272972/

It's even worse: Mars is now near solstice, so obliquity has to be considered; I neglected that unintentionally in an unjustified way.
The 83.5 degrees are taken from parameters of images, where the axis of vision is almost identical to the axis of the drill hole, e.g. this MAHLI image, bearing about 223°.
Are you able to improve those calculations using a planetarium software to get the exact angle between sun and drill hole axis?

Shadow reduction on the sol 180 MH drillhole images to improve the anaglyph version a bit.
Of course, some value artifacts are introduced...

Added also the images taken on Sol 168

Jan van Driel

Weird to watch a news story spread.... that "story" started on here lol

I read this interesting exchange of views and I must admit that I fully agree with Damien & EyesonMars' opinions.

I've recently checked this issue with the French Press (daylies and weeklies) and TVs. I know what I'm speaking about, having helped a lot for the setting up of the Mars Outreach Program at JPL with Cheick Diarra from 1993 (and the Planetary Exploration outreach in France at Societe Astronomique de France with TPS since 1982)... The conclusion is that the Press feels really bored now in France (although we share two important MSL experiments with NASA) and they do not see any beauties in the rocks, we are drooling for.

You may not understand those opinions, because we are all "aficionados" here sharing the same passion about Mars and about this outstanding mission. In other terms, as we say also : "a fish does not know what it is to be wet"...
Anyway, the cameras are great, the images are of outstanding quality, so sharp that you can almost count dust grains on the rocks... But, please remember that it is not the camera that make nice pictures, it is the person behind it...
This is why I would kindly suggest, if I may, that we let the Mars Outreach people doing their work and fine-tune their strategies towards the public

It's interesting that absolutely nothing beyond that moves. The blocks must be well vibration-insulated from their neighbours

That's just the way the press works. I wouldn't expect a press organisation to follow any science endeavour in great detail. I would expect occasional reporting when interesting discoveries are made.

While I can get the orientation of the MAHLI shots, I'm at a loss to figure out the SPICE code to get the XYZ position of the camera--it keeps giving an error when I try to use spkpos_c(), which works well enough for, say, the rover itself.

FWIW, the sun elevation at the time of the MAHLI shots was 67.2 degrees. Taking FRA_413471035EDR_F0060000FHAZ00210M_ as reference for the drill orientation, I get an angle between the drill ("powder acquisition and drill system," MSL_PADS) vector and the sun vector at the time of the MAHLI shots of 27.2 degrees. So, if the MAHLI shot is more or less directly over the hole and the shadow is 6.5mm, then the depth is 6.5/tan(27.2) = 12.6 mm.

Assuming no errors!

I like the impression this picture gives me of a Roman road leading to the base of Mount Sharp. I wonder when we will be headed that way?

How did Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today (or her source) get this?:



Is that right?

Amazing Giff. Interesting to see the 'Brasil Nut' effect. Is there an Earthly analogue for the hammer drill.
I generally drill wood, rarely use the hammer drill. Not on 'rocks' at any rate.
As for fredk's protuberence, it is things like this that do generate public interest. It may turn out not to
be C3PO's foot, and I'm sure we will have a closure look and better evaluation. People like a mystery. Our best
movies and works of art draw people into their strangeness and suspense.
I must admit, when I was much younger, I to felt that 'maybe', a small maybe, the 'Face on Mars' had merit that
warranted further examination, and I mentally urged the follow up probes to make the investigation. Did
not President Clinton also request MGS to make a close look asap?
That's exploration. Why climb that mountain?
As much as we hold true to scientific method, surely the occasional bit of the old 'gung ho', 'hey, let's check this out',
is what the paying public wants.

What's the error message? You loaded one of the "ra" kernels, I assume? And you also need to load "msl_struct_v01.bsp"

But I don't know if this will work, I haven't tried it myself yet.