The major science stories from Spirit |
The major science stories from Spirit |
Nov 24 2008, 09:23 PM
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
I really, really, really tried to do my own research this time without relying on all you rover-watchers here for help, but after a couple of weeks of banging my head against a wall I'm coming crawling to you for help. I need to produce (for both our website and a podcast) a simplified, big-picture view of what Spirit has accomplished on Mars over the past five years. I've basically got to summarize five years of the mission in four minutes of speaking. The operational details (the main mileposts on the drive) are very easy to figure out with the help of Tesheiner's maps and the discussions in the route map thread, so I've got that in hand. What I am having trouble with is figuring out the answers to the following science questions:
1. What is the summary story that can be told about the history of the interior of Gusev crater based on Spirit's observations? Geology is fundamentally a science devoted to telling a story about a landscape -- what's the basic story that the Gusev landscape is telling us, as revealed by Spirit? 2. What are the biggest science discoveries -- I'm talking about the top three or five stories -- that Spirit has made? There's just so much material on Spirit that I'm having an awful time trying to see the forest for all the trees. All the journal articles that I can find are just devoted to one phase of the mission, so I can't figure out which stories are the most significant. I have all of Salley's great articles to go through, but again, they're so detail-rich that it's difficult to figure out what the big picture is; it's like looking at a Seurat painting up close. Any help or pointers to any place where anybody has already produced some quality science summary would be greatly appreciated. --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Nov 25 2008, 05:22 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 3108 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615 |
Emily, There are a lot of 'science' achievements from Spirit's mission, and to summarise these in just a few minutes will be a challenge.
I'm sure that people here will give you many thoughts and tips. I have one thought about something you should include as an achievement aside from the science - "The success of operating a robot explorer on an alien world, in a harsh environment, climbing 'mountains', traversing a tough rocky terrain with (just to add to the fun) sandtraps, driving on five wheels for most of the mission (backwards!), with thickening dust on its solar panels and having to keep them oriented to the Sun, surviving freezing temperatures, major and minor dust storms, partially blinded eyes, ageing instruments, travelling many, many times further than designed to do, and communicating with biological entities on a distant planet who want you to do all this great science in what was to be a 90 Sol mission which is now going on five years." The science is fantastic, the adventure is incredible! However, as to the science, here are some references that might help you: Four Years on Mars - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/mer/flightdirector-20080117/ Some nice images and comments from John Callas. The Rover's science objectives: http://marsrover.nasa.gov/science/objectives.html Significant Discovery of Wetter Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/mer-20070521.html Contributed paper to the IAU referenced here: (not sure if you can get the full paper - you may need to subscribe) Abstract: Results of the Mars Exploration Rover mission to Mars are summarized http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displ...act?aid=1431936 Cheers Astro0 |
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