Post Block Island Meteor Studies (The Western Route), The 6th Leg in our Zig Zag Journey to Endeavour Crater |
Post Block Island Meteor Studies (The Western Route), The 6th Leg in our Zig Zag Journey to Endeavour Crater |
Guest_Bobby_* |
Sep 13 2009, 09:58 AM
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Guests |
I think it's time for a new thread for Opportunity after her Block Island Studies and time to think about where
the Mars Rover Drivers are going to send Her. Will they decide to head south of Block Island or go back to the western route they were on before? Where ever they go. I hope they find some more interesting surprises along the way. One Question I do have regarding the Rovers. Have they ever found any Diamonds or Gold along the way and if mars did have them. Would they be buried beneath the surface??? Something I've been wondering about for a while if any precious metals would be on Mars or Not? I would say yes. Time to start |
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Sep 23 2009, 11:19 AM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10226 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Any stickiness would result in the wheels getting thickly coated with the damp regolith. It would be apparent immediately, and would have become a major problem from sol 1 on. The tracks look much more like impressions in fine dry powder - like lunar tracks as serpens said. But it's the behavior of the dust on the wheels that clinch it - it cakes on and then falls off, it doesn't really stick.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Sep 24 2009, 12:38 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 384 Joined: 4-January 07 Member No.: 1555 |
Any stickiness would result in the wheels getting thickly coated with the damp regolith. It would be apparent immediately, and would have become a major problem from sol 1 on. The tracks look much more like impressions in fine dry powder - like lunar tracks as serpens said. But it's the behavior of the dust on the wheels that clinch it - it cakes on and then falls off, it doesn't really stick. Phil and Serpens - Thanks for your insights. Your logic apears excellent, although "damp" might be completely the wrong word here (i.e., for a molecule-scale coating of polar water molecules on top of unsatisfied ionic bonds), and weak self-adhesion of dust particles, allowing the development of "wet-appearing" vertical walls in ruts, isn't the same as strong bulk adhesion to a vibrating foreign object such as a moving wheel. Utter lack of personal experience dealing with martian conditions (very fine cold heterogeneous salty dust in a near vacuum in a weak gravity field) may have led me, and possibly you also, astray. Terrestrial experience (thick, moist, warm atmosphere, little day-night temperature difference, clay-dominated dust particles or rounded quartz sand, few salts, strong gravity field) could be misleading in dealing with Martian conditions. Lunar experience (perfect vacuum; hot dry angular salt-free glassy agglutinate particles) could also be misleading in this regard. Bottom line: I don't know who is right, possibly none of us, but I'd be wary of either terrestrial or lunar analogs. -- HDP Don |
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