Dunes inside Victoria Options

[ngunn]

Looking at the Victoria dunefield it strongly resembles the patterns of sand grains on a vibrating tin lid. I have started to wonder if resonance could indeed be involved. Something along the lines of standing sound waves within the crater producing displacement nodes and antinodes that could cause very light particles to migrate to the nodes. Next question: given the dune wavelengths what would be the predominant frequencies of these sound waves? Would they be audible or infrasonic? At this point I realised I have no idea what the speed of sound is at Victoria. Any relevant facts or opinions to constrain my rambling thoughts would be most welcome. Likewise any pointers to previous discussion along these lines.

[edstrick]

One of the "surprising" -- at least somewhat to me -- discoveries of the rovers is that while micrometer sized dust is everywhere, it doesn't stay micrometer sized except as thin layers on stuff. There are no thick dust deposits that the microscopic camera has looked that that are unresolved dust particle accumulations. There's been plenty of ideas that there are dust-aglomeration (nice word... I can probably work that into a conversation once a decade, if I spelled it right...) processes that build up dust pellets that can be strong enough to act like sand. It's entirely possible that light toned dunes found in many areas are dust-pellet-sand dunes. We just don't know yet.

Though everybody wants a bit, sophisticated sampling rover, there still is an enormously great scientific case for a absolutely minimal cost "grab-bag" Mars sample return. I'd be entirely satisfied with a Viking-like lander with crawler tracks like the proposed Viking III mission... Just enough mobility to get 1 gram samples of different soils and rock-chips from a 10 meter radius of a landing spot. (I would NOT trust a landing to not come down in a sand ripple bed or something like sleepy hollow, and not be able to move a minimal amount.)