MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 Options

[renee]

Actually, now that I see it, you're right. I just was not expecting that sub-surface. I was expecting more sand.
Renee

[udolein]

Wheel digging at rocknest on Sol 57:


click here to enlarge the animation

seen from the HazCam

Cheers, Udo

[udolein]

... and from the MastCam:


click to enlarge the animation

Udo

[stewjack]

The navcam pans are really nice!

I hope it is OK for Ant103 - I did go over his anaglyph and made it a bit brighter (of course this kills the mood a bit):

Are we looking approx. North? I think I can see the northern inlet channel, in the crater wall - in the center of the anaglyph! If so - that is sharp and bright!

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=28432

And I was ( once again ) poorly oriented.

News Conference Starting

[Doc]

8gs! I guess Phoenix's poor performance during sample drop off really put them off at the time! (Drop that load properly you lousy piece of hardware! )

[Eyesonmars]

[attachment=28429:NLxRA_40...46M_crop.jpg]

Stomp!

great cross eyed image

The slight slumping and cracking around the wheel marks seem to imply some sort of lightly cemented crust. So these little drifts are probably not active. ( I see that this has been discussed. But could all these drifts the mers and curiosity have treaded be inactive because they are crusted?)

[elakdawalla]

Sol 58 images coming down now. I like this one:


Full size

[udolein]

Animation of arm movement between 1 pm and 3 pm local time:


click to enlarge

the animation begins with the APXS measurement at 1 pm. The instrument changes to MAHLI followed by undisturbed and wheel disturbed soil region images respectively.

Undisturbed soil image:



Cheers, Udo

[brellis]

Re: Emily's post #466 pic - that really looks like it was wet not so long ago.

[elakdawalla]

To me it looks exactly like flour. Completely dry, yet cohesive -- that's the nature of very fine-grained material.

[ronald]

Really nice MAHLI images coming in - SOL 58:



I would estimate the rips on the wheel profile to 3-5 mm width - just as a rough scale. You can even see the fine manufacturing texture from the flat wheel surfaces, must be very fine material then.

[djellison]

Exacly like fine flour, cornflour, talc, exceptionally fine grained dry material.

[jmknapp]

Undisturbed soil image:

So do those little clumps break up into powder under pressure? Or are they solid but get pushed under the fine powder as the wheel moves over them?

[Doc]

Seeing MAHLI's images of the scuffed ripple's interior, a question popped in my head; is the chemical makeup of sand drifts all over Mars generally homogenous or are they extremely different globally as dirt that make them up don't get to move around very much like the lighter, easily transported dust?

It's just that Serpent from Spirit's days in 2004 keeps coming up whenever I see Rocknest (man I miss the old gal!)

[EdTruthan]

Horizon flattened animated anaglyph GIF of the Sol 58 arm and turret manuevers from hazcam. I left it pretty large (1300x939 pixels, 4MB) so it may not begin to animate till fully downloaded, but I think the large size is worth the wait...



... and for anyone so inclined, here's the even larger 1800 pixel wide Full Resolution Version (7MB)