Cast Your Mind Back To Sol 61 Options

[djellison]

A little sparkling thing...

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P1901R0M1.JPG ( and it's L image pair as well ) - thats a navcam image from Sol 50 - and in sol 61 there's still something there..

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...59P2214L5M1.JPG

Any ideas? heatshield spring (geometry would suggest otherwise) - iron meteroite (I've heard they're quite common on mars ) - bit of foil from something?

Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Hey, I remember seeing that and wondering what it could be It does look similar to some of the fragments seen around Oppy's heatshield, but we're along way from where Spirit's came down. very odd.

Would the lower gravity on Mars allow any fragments from the imapct to travel further that they would on Earth?

[Mode5]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P1901R0M1.JPG

What's that rectangular object just "above" the solar panel? Or is that actually part of the array? I was thinking maybe the two items are related to one another.

[djellison]

No - that little rectangle is part of the solar array

Doug

[djellison]

Here it is on Oppy by the way - much clearer -



Doug

[Mode5]

Thank you for tracking that down. I haven't seen that part of the panel in other pictures. Out of curiosity, was the shiny object anywhere near the path taken when the rover was bouncing?

[djellison]

Nope - the nearest point along the bounce-route is actually where the empty lander sits - probably about 50,60 metres away

Doug

[Pando]

I think it's still pretty close to the landing area and a piece of the lander can't be ruled out. The pyros are firing during landing to jettison the heatshield, release parachute, etc. There could be a number of things designed to break off the lander during descent at higher altitudes which can fall down at a pretty wide radius around the actual landing spot.

Now, if there is one sparkly thing like that found where Spirit is now, that would be quite something