[X] My Assistant

[aldo12xu]

Don't mean to compete against the Home Sweet Home thread, but I thought I'd put together a summary of the main observations and points discussed so far with regard to Home Plate, especially now that the thread is almost 20 pages long. I wouldn't be surprised that even after we eventually get the spectroscopy data, we'll probably still have a way to go before we get a handle on the origin of Home Plate.

So, anyways, I hope everybody finds the post of some use. The link is on my homepage.

Cheers,
Aldo.

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

I am very puzzled too they don't publish any results of analysis. But if they do so, they may have a serious reason. I note that, anyway, on the rovers site, they often comment events and image extensively, but just quote analysis results in some words "basaltic rock" or the like. See the results of Ultreya analysis, keeping in three words, when this mistery was a leitmotiv since months.

Climbing on top of Homeplate, as tdemko noted earlier, seems useless:

... I understand the need to get a view of the top of Homeplate...but, we could have easily guessed what we see now: the top of the cross-laminated upper unit, eroded and blasted by subsequent impacts. ...

The only thing we learn from this is that the overal stratigraphy is nearby horizontal, a fact which was not obvious from the first side cross-section. (it sometimes happens that stratigraphy appears distorted close to a surface)


But there may be a surprise with the analysis, or an unexpected difficulty. If Homeplate was simply some volcanic ash deposit, they would have found it easily and published immediatelly, as with Ultreya. If it was salt too. (after all, it is not the first salt we find on Mars). But their silence is tell tale of something else. either:
-the composition is completelly unexpected or very interesting (for instance limestone)
-the analysis were not conclusive, for instance Homeplate is a sandstone witht the grains and the cement of different compositions, as some microscopic imager images suggest. If so, the X ray spectrometer would show a mixture of the two spectra.

Ok... contest: What's the silliest layered gunk we can come up with for lunatik-fringe specualtions on what Home Plate is made of?

I cannot resist this guilty temptation...

-thick layers of mantras left by tibetan monks billions years ago.

Not bad enough?

-Billion years old beach with still footprints of beautiful martian maiden...

Still worse?

-Damn that stupids had to step just on my heap of unpaid bills.

[Holder of the Tw...]

I am very puzzled too they don't publish any results of analysis. But if they do so, they may have a serious reason. I note that, anyway, on the rovers site, they often comment events and image extensively...

My guess is they're simply too busy right now, probably a bit of a crisis, trying to get home plate taken care of as best they can before they have to leave. We'll see the results soon enough when Spirit departs.

Ok... contest: What's the silliest layered gunk we can come up with for lunatik-fringe specualtions on what Home Plate is made of?

Millions of years of guano! We've discovered an ancient giant martian bat nesting site!

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

My guess is they're simply too busy right now, probably a bit of a crisis, trying to get home plate taken care of as best they can before they have to leave. We'll see the results soon enough when Spirit departs.

I think that Homeplate is the most interesting site around, they should not depart so fast, and take the time to do what there is to do, without planning to come back one day (Spirit could stop working before). What is there to see in the hills that was not yet seen?

Millions of years of guano! We've discovered an ancient giant martian bat nesting site!

Eeeek! No wonder if they don't publish!


Hey but... What happens if the bats ARE COMING BACK???

[djellison]

I think that Homeplate is the most interesting site around, they should not depart so fast.

There's no choice to be made. The rover WILL DIE SOON if they stay here much longer. There's no question - it's a fact. They HAVE to go toward that good slope, and they HAVE to go SOON. When Spring comes, when the conditions are better, and there's every chance Spirit will survive winter, then they can revisit HP and do a proper job on it.

Doug