Sol 90+, Extended mission Options

[JRehling]

The only thing missing is the Wicked Witch saying, "I want your little dog!"

That animation is cool... and creepy.

[Stu]

Psssst, guys... wanna see something ?

I was bored - should be attacking this huge pile of editing, but really not in the mood - so I thought I'd try animating some of the microscope images from Sol 112, just see if any little grains shifted... I think this classifies as "shifting", don't you..?



Cute or what?

... and in colour...



... and a "jewelised colour" version on my Gallery blog...

[ElkGroveDan]

Good eye Stu. This is amazing. I took the one from your web page and aligned the backgrounds (somewhat) to sort of stabilize it. It then makes the whole pile come alive.

[EDIT: IMPROVED IMAGE UPDATED 9/28 ]

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Stu]

Reaction #1: woooo-weeee!!! Disco dancin' dust grains!!!

Reaction #2: Damn. Wish I'd thought to do that...

You're a genius Dan!

[Aussie]

Great animations, but you guys obviously know something that I don't because my initial reaction is:

Reaction #1: woooo-weeee!!! Disco dancin' dust grains!!! (apologies to Stu for borrowing his words)

Reaction #2: This is the weak magnet - why is it so!!!

Is this a function of a variable magnetic field or just vibration of the wheel with the weak field enabling some movement? What are the magnetic parameters for the magnetic cells? Are these pemanent magnet or coil? Is this a deliberate feature of the OM capability?

[dvandorn]

I'd have to think it's wind moving the grains, young grasshopper...

-the other Doug

[ElkGroveDan]

I would agree since they appear to be moving at random, whereas if this was due to the influence of a magnet they'd more or less be rocking back and forth together.

[Aussie]

Wind? Within the dark confines of the OM? Ommmmm - old and wise Master Other Doug, the ways of the lander designers and the subtle effects of the Martian environment are more wonderous than ever I thought.

[CosmicRocker]

Wow! That's really nifty, EGD. I'm not sure which forces could be controlling the disco dance. I'll throw electrostatic discharges into the suggestion box. OMG, that is really nice. I suppose motor vibrations transmitted through the solid members of the lander might possibly cause a similar effect, as fredk suggested elsewhere. You would have to know the timing of all motor operations with regard to the timing of the capturing of the MI images.

It would be helpfull to know the lengths of time between the images. I'm too busy to look for that information. Mars exploration continues to be quite a lot of fun, is it not?

[djellison]

They drive a motor to pull focus - so that could cause vibrations to move material.

[dvandorn]

Wind? Within the dark confines of the OM? Ommmmm - old and wise Master Other Doug, the ways of the lander designers and the subtle effects of the Martian environment are more wonderous than ever I thought.

Wind passing overhead can cause airflow in the bottom of a screwhole, among other things... and these are very, very small and light dust particles, for the most part. The same particles might blow up into the air when exposed to non-sheltered winds... in the "dark confines," which aren't exactly hermetically sealed, I bet the winds could create enough airflow to account for the movement we're seeing.



-the other Doug

edit -- I'm being *very* good, I think, by not pointing out how much it appears like one of the larger grains is being moved around by a teeny tiny little winged insect, which appears to the grain's left edge about halfway through the animation... and yes, I know, it's just lighting and underlying grain movement. But, man, that really looks like a tiny little mi+e-like insec+ in that one shot. Amazing what the pattern-seeking human mind thinks it can see in the darndest of places...

-dvd

[Aussie]

Some of the other 'free thinking' forums have already determined the likelihood of biological influences in these OM without the smiley icon - ferromagnetic structures must of necessity be biological. But fair enough - each to his own.

On a serious note I would plumb for vibration combined with the weak magnetic stabilising influence. I don't think that under the current atmospheric pressure the recorded wind speeds could have this effect through what must be a miniscule path to the OM interior. But how can we know when even the most minor information on the magnetic parameters seem to be a state secret. We still haven't had the somewhat dubious press release on variation in atmospheric vapour pressure clarified in absolute rather than relative terms. In fact even the relative terms are not defined. As pointed out by Marsbug, a somewhat sloppy press release.

[SteveM]

Before we go too far on the dancing dust motes, do we know whether or not the Sample Wheel Translation Stage (SWTS) moved between these images. If it rotated this sample away and then returned to it later, we would have a simple explanation.



Steve M

[DFinfrock]

If it is indeed wind causing the movement of the grains, wouldn't the smallest grains be affected first, rather than the larger (heavier) grains? Or would the larger grains' higher profiles make them more liable to be affected by the wind?

If it is a magnetically induced effect, then obviously only the large, moving grains are feeling that effect. But other than size, there doesn't seem to be any obvious visible differences between the moving and non-moving grains. Most of the visible physical differences (which are many) certainly don't discriminate by whether or not there is movement.

[bgarlick]

In the animation one can see that at each frame the focus is different. They have done this before. By taking a picture at various focal lengths they can combine the images and get a final image that is in focus everywhere. The only problem, however, is that if there is any movement of the subject matter between pictures this image processing trick won't work! :-)