[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

CODE

4. What EDRs did we request?

Expected EDRs by sequence number and image type:

Sol   Seq.Ver  ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot  Description
----- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
01724 p1550.01 2   0   1   0   0   3    navcam_tau
01724 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01724 p2600.12 2   2   0   0   2   6    pancam_tau
01725 p0060.02 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_left_navcam
01725 p2601.03 4   2   0   0   2   8    pancam_tau_L78R48
01726 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01727 p0061.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_right_navcam
01728 p0064.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_left_front_hazcam
01728 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01729 p0065.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_right_front_hazcam
01730 p0066.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_left_rear_hazcam
01730 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01731 p0067.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_right_rear_hazcam
01732 p0068.02 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_mi
01732 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01733 p0062.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_left_pancam
01734 p0063.01 40  40  0   0   0   80   photon_transfer_right_pancam
01734 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01736 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01738 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
01740 p1588.03 6   0   6   0   0   12   navcam_cloud_movie_right_eye_pri_57
      Total    422 364 55  0   4   845

Looks like a busy time - the Photon Transfer sequences are interesting, I'll ask some Q's as to what that's about. With a healthy rover, Conjunction must be frustrating. Safe, low data volume, but time consuming sequences are all good

Doug

[dvandorn]

You've got to wonder about the mechanism by which meteor fragments are emplaced on the Martian surface. At Meridiani, several of the meteor fragments (most specifically Bounce Rock, plus the couple of others I seem to recall) seem to just be lying free and open on the surface, with no apparent relationship to impact features (or any other features). They're not buried, and they seem not to have left indentations on the ground, so they seem not to have hit the ground very hard. They certainly look like they landed a lot more gently than, for example, the heat shield.

This would make a lot of sense if the meteor fragments we've seen have eroded out of local rockbeds, and were emplaced in more traditionally violent manners onto the surfaces that existed when they fell out of the sky. The rockbeds that built up around them have now eroded off, leaving the more erosion-resistant meteor sitting on the surface as if a god's hand had gently laid it there.

Swarms of small meteor fragments, and meteor frags which were badly shocked and thence broken up during the build-up and subsequent deflation of their entombing rockbeds, could account for some of the groups of cobbles that we see scattered around.

That doesn't mean that all meteor fragments are cobbles, or that all cobbles are meteor fragments. I'd bet more on the possibility that a majority of the cobbles may be examples of the otherwise-seemingly-absent impact melt from local impacts. You'd expect some impact melt to be tossed out along with the more intact local bedrock, and the melt might well be more erosion-resistant than the sulfur-rich bedrock (especially if it was glass-enriched). This mix of friable sulfur-rich bedrock and harder, fused impact melt would erode over time, the softer bedrock leaving behind little piles of impact melt.

That may not turn out to be true (though I am peplexed as to why we can't find much impact melt anywhere near Victoria), but it makes a certain amount of sense to me...

-the other Doug