MSL "Drive, drive, drive" toward Glenelg, The scientists (mostly) get the keys - sols 38-56 Options

[Doc]

I doubt that xflare. Please expain.

[xflare]

OK lol... Basalt or Sandstone then.

[EdTruthan]

...and the turret animation in anaglyph format (includes the 5th frame from the same sequence, though MC was aligned a bit differently...):

[udolein]

I can't resist. Curiosity in action at Sol 54:


Click to enlarge the animation

Cheers, Udo

[Eyesonmars]

Wow,how fast is the wind to be able to move pebbles around even at only 1% (at best) of Earth standard pressure? Or maybe it's due to vibration?

Remember that the ability of an atmosphere to blow stuff around is a function of its density( as well as velocity of course), not its pressure. The density of Martian air at the MSL site is currently around 1/70 earths sea level. In several months this could be as high as 1/50 or so. May sound like splitting hairs but on mars it can be an important distinction.
Think of Titan - an extreme example.

[ronald]

Mastcam anaglyph taken Sol 53:



and some really nice accompanying MAHLI shots from Sol 54:

0054MH0016001001E1_DXXX
0054MH0017001002E1_DXXX
0054MH0016001002E1_DXXX

[Guest_fthurber_*]

What do you mean 'dare you?' ? Emily is a highly respected journalist, she doesn't need to 'dare' to do or ask anything. She'll ask relevent and interesting questions, as usual.

Stu:
I was trying to use a polite figure of speech asking if it would be a appropriate to ask this question, not daring her to ask the question. Here is what I said:

"Emily: dare you ask if ChemCam has found hydrated minerals in the next press conference?"

I did not say "I dare you to ask..."

Maybe this is cutting it too fine....if so, I apologize.

I have corresponded with Emily by email for a long time and know who she is.

[EdTruthan]

The animated GIF anaglyph version of the Sol 54 turret deployment...



Overall I find this animation quintessentially inspirational. Not only seeing Curi in action - but framed by the vast undulating landscape of Glenelg and Mt. Sharp as the backdrop - it just typifies the ambitious spirit of exploration at its very finest. Kudos to NASA and everybody associated with creating MSL and getting it safely to the surface of another world. Well done.

[stewjack]

Anaglyph from a pair of SOL 52 NACAMS
It is only a pair of anaglyphs created from two L/R NAVCAMS Then I stitched them together using HUGIN. It doesn't look to bad to me - except for a curved horizon. However, it took six 6 hours! Hopefully I can speed this up in the future. For me it was easier to make individual anaglyphs and then stitch them together.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/ra...era=NAV_RIGHT_A
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/ra...mera=NAV_LEFT_A

[jmknapp]

Leo Enright (Irish TV) asked a daring question:

ENRIGHT: My first question: this is obviously a stunning announcement, I mean, quite an extraordinary result at an early stage, and I'm not a geologist--I'm a journalist--and I'm asking you why did it take you so long to make this announcement? I mean, it seems that any first-year geology student would have looked at that exposure and said immediately, you know, that's water transport, high speed, all of that--you know, was there somebody saying hang on a minute, it could be something else, and if they were, what was that?

GROTZINGER: Yeah, well, so, Leo, thanks for that [laughter]. You know, actually, it turns out that really there's some details here that matter, uh, that may or may not be worth getting into, but there are options, and so, you know, putting this in context of the jackhammered urban sidewalk--actually, if you take concrete as a substance it is not something that remains liquid because water is flowing freely across the surface and being vigorous--it's really in the geological context something called a debris flow. And I would say then you've got a more viscous material and we are interested in the details of how the water expressed itself on the surface, and so we do keep in mind these alternative hypotheses as we look at this, and I think you have to look at this rock in a lot of detail and see it in a couple of places before you feel confident as a science team moving forward with a majority opinion that really this is more likely the result of water flowing vigorously across the surface rather than sort of sluggishly pushing along in a pile of watery debris. So, to the extent that that makes a difference to you, that's a nuance that we were interested to pursue.

Note that Enright was one of the journalists who a couple weeks ago was pressing Dr. Joy Crisp to offer an opinion on these deposits and was only told that it was an area of active debate.

[walfy]

A big thanks for all the super great anaglyphs and other types of images. Here's the nearby outcrop from Sol 53:

[walfy]

Managed to tease out some 3D from recent MAHLI batch. Nothing terribly spectacular other than the fact it's a close-up of a rock millions of miles away, with individual grains of Martian sand in full 3D! This one works better if you view further back from the screen, generating more depth.

[James Sorenson]

The Sol-51 Mastcam 34 panorama of Glenelg.

[Guest_Actionman_*]

Leo Enright (Irish TV) asked a daring question:



Note that Enright was one of the journalists who a couple weeks ago was pressing Dr. Joy Crisp to offer an opinion on these deposits and was only told that it was an area of active debate.

All of this is correct but they still didn't give any details, some of us like details

The rocks are rounded by way of inertia and gravity having a lesser affect, in fact a lesser gravity environment will make for more movement causing faster rounding of rocks.

And the cycle of water distribution goes outside their area of expertise.

[Nix]

Why would they give details if it is an active debate? Curiosity has only 'just begun it's journey, let's see what comes. Nobody likes jumping to any conclusion too soon.