[X] My Assistant

[anorthosite]

Let's suppose for the sake of discussion that a rover becomes immobile, but that its cameras and instruments still work. What's the best science you can do with a stuck rover? For example, you could do atmospheric studies indefinately; you could take closeups of everything within reach; and you could look for change over time at the site. Now chances are, we'll get rolling again, but maybe someday we'll face the question of salvage science. What's Plan B?

Steve Pendleton

[Bill Harris]

All of the above are good, bit I think that the best long-term use of an immobilre Rover would be to study long term weathering, erosional and depositional processes. We think we kow what is happening, but that is really an educated WAG...

I think she'll move on, though.

--Bill

[dvandorn]

All of the above are good, bit I think that the best long-term use of an immobilre Rover  would be to study long term weathering, erosional and depositional processes.  We think we kow what is happening, but that is really an educated WAG... 

I think she'll move on, though.

--Bill

I think she'll likely move on, too -- but if she doesn't, we're in a *very* interesting place to observe weathering and erosion.

It's pretty obvious from the layering being exposed in some of the larger dunes we just started seeing recently that *some* of these dunes are ancient and, instead of being built up, are currently being deflated. Unlike water erosion and aeolian erosion of rocks, dune erosion can happen over relatively short time frames. (Of course, it depends on the grain characteristics of the dunes and the "crusting" that may have occurred at the tops of the layers within the dunes.)

The fine striations visible transverse and sometimes perpendicular to the some of the dune crests suggests to me that these are the dunes that are being deflated. Note that some of these dunes display a "crumbling" appearance near their crests, where mass wasting has begin to pull material down -- another indication that the prevailing winds have changed and old dunes are now being blown away.

If a good, layered dune is within the reach of Oppy's IDD, perhaps a combination of the RAT and using the RAT head as a rough scoop will let us do very clean, long integrations of the different layers in the dunes. Wherever the grains forming the various dune layers originated, they will tell a story of changes in the Martian environment over time.

And careful observation of even minute (but detectable) changes in the dunes around Oppy would provide some really valuable data on the speed and characteristics of aeolian deflation/deposition on Mars, maybe even giving time frames for the formation of the layers in the ancient dunes. Thereby providing the possibility of putting absolute (if inferred) dates to recent Martian climate cycles.

So, if we have to become immobile somewhere, there are worse places...

-the other Doug