I don't know if this is the right forum, but I would like to know what the new general insights obtained by the MER team is? Did this project lead to any insight in the history of Mars that was not known before. For me as an ousider it is hard to see the relation between all the nice pictures send to earth and the science obtained from it. Could somebody point me in the direction of a general overview of the insight obtained from the received data.

Thanks in advance!

An excellent question and a good place to raise it too. I'm not the man to answer it, however, though I hope some of the others will have a go. We are up to our armpits in new information - some would say over our heads - yet the bigger picture remains uncertain and therefore subjective. And that's a problem if you have the kind of mind that likes a firm context first and the details afterwards. It just doesn't happen that way at the cutting edge, a place where we (as the public) have never really been before in quite this way. Of course there are genuine experts here too, both professional and amateur. If one of them pops up with an answer I'll be reading it as avidly as you. Good luck!

Hi Zoost. That's a pretty broad request. If you think of Mars as an onion, we haven't even got the skin off yet. The rovers are making new discoveries almost daily as they travel around and MRO's HiRISE camera is imaging rocks less than a metre across. Only tiny portions of the surface have been imaged in sufficient detail to provide real insight to formation processes. I think the exploration of Victoria Crater by Opportunity will certainly reveal a lot about the ancient history of Mars so perhaps you could follow along with us in the Victoria forums. Many contributors are quite knowledgeable on what's going on with Mars, and you'll see many links to scientific papers and articles which will give you a better idea of what has been accomplished.

Well, I'll give two examples of new stuff learned. Opportunity has found pretty convincing evidence, both chemical and morphological, for liquid water environments on Mars. I think one of the most important things that Spirit has found is that pretty much every crater it's seen is probably a secondary, not primary impact feature; that has important implications for the age dating of geologically young surfaces on Mars.

And, in keeping with the "onion" theme, I think both rovers have demonstrated how critically important it is to be able to peel off the surface layer of rocks to get at the good stuff underneath. Most of what we can see from space is rocky surfaces covered by more or less dust. With just a brush, the rovers can look below the dust, and with the RAT, they can see what minerals those rocks are really made of.

--Emily

Probably the best way to get a big picture of what MER has done is watch one of Steve's lectures....the latest was the one at the OU a few weeks ago...

http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.p...;whichevent=914

Doug

Visit Aldo's MarsGeo.com.

--Bill

You might also enjoy the other interviews Doug has done with Steve Squyres and Jim Bell. Perhaps someone can post a link to the mp3 from the first Q&A with Steve Squyres, but the pdf transcript is here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...c=1683&st=0

The mp3 for the second Q&A with Steve Squyres is here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=3448
The transcript hasn't been made into a pdf yet, but an index to the transcribed parts can be found here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...amp;#entry75820

The interviews with Jim Bell also cover some of the discoveries of the MER missions, and they can be found at The Planetary Society's Rover Audio Updates page: http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/ma...vers/audio.html
There are also quite a few other Rover Audio Updates that are interesting.

I can't trace the source exactly but in one of his recent talks, Steve Squyres commented that the environment on Mars has been seen (so far) to be so acidic that it is unlikely that life could have developed there. (Since acid and life are not mentioned in the transcriptions of Squyres's talk with Doug, I imagine it's somewhere in his Open University talk).

Since the NASA agenda has been focusing on water as a source of possible life, this discovery drastically changes our understanding of Mars, and may influence decisions regarding future missions.

Steve

Yes, I think it was in the Q'n'A at the end (one of the first questions I think) - someone asked about the prospects for life.

First of all thanks for all your kind replies to my initial question. I have been looking in the directions you have so kindly pointed out to me. I don't think that my question was answered in any of these webconferences or websites but I think that holds an answer in itself.

(Answer A: I'm not knowlegeable enough to appreciate the research done, and to grasp the implications; Answer B: The work done (allthough fascinating because it is done at such a distance, and we are speaking of another planet, did not lead to fundamental new insights; or answer C: I'm to impatient)

Thanks for your effort.

I think C is closest. New insights will come from synthesizing all the available information, not just the rover data in isolation. This will be a big job and fundamental new insights in which the MERs will play a significant part can be expected for many years to come. The results will be the work of thousands but the property of us all.