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The Dirt On Mars, In Words And Pictures
An anonymous reader writes "The Spirit rover's first soil analysis reveals some puzzling features about Gusev crater. The region seems to contain the greenish silicate mineral, olivine, which usually is considered water-reactive and thus volcanic in origin. For olivine to be found in the soil may point to rock formation during a drier period in martian history, even with strong evidence for sampling in an ancient lakebed. A second puzzle is why the soil seems so crusty. After the rover arm pressed soil down, the top layer of dust hardly moved, a finding that suggests something may be binding the dust like some type of salt or thin cement." For even more and better Mars pictures, read on below.
mlyle writes "I've spent a few hours hacking together some software to deal with the Mars Exploration Rover imagery at JPL. The software puts together a webpage and RDF feed of new raw imagery as it is posted to the JPL site, along with technical information decoded about how the picture was taken. It also produces stereo anaglyphs and color images that NASA has not seen fit to convert and make publically available. Be sure to also check out the ultra high resolution image of the lander as viewed from Spirit."
It's been waiting how long for us to visit? Come on think aboutit, it has been just hanging around for a few hundred years, that we have been looking at it, and they expect it to be soft and fresh?!?!??
I'm told you are what you eat, does that mean I can be you by tomorrow with some A1?
I guess it's good NASA didn't seem a spotty teenager inside the probe to send the images.
"That's not Mars, it's Paris Hilton"
Given the current information we estimate that we will be able to travel to pluto in 3 years time.
...
In today's fast-paced modern world, a mere 3 years get you:
- to Pluto
- a copy of Duke Nukem Forever
or perhaps I should await my return from Pluto to get DNF
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
They touched down in a Walmart parking lot!
Sheesh. Mars sucks. Could it be any more dull? It's worse than Morecombe on a wet Sunday. I bet it won't be too long before the rover finds a German beach-towel, though.
What I really want to see is a rover running up the Face on Mars. Who cares about water? I want to see pyramids and faces.
--- I'm Green Hornet's sidekick not Inspector Clouseau's!
...but what about this picture ?
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
The Dirt On Mars, In Words And Pictures
:D
We got the pictures telling the chocking truth in tomorrows issue of Planets Revealed! for only 2.99$
Was just looking at a news stand outside my office selling tabloid "newspapers" when I surfed to slashdot. At that time the title had a different meaning to me.
Yum! I remember when my Mom used to make me a big glass of Olivine when I got home from school. Just add it into a glass warm milk, and yum! Wholesome and delicious, rich in essential vitamins and minerals!
Just imagine all that Olivine on Mars! Certainly it'd be worthwhile to travel to Mars, given an unbounded supply of ready-made food already on the surface. This, my friends, could cure world hunger!
In fact, now that they've found that Mars has a lot of Olivine, I'd start speculating that the dust is being bound together by Tang.
Yeah. Down is the way to go. Although it went down too fast and presumably crashed, the European mission had a digging tool. Ironic, still.
On the other hand, when I was a kid, I too went on a trek to find life. It didn't take long to realise that plenty of it could be found only by turning rocks over.
Has NASA thought about tuning some rocks over? Seriously. It would be interesting to find a large boulder and roll it off to see what's underneath.
You just gave me this vision of olive-flavored Ovaltine! Just add milk!
Yuck!
-l
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You take the minerals you're interested in, make them into giant balls and toss them towards the Earth. Some of the stuff will survive the re-entry.
;)
Note: Aim for Siberia or something. And don't be too greedy packing the giant balls, you don't want to overdo it, trust me
---- Take the Space Quiz!
With olivine and all the green cheese on the moon, we can solve world hunger.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Dad: "You're still half a mile South of the North pole, but on the other side."
It is located the same place your fist goes when you open it.
Also know as the land of missing socks and the microsoft testing grounds
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Evidence that dinasaurs once roamed the earth isn't taking us towards bringing them back. What?!? Where there is evidence, there is DNA, and where there is DNA, there is a chance we can bring the creatures back! Don't you ever go to the movies?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Oh, of course there is life out there. The universe is simply to huge for that not to be the case. The question is, are these aliens sentient, have they evolved a sophisticated culture and if the above are true, what will they think of us when their SETI program picks up the first episodes of Twin Peaks.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, cragen
Wouldn't it be strange to find out that the rover has landed on an ancient pair of giant Martian underwear?