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The Dirt On Mars, In Words And Pictures

Posted by timothy on from the on-the-qt-and-very-hush-hush dept.

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."

5 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Why surprise by savagedome · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are some puzzles and there are surprises
    One unexpected finding was the Moessbauer spectrometer's detection of a mineral called olivine, which does not survive weathering well

    It doesn't survive weathering well in Earth like conditions. Mars, on the other hand, has extreme and totally different climate conditions and it should not be a surprise that minerals exhibit different properties.

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  2. Airbag-trails by l0wland · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "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."

    Interesting, as the marks of the airbags are clearly visible on all pics. Or am I missing the point of a rover-arm having less force than a bouncing-lander-in-an-airbag?

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  3. Re:Mining by MyBeeswax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There was no plate tectonics on Mars so it is extremely unlikely that minerals got concentrated, and even if they did, there is no crustal movement to bring this stuff to the surface. I think that the mining prospects on Mars are bleak.

  4. Meteorite? by scalis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read at one of the links that "Olivine is also found in many iron-nickel meteorites. Not just as small grains but as significantly sized crystals sometimes occupying over 50% of the meteorites volume."
    I do not know anything about minerals really, but if the lander is exploring a crater, couldn't this come from the meteorite that created the crater in the first place?

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  5. Olivine beach by kyoorius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is actually a green sand beach on the big island of Hawaii.
    It is little known, and difficult to get to, but a long drive down
    an unpaved road, and two or so mile hike will get you to it.

    I once met an minerologist gathering samples there.
    He told me the beach was green because of a large olivine vein
    which was eroded over the years by the ocean waves.

    pics: http://www.techfreakz.org/blacksand/