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Opportunity Spots Curious Object On Mars

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the do-you-see-what-i-see dept.

EhobaX writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has come across an interesting object -- perhaps a meteorite sitting out in the open at Meridiani Planum. Initial data taken by the robot's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is suggestive that the odd-looking "rock" is made of metal."

1 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What was their first reaction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, the Heat Shield WAS important.

    Designing re-entry shields for planets you don't know alot about ( compared to earth ) can be tricky. Undoubtably they overengineered it, and made it heavier than needed just in case.

    By examining the heat shield, and the thermal damage, they can get a better feel for the physical and thermal stresses caused by a martian re entry.

    This would lead to lighter, better heat shields. And since cost is proportional to weight, a lighter more effective heat shield leads to cheaper future mars missions, or allows one to cram more instruments into a probe. Either way, WIN!

    They are tooling around a planet we still know little about, so it's all good.