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Mars Probe Brings the "Weather Rock" New Respect
radioweather writes "What looked to casual observers like a malfunction, a dangling wire with
something on the end, seen in the
first photo of
the meteorological mast on NASA's
Phoenix Mars Lander,
actually
turned out to be the real instrument. Surprisingly, it is much like the
novelty 'weather rock' seen as a novelty gag around the world. The instrument
called the 'Telltale'
is described as a 'passive wind indicator' and uses an extremely lightweight
Kapton tube hanging in Kevlar fiber. Images taken of the instrument will show
the deflection of the Telltale due to the Martian wind."
Sir, I bow to you and your most insightful and astute observation. If only I had a +10 funny/insightful mod to throw your way. Truly classic.
Bearded Dragon
For a third grader doing natural science, I can understand making a wind sock. Its cheap and while it is pointless makework, it allows them to get hands-on experience with the notion that you can gather data from the world around you using an instrument designed for the purpose. Granted, it is noisy and imprecise data, of no practical use to the third grader.
The craft that deployed this particular windsock cost $420 million. At the risk of earning myself another -1 Troll for requesting that government programs deliver results: what is the scientific purpose of this experiment that justifies the significant cost going into it?
Here's the paper:
http://www.marslab.dk/Filer%20til%20Telltale/4thPolar.pdf
To the best of my ability to read, we just spent a few million dollars so that we could learn the direction the wind was blowing. At one point. On a rock. A rock very, very far away from here. Where no humans fly, boat, or do anything else which benefits in the slightest from wind directional data.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Another Dylan line goes, "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows". (Subterranean Homesick Blues)