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NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Grinds "Cool" Rock
coondoggie writes "While its sister rover Spirit has garnered most of the attention lately, NASA's other Mars traveler, Opportunity, is chewing up Martian dirt and unearthing the mineral and chemical makeup of the red planet. NASA scientists said this week the rover uncovered 'one of the coolest things Opportunity has found in a very long time:' a dark, basketball-sized rock known as 'Marquette Island.' According to NASA, the Marquette Island rock is a coarse-grained rock that indicates it cooled slowly from molten rock, allowing crystals time to grow. Such composition suggests it originated deep in the crust, not at the surface where it would cool quicker and have finer-grained texture, NASA stated."
Opportunity is chewing up Martian dirt and unearthing the mineral and chemical makeup of the red planet.
Shouldn't that be "unmarsing"?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
The Opportunity is a pretty awesome vehicle. It has outperformed its mission expectations by over 200% - it is in the fifth year of what was supposed to be a 90 sol mission. It takes pretty impressive panoramic pictures as well.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Rocks are the precursor to water.
Opportunity's rock abrasion tool - which was built by Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms -- was used to grind away some of the rock's surface and expose the interior. This was the 38th rock Opportunity has ground into, and one of the hardest, NASA stated.
Don't most/all abrasive tools wear out? Here's its description (linked from the TFA). It doesn't matter how "gently" it operates, it'll eventually lose its effective geometry, and its surface coating should wear out.
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
I agree. If Hollywood had been involved in these mission Opportunity would already have carried out a successful rescue mission.
chuck, and norris
ROUNDHOUSE
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Unfortunately, they are on the opposite sides of the planet. I was thinking the same thing - maybe one could assist the other. But considering it takes about a year to go 3 miles, it doesn't seem very practical. There is a serious race against time, as the martian winter is soon approaching, which NASA feels will certainly end the life of Spirit.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Well this is Mars. There are a lot of them. Family Vacations on mars might be as exciting as driving through Nebraska.
"I spy with my little eye, something red."
"Is it... a rock?"
"Your turn."
(repeat ad nauseum)
http://www.beanleafpress.com
If Hollywood was involved, they'd already have sent the team from Armageddon.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
How'd they get the one out of the ditch?
NASA uncovers volcanic rock on a planet with the Solar System's largest volcano (Mons Olympus). Scientists say it must have come from deep inside the planet and could not have formed on the surface. Scientists get all giddy. Film at 11. Call me crazy, but why didn't they just state it came from a volcanic eruption? And how do they know it's not a meteor? Why all the drama. Sure it's cool to find volcanic rocks, or any new kind of rock, especially on Mars, but why all the mystery and misdirection? Why can't science be cool just for science's sake? Ugh.
So if this is a coarse grained rock with a basalt composition, then I guess that means it is a Martian gabbro (on earth they tend to be used ornately as black "granite" countertops). Which is highly interesting because that may indicate crustal deformation. Here on earth, such rocks form deep in the ground in what we call plutons. These are pockets of magma that differentially crystallize into grabbros and granites. Plate tectonics nudges them to the surface and weathering + erosion helps to uncover them. The Sierra Nevadas is a continuous grouping of them called a Batholith. Yes, all that granodiorite use to be underfoot!
Anyhow, this could be important in perhaps proving that, yes, at one point, Mars had active plate tectonics. Planet formation kind of requires it but good to know Mars may have had some crazy earthquakes in the past uplifting such rocks to the surface.
-Drache Kubisuro
Spirit and Opportunity are geology missions. Looking for & at rocks is what they are intended to do.
There is a back story here. After the perceived strategic failure of Viking (the spacecraft all worked fine, but a lot of money was spent to find life, and then positive results from the bio experiments were disbelieved because of the low levels of organics on the surface), it has taken NASA 3+ decades to attempt another biology test - the MSL. The MER were sold to do geology, and that's what they have been doing.
and its what makes people interested in science in the first place
its really not a problem to give voice to that wonder and amazement, what you call mystery and misdirection for some reason, in a popular press account. furthermore, science IS cool for science's sake. the issue is your definition of what science is. for some reason, you demand that science be stripped of everything but the most banal data
i'm getting a little sick of slashdotters complaining about hype in science journalism. its populist, which means it is not 100% technically accurate, it glosses over the issue and leaves important issues out, makes incredibly broad assumptions, injects some fantastic thinking into the whole endeavour... none of which are problems. desireable even
even if the reporter obviously doesn't have the greatest grasp fo the subject matter, the point that the information is out there and available to joe citizen is the most important thing. stop thinking lack of technical rigor and incompleteness is grouns to complain about the intersection of science and journalism. the intersection of science and jorunalism is messy: just fucking accept that already. its important to get the word out there, and if joe citizen is interested, he'll dig down and find out the crux of the matter itself
science journalism is just gloss folks, it is meant for mass consumption. stop fucking nitpicking it like it were an abstract in "nature" for fuck's sake
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I guess these robots are getting everybody to see them a bit like people.
Normally you should just think they are things are are redundant and it's really cool that one is still going even though the other one will soon stop functioning.
But people are concerned Spirit will "die", they mention rescue missions and they would want the other rover to come and help Spirit.
All this emotion is really interesting. I suppose it's really good for robotic missions as it means people can care about things happening to a little robot far away and hopefully more science will come out of this public interest.
Myself, I really wish they could find a solution for Spirit...
I hate when they give rocks and patches of dirt these grandiose names. You found a rock! It doesn't need a name. Sorry but I hate it.
Regular Meta Moderators are not more likely to get mod points.
Unfortunately, they are on the opposite sides of the planet.
Not unfortunately, it's been done so that they can explore different areas and they don't have to compete for communication time with the orbiter.
Unfortunately, they are on the opposite sides of the planet.
Not unfortunately, it's been done so that they can explore different areas and they don't have to compete for communication time with the orbiter.
And it was a good thing, too. Spirit landed in a volcanic region while Opportunity landed in (I believe) a lake bed. Exploring two completely different geologies has yielded an amazing wealth of information. If we had both rovers in the same region, we would not have a sense of the geological diversity that we have now.
May I interest you is something more... exciting... for the kids?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJSey8HRUhU
Especially fun in a bus or airplane.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.