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Mystery Rock 'Appears' In Front of Mars Rover
astroengine writes "After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they'd seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously 'appeared' a few feet in front of the six wheeled rover a few days ago. News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory '10 years of roving Mars' event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The rock, about 'the size of a jelly doughnut' according to Squyres, is thought to have either come from a freak "flipping" event or a very recent meteorite impact. However, the latter isn't thought to be very likely. Although they are still working on the rock's origin, the rover team believe it was 'tiddlywinked' by Opportunity's broken wheel; as the rover was turning on the spot, the rock was kicked from place under the wheel and flipped a few feet away from the rover. Never missing a science opportunity, Squyres told Discovery News, 'It obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate. It's just a stroke of luck.'"
Yes -- luck that bored Martian teenagers don't have very good aim.
Not just any rock.
An ~~alien~~ rock. From space!
It's a Horta of course. Doesn't anyone at the JPL watch Star Trek?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Horta
This rock could have been clattering around in the rover's hollow wheels for a long time, and just recently fallen out.
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Gorignak!
Everything is better with chainsaws.
I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
Horta hears a Who
Table-ized A.I.
It's a common weathering pattern in certain kinds of rock. You find the same sorts of thing on earth and amateurs often think they've found ancient steps or something.
Yeah. It happens in nature too.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Many of the newest buildings are not just utilitarian offices but also edifices "on the order of the pyramids," in the words of one senior military intelligence officer.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I bet it's a rock.
"Deliberately buried..."
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?
It would only make sense to include that sort of functionality if it would be regularly used, which isn't likely. Given the tremendous constraints that they are under for space and weight it probably doesn't make sense. As to what is lucky, there is more than one description for that.
Old joke: Lost dog! Blind in one eye, missing right ear, tail missing, recently castrated. Answers to name of "Lucky!"
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
That's what happens when you tell the rover to execute a burn out - sand and rocks fly everywhere!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL2FbGH2DDs
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Opportunity - leaving no rock unturned since 2014.
Ich bin ein Martianer!
Opportunity only brought scissors, not paper...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The Unmanned Space Flight forums has a much better set of photos in this thread. Apparently there are at least two rocks that have appeared, and some dirt. They may have rolled from higher up, this spot is on the uphill side of the rover.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
While Martian winds may kick up some respectable velocity as far as feet per second, remember it's blowing around an extremely tenuous close to non-existent atmosphere. A martian wind may kick up to four hundred miles an hour, but if you were standing in it it would be no more force to you than a 25 mile per hour gust on Earth.
I know that the US has long resisted a shift to SI measurements, but since when does JPL measure things in jelly donuts?
I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?
Well, maybe it's not as trivial as it sounds to fit an appropriate robotic arm, the sensors to find a suitable rock, the software to try grabbing it and turning it over and compared to the weight, time and effort it's probably just not worth it. Assuming this is really the first time it's happened in the practically ten years (a week left) it's been on Mars it's somewhat of a freak accident, just the right size and shape stone was caught in the wheels in just the right way to flip it over. It's like a free bonus that you weren't even trying to get, isn't that lucky?
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
that's what my grandpappy used to say, "if it looks like a jelly donut, walks like a jelly donut, and quacks like a jelly donut, it's probably a rover-flipped Mars rock."
Two remarks on the photo. One is that the specific 5 sided shape of the rock is disturbingly similar to the crack feature it is resting on as seen in the "before" picture. second, the rock is white.
I assume the latter is why they think it's a "flipped over" rock. But the two observations together are remarkable.
But remember this lander is huge, like the size of a mini van, and has metal tires, so the prospect of it being able to kick rocks would seem to be very large
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.