Scoop.

hortonheardawho: Sol 2097 is planned as a RAT day! (reply 5)

Not exactly a scoop - it's there for anyone to see on the PCDT.

Given that we've already brushed this face twice, and also given the recent movements, I suppose that grinding rather than just brushing might seem likely.

Grind?

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...3QP2996M2M1.JPG

Strangest-looking grind to date if so. Looks very much like it was just pressed against a sandy coating on MI itself.

EDIT: Is that soil, not MI? Apologies if I'm behind in current events.

..."Grind?"...

Well, that is a picture of a soil brushing. On the other hand, both Odyssey and MRO are back on line, and maybe they are downloading a bunch of old stuff -- I think the just-downloaded Microscopic Imager files are older.

That's what I thought it looked like, but all the front hazcam images from the same day on Exploratorium show the IDD on the upper surface of MI rock. (unless it is old stuff like MarkG says, but it looks like an intact, uniform set of images)

That's an old image from sol 2015 or so.

The time stamps for the MIs which run from 307153499 to 307153634 seem to match up with this front hazcam image with time stamp 307154030:
Click to view attachment

We've only been doing this for nearly 6 years and people still fall for this old gem?

Images are not necessarily downlinked on the order they are taken. Why anyone would fall for it when MMB exists is beyond me

I don't know how many times I've caught others doing this. First thing I always do is check the dates (or almost always, apparently). Sorry guys. We seriously need a red-faced smiley.

I only browse the images at exploratorium. Never tried MMB

There are many other tools for revealing the date and time information from image file names. I can imagine no reason why someone following the rovers wouldn't do so via MMB however ( unless they were not on a Win or Mac platform )

Even there is no need to check the dates but just the site ids if you know what I mean.

I don't, and that's not because I have anything against MMB; far from it, I know from what everyone says here that it's a fantastic resource. No, I don't for a combination of reasons - mainly, my computer is so out of date and groaning and creaking under the weight of everything in it (new PC next year tho, yaaay! :-) ), and my broadband connection here in Kendal-twinned-with-Sedna is so ******** **** that I don't think I'd get thebest use out of the program.

But also, if I'm honest - and I don't think I'm alone here - I actually enjoy doing it "manually"; I enjoy the feelings of expectation and excitement I get when I go online and go to Exploratorium to see if there are any new images! That might seem stupid, or even perverse to some people - including, I suspect, my fellow Mods/Admins! - but it's just something I enjoy. It's genuinely exciting to dash out of bed at 6am on a brutally frosty morning like this morning, slide into my computer chair, go online and see that yaaay! there are New Images for me to drool over!

So Stu, you've probably noticed this little guy!!!

Click to view attachment


Edited: oups, sorry this is a Spirit's picture. As were talking about general pictures, I didn't check we were in Oppy's.

I'm a Midnight Mars Browser fan. (Thanks Mr. Howard - if you're ever round these parts we'll shout you dinner for sure!!). I love just hitting the download button, getting on with some other work and anticipating the bonanza (often old pics ) and then the real fun begins by flicking through the forward arrow and checking the jpegs almost like a movie!!

I started this NavCam mini panorama - Sol 2090 (Fri 11 Dec 09) more as an exercise in stretching the individual jpegs to fit and in working on overcoming the contrasty edges to make a smooth even join (but in complete contrast to the convenience of MMB I like to do everything manually to learn how it is done - will check out that anti vignetting software soon!). It didn't look too bad so - since I'm winding down for Christmas - I thought I might as well try to do a good job with it - also added a couple of little artistic tweaks!

I've also added a low resolution rough stitch of the originals to compare - it's good fun working on these to get the final result!

Click to view attachment ..... Click to view attachment

(Just a short note, the aforementioned Microscopic Imager pictures from the past were not soil brushings, they were imprints of the spectrometer.)

The recent brushings have exposed the details of a filled crack in Marquette Island. Fascinating.

Could you point out that crack to us in an image, or at least point to an image?

Look at...
1M311952764EFFA9R5P2996M2M1.JPG
from 20-Dec-2009 plus or minus a couple files is a good example. The filled-in crack (maybe I should have used the term "vein"...) wanders horizontally just above the center of the brushing, narrowing going left-to-right.

I'll post a link...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...R5P2996M2M1.JPG

That's an old picture.
The fact that it was available on the 20th Dec doesn't mean it was taken on that day.

Aside from how old the image is, I don't know if there has been any discussion yet about the feature that MarkG has mentioned. I've indicated what I think he is referring to here. Parts may be attributed to the eye connecting haphazard reflections, but the bit between the arrows seems real.
Click to view attachment

Clouds drifting by on sol 2102:
Click to view attachment

Speaking of weather, does anyone recall any frost or dust-devil pictures from Meridiani? Is frost more rare and are dust devils less common than elsewhere (i.e. the other landing/rover sites)? It seems so...
The unaltered (chemically) face of MI implies that it has not seen very much moisture since it was emplaced.

Definitely no devils imaged by Oppy. And no DD tracks on Meridiani seen from orbit, which almost certainly means there aren't any for Oppy to image.

I don't recall any frost on the ground spotted by either rover (Phoenix did of course), only on rover hardware.

Oppy's cleaning event(s) were gradual, correct? Would that be due to a low wind that isn't carrying much dust already?

Spirits were mainly at night, so not DD related either.

Regarding Oppy, we had the strongest cleaning event when sitting near or within Duck's Bay. My 2c will be that this is related to Venturi's effect (air accelaration near relief) the same Spirit experienced at the very place she's located at this time.

Quiet lately, Oppy must be amidst a spectrometer integration. Did a RAT grind actually happen (I think only a brushing took place)?

With regards to lack of both frost and dust devils, this is some indication of "geopraphical" climatic differences, and reinforces the impression of extreme current dryness of the Meridiani site.

Yes, quiet! - Sol 2058 (24th Oct 2009) Nav Cam 'Panorama'. Happy New Year everyone

Click to view attachment

But… One question : WHEN do will Oppy leave this place ? It's quite interesting studying a rock but there are wheels that's need to turn. And a target to reach…
I have the impression that we waste a lot of time beeing there.

Doing science on the largest piece of rock for miles in any direction is not 'wasted'.

Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that prolonged stops help the FR wheel which may well fail if pushed too hard, for too long, without prolonged stops.

The following post was made by "marsrovers" on Twitter on Christmas Eve:

Oppy is using the rock abrasion tool to grind into a rock named Marquette Island, aiming for a depth of about 2mm (at 1.5 mm so far).
3:50 PM Dec 24

I do not think that anyone else has mentioned this post. The speculation over whether the RAT would be used to simply brush the rock or whether a hole would be ground is over.

Anyone feeling frustrated by our long stay here, look at it this way: it's not just "a rock", it's a great big weathered came-from-somewhere-else Mars rock, absolutely unique in every way. Oppy is sat at the corner of "No" and "Where" at the moment, literally miles away from its next science-rich destination, and we all know, even if we don't say it, that every Sol could be Oppy's last - something could go "twang!!" at any moment - so not squeezing every last drop of data out of Marquette would be stupid, and a waste of an invaluable resource.

Patience, young Jedi. Move when we are ready, we will.

Hey its the holidays.....people are on vacation, besides as noted "rest" for the RF wheel is good.

Except for the "purty picture" value, has anyone bothered to look at the latest MIs?

Looks like a grind on sol 2110:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...X7P2936M2M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...X7P2546R1M1.JPG

Edit: and/or before 2110, considering the MarsRovers post Paul mentioned above.

Is the grind showing that the crystalline "beauty" is only skin-deep? Or am I misinterpreting which areas are deepest?

Well, maybe farewell to Marquette in a few more days time!

Always loved your anaglyphs Stu, so I thought I would have my first go at colourizing this analglyph from Nav Cam pair of Sol 2095 (16-Dec-09). Not easy! The colours look reasonably ok on my best monitor, but they seem pretty sensitive to monitor setting and left/right eye competition... but I'll post anyway as today is end of New Year 'staycation' for me!!!!


Click to view attachment ..... just in case these colours are really off on anyone's monitor, from this early stage ..... Click to view attachment

Well, Spirit is about to celebrate her 6th Earth year on Mars and Opportunity's comes up in a few weeks.
To celebrate, Stu and I have produced some words and pictures which you can over at this thread. Enjoy!

Quick RGB composite of Marquette Island grind from Sol 2110

Click to view attachment

Nice one Nick, keep posting

MI MI, oh my!

The new brushed-off/reground Marquette Island pictures are fascinating! Veins, large crystals, inclusions, there is a story to tell here from this piece of deep Mars, conveniently blasted here for our viewing pleasure.

I'm not enough of an igneous petrologist to wax eloquent about the specifics of much of what is seen here, but there seems to be some indication of a little disturbance during its partial-melt (veins), but not much settling-type of layering/sorting. This rock had long-ago hardened in place when it was presumably excavated by an impact.

So, compared to an Earth mantle/lower crust rock, we are seeing less differentiation (lower gravitational gradient and less/absent plastic convection--tectonics) for this Mars rock. Of course, the details of MI's unknown source and depth can have a huge effect, so one can't take this one "data point" too far, but it is information.

In the happy tradition of good science, this MI of MI raises more questions than it answers...

I can't wait to hear some composition results...

Lovely new colour view...

Click to view attachment

In a hundred years this rock will be on display in the Museum of Mars - just down the hall from the "MER Gallery" where Spirit and Oppy are displayed in all their restored glory - and there'll be an attendant on duty beside it all the time, to stop tall, pale-skinned martian kids on school trips from leaning over the barrier and poking their dirty, sticky fingers into the hole Oppy ratted in it...

Thanks as always for that, Stu. Lovely indeed.

Based on those pancams and the MIs - see an MI composite by Hortonheardawho here - it looks pretty clearly that the whole visible RAT/brush circular region hasn't been ground into. It's mostly just two strips on the left and right sides of the "hole". A vertical strip running through the centre of the "hole" still has "topography" and looks like the original, unground surface.

So what this means is that the original surface wasn't flat at the millimetre level - we mostly just ground off two higher "ridges" along the left and right. I wonder if the strips along the left and right are large enough to do some new chemical analysis, or would they need the full diameter to be ground into?

More patches than strips, I think it's pretty neat! Both before and after views present! And with less RAT wear. The only problem may be getting a good spectrometer reading. But the brushed surface alone looks so clean -- no crust or 'varnish' -- that I wonder if the reading would be much different a couple millimeters down anyway.

Some 3D views in a post on my blog, if anyone wants a look:

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...rquette-musings

Some interesting bits of information on the status report covering sols 2111-2117, Dec. 31, 2009 - Jan. 6, 2010:

"The rock abrasion tool (RAT) was used to grind a 1.5-millimeter-deep (0.06-inch-deep) hole in this very hard rock at the target called "Peck Bay 2." The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) measurements of Peck Bay 2 were significantly different than the pre-grind measurements. Based on these results, Opportunity is spending another week at Marquette Island for more observations of Peck Bay 2."

Hi Stu

In real life are you a Comedian or A Writer for a Comedy Show???

LOL