- Mars Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
celebrated Saturday night with the successful landing of the Exploration
Rover Spirit on Mars. Spirit landed right side up and the first photos
showed a very flat area in the Gusev Crater. The Rover scans the land with
a pair of panoramic cameras that detect visible light. The mission is to
search for evidence of water on the planet. Where there is water there
is life. Buried at the base of the Rover's mast lies a third eye that is
sensitive to heat, or thermal-infrared radiation. Every Martian rock, radiating
heat absorbed from the sun, broadcasts its mineral composition.
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- Mineral molecules vibrate at a distinctive frequency,
emitting a particular wavelength of infrared light. "In these thermal
infrared wavelengths," Ruff says, "all minerals have a distinctive
infrared signature that's really like a fingerprint." A computer program
on Earth will scan each spectrum sent back for telltale signs of rocks
that signal the past presence of water on Mars.
- A close up of Gusev Crater is shown in the new detailed
images that reveal a mysterious substance right at the rover's feet, which
scientists described as a "strangely cohesive" clay-like material
with alien textures. The material was mashed and clumped, like something
moist and viscous, and was broken away in pieces at some spots. "The
way the surface has responded is bizarre," said lead rover scientist
Steve Squyres of Cornell University, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
which is managing the mission. "I don't understand it. I don't know
anybody on my team who understands it. It looks like mud, but it can't
be mud."
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- http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040106a/PIA04995.jpg
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- Editor's Note: "Water mixed with dirt equals mud!"
As the photos start coming in watch to see if all white parts of the lander
are tinted red/orange. NASA and JPL apparently want Mars to appear red/orange.
If the sky is blue like Earth's you are seeing the real colors. - George
Filer
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