Phoenix on Mars

front of the postcard

Back of the postcard

Dear Oppy,

Oh well as you can see the sun does not rise very high here anymore and soon I shall be off for good but wow what a time I have had here! I am working very hard to finish as much as possible but have to sleep four hours a day at the moment. It has been snowing! The clouds keep rolling by really amazing shapes, I still have doughnut shaped ice growing on my legs and my ovens have picked up evidence of water really quite something, the soil samples are also full of weird glass beads. I heard you are on a long journey to a massive crater that is miles away well lucky you another great adventure starts. Oh well time for a sleep if I don't get to speak to you again good luck and say hi to Spirit when she wakes up.

Phoenie

sol 136 RAC super 3D of clumpy soil in the scoop here and animation of soil settling in the scoop here.

The 3D was taken after the slumping soil was was dumped on the WCL.

Very strange stuff.

Also strange is the fact that even though I have posted very few images on Flickr in the past week or so, my Flickr viewing stats are steadily increasing. Most of the hits are direct hits on the Flickr photostream and not redirections from other sites ( like this one ).

And now for something completely different...

I have been very much absorbed ( as perhaps all of you ) by the ongoing worldwide financial crisis, trying to understand exactly what's happening - and trying to guess the long term implications.

Perhaps someone would like to start a topic on the impact of the comming depression on space exploration.

Hort

I think that there is a dearth of official Phoenix OM images and what you and I also (but for me to a lesser extent) are seeing, is a result of people directly seeking out colourised or composite OM images from the MarsRoverBlog sources as there are no significant other official sources.

In addition, I think that there are a number of people out there who recognize the "strangeness" in the images and are downloading them to themselves look for signs of organic objects that may not appear to be too wacky or unreasonable now, given the comments on habitability, water, pH, etc. by the Phoenix team.

I suspect that amongst the downloaders may be some reputable UMSF scientists who would not deign to have anything to do with this blog otherwise.

RE. the current financial turmoil, I suspect most of us are following its turns and twists and ups and downs with trepidation as it will eventually affect all of us. This includes the space programme. The only thing that will allow the NASA programme to retain funding near its current real levels is if China develops its space programme at the same rate that it appears to be doing so far and the US has to respond in kind. I think the habitability question will become quite important in determining howe the Space exploration dollars are apportioned.

Winston

The Banks are now pretty much being taken over by governments around the world as a major shareholder buying in when the share price is rock bottom means they should make a good profit when they sell back to the open market in a few years. Banks make money and therefore any dividend will be paid to the government before other shareholders or Fat Cat bonuses. Politically speaking spending a few billion going to Mars maybe a problem when people are losing their homes but potentially just like any other speculator the Govt. could profit quite nicely in the long term. I think MSL will lose its launch window next year and will be a go for 2012.

MSL update:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7664965.stm

Hort,

Anyone that still has an internet connection and an interest in Mars will always check out your flicker site. We know that not all of your images get posted here.

Good job.

Fred

Phoenix update:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7680981.stm

Quotes:

"We are still valiantly searching for organic molecules..."

"We are also trying to find the isotopic clues that we can find in water in terms of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio,..."

Hort,

You did a 3D of this trench sol 129. If you have time can we get a 144 comparison if it is possible.

Fred

reply 508 sol 129-144 comparison animation here.

sol 145 patterns in newly excavated soil:

But if you don't see it - you don't see it.

Hort,

Thanks for the comparison image. Looks like when they scrape it the white ice scrapings are deposited in some fashion buy the bucket. Go figure.

Fred

[link] ?pid=26778

This article may have implications for analysis of OM images. It says that a type of magnetactic bacteria on Earth produced magnetite crystals 4 microns in size. I presume this means the bacteria were even larger. The OM is supposed to have 4 micron resolution, so if similar bacteria were present, they might perhaps be barely visible in OM images.

Hi Barsoomer

The link above did'nt work. Grateful if you would repost it. Have you seen this 1999 work on magnetite crystal sizes from synthetic and from magnetotactic bacteria?

here

Winston

Earlier global warming produced a whole new form of life.

Hi Hort

Thanks!

Winston

sol 145-147 animation of changes in new trench and surrounding soil:

It looks like an attempt was made to move the large rock into the new trench.

Reply 514 link was excellent thanks Horton!!
Different temperatures over geologic time will help people to hopefully deal with global warming. One study theorized that it may take the Earth 40,000 years to recover from the atmospheric changes that we have caused so far. Over geologic time, the earth has gone through many climate imbalances and has managed to eventually stabilize it's biosphere.
Mars was not able to recover as well but it has certainly gone through many atmospheric and temerature changes.

I'll bet that there lots of magnetite crystals/grains on Mars and some of them likely (in my mind) were created in conjunction with life like bacteria or bacteria-like organisms. Of course we have yet to prove this.

I checked a few rocks in my collection for magnetism. Basalt is usually magnetic, garnet shist can be mildly magnetic, my specimans of Soapstone, serpentinite is magnetic. Serpentinite is metamorphosed serpentine (which is produced during alternation of olivene and pyroxene or impure limestones). Epidosite (altered epidote and quartz) is also magnetic.

Mentioning the Earth’s climate cycle is relative to Mars only in the sense that planets can have cycles. Earth’s current warming is still unknown as its relation to ocean currents and the ability for the oceans to mitigate higher CO2 levels.

To speculate on Mars climate cycles we must find heat and water. Solar intensity due to angle or change in orbit is the primary source with any residual geologic activity secondary. The discovery of abundant vapor emissions from the scarp would increase water vapor levels and increase temperature because water is one of the greatest green house gases.

It would seem to me that any condition can have many potential causes with the etiology limited only to the ability of the speculator.

Fred

Just finished watching two hours of Mars television on National Geographic. Interesting that the Mars images no longer show a red surface and pink skies. Chalk one up for the woo-woo’s.

The most interesting thing out of the Phoenix team is that perchlorate can reduce the freezing point of water to -70. They did not assign C or F. That makes this image a little more interesting. Water, perchlorate, temps above -70 in sunshine. Not only does it look like a damp spot, it most likely is.