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Post by plutronus on Oct 20, 2012 8:07:28 GMT -6
I dunno but it doesn't look like it belongs..I'd laugh if it was silver..know how fast Mars would be a mining colony? Yep, you are quite correct in essence. However, its likely, much too costly for silver, Au or even platinum. But, if they were to find something like, Element 115, now that might cause a rush...
We'll be seeing more robotic planetary exploration now that the Space-Shuttle isn't hogging all the NASA money as it has been doing these past 30 years. JPL guys hated that machine, in fact I've heard various folks call the Shuttle the 'white hog'.
Plus, there is a hidden story in all of this, if one thinks about it. What planetary body does Earth actually have realistic access? And who on Earth would be interested in it? For what purpose? Mars, based on our technical capability, is simply too far away and has virtually no useful resources which could be used to support life. But the public, fueled mainly through books and movies, are in the space-faring schema of thinking. And its the public who has the money. So how does one, cause the public to fund space technology research needed to get out there, and yet not put focus on the only planetary body accessible, and which is of primary interest to the powers that be at the same time? Ya build a space-plane that goes no-where and you fund it for 30 years.
And when its done, the space-plane is in the museums, what do ya got?
plutronus
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2012 8:16:49 GMT -6
I love the way ya think, Plutronus!
Now, why do YOU think we aren't on the Earths moon?
;D
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Post by skywalker on Oct 20, 2012 16:33:23 GMT -6
Now, why do YOU think we aren't on the Earths moon? ;D There is no element 115 there? Was I close?
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Post by satansrini on Oct 20, 2012 22:28:39 GMT -6
I posted something about this when they first discovered the shiny thing but back then they thought it was something that had fallen off the little rover dude. Now it seems they are finding these little shiny things all over the place. Anybody want to guess what they might be? Meteorites? Silver? Diamonds? Prehistoric Martian tooth fillings? They are saying that the material is apparently artificial but not of us!!! Yes that is coming as a official verdict. Discussions are underway though. Im sure almost 100%, they are going to come up with some conventional explanation, like.. I don't know some chemical reaction leading to giving that metal that shine or something.. Regards, Srinivas
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Post by skywalker on Oct 20, 2012 22:36:21 GMT -6
Can't believe NASA would officially say that it was artificial, even if it was. It would be more like them to make excuses and not say anything for months and months and then gradually say it was swamp gas.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2012 11:18:41 GMT -6
Yeah...that's actually suspicious to me. That it might mean they know exactly what it is and want to keep people 'warm' but not in the know.
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Post by lois on Oct 21, 2012 19:03:43 GMT -6
Yeah...that's actually suspicious to me. That it might mean they know exactly what it is and want to keep people 'warm' but not in the know. Jo . . I agree..
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Post by plutronus on Oct 21, 2012 23:33:41 GMT -6
Can't believe NASA would officially say that it was artificial, even if it was. It would be more like them to make excuses and not say anything for months and months and then gradually say it was swamp gas. From: www.space.com/18115-mars-rover-curiosity-shiny-particles.html
Oct 18, 2012 - Thursday
"NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has found some more bright stuff on the Red Planet, scientists say.
The Curiosity rover had dumped out a recent sample of Mars dirt after spotting shiny particles inside the hole dug by the shovel-like scoop on its robotic arm. Mission scientists were concerned that the bright material might be debris from the rover itself, so they ordered Curiosity to discard the Mars sample as a safety precaution, mission managers said in a statement.
As it turns out, the bright particles are actually Martian in origin, they added. "
plutronus
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Post by skywalker on Oct 31, 2012 22:11:08 GMT -6
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Post by skywalker on Nov 20, 2012 14:59:18 GMT -6
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Post by swamprat on Nov 20, 2012 15:31:50 GMT -6
"Grotzinger says it will take several weeks before he and his team are ready to talk about their latest finding. In the meantime he'll fend off requests from pesky reporters, and probably from NASA brass as well."Well, we'll see. Here is today's NASA Rover update. They are pretty noncommittal over there. Notice the words I underlined..... Mission Status Report
Curiosity Rover Preparing for Thanksgiving Activities11.20.12 PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed a touch-and-go inspection of one rock on Sunday, Nov. 18, then pivoted and, on the same day, drove toward a Thanksgiving overlook location. Last week, Curiosity drove for the first time after spending several weeks in soil-scooping activities at one location. On Friday, Nov. 16, the rover drove 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) to get within arm's reach of a rock called "Rocknest 3." On Sunday, it touched that rock with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on its arm, and took two 10-minute APXS readings of data about the chemical elements in the rock. Then Curiosity stowed its arm and drove 83 feet (25.3 meters) eastward toward a target called "Point Lake." "We have done touches before, and we've done goes before, but this is our first 'touch-and-go' on the same day," said Curiosity Mission Manager Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It is a good sign that the rover team is getting comfortable with more complex operational planning, which will serve us well in the weeks ahead." During a Thanksgiving break, the team will use Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) from Point Lake to examine possible routes and targets to the east. A priority is to choose a rock for the first use of the rover's hammering drill, which will collect samples of powder from rock interiors. Although Curiosity has departed the Rocknest patch of windblown sand and dust where it scooped up soil samples in recent weeks, the sample-handling mechanism on the rover's arm is still holding some soil from the fifth and final scoop collected at Rocknest. The rover is carrying this sample so it can be available for analysis by instruments within the rover if scientists choose that option in coming days. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover. More information about Curiosity is online at www.nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/marscuriosity . Guy Webster 818-354-6278 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20121120.html
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2012 19:27:11 GMT -6
This may turn out to be interesting .
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Post by skywalker on Nov 20, 2012 23:35:48 GMT -6
Obviously they found something interesting in the dirt. That's why the little robot dude still has a scoop of soil in his soil scooper. They want to be able to double check the findings later on if necessary. Some type of microbrial life perhaps? Oooooohh! I know! I know! They said they found it near a place called "Rocknest 3"...that must mean they found the Rocknest monster! ;D
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Post by swamprat on Nov 21, 2012 13:30:56 GMT -6
"...that must mean they found the Rocknest monster!"
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sunbow
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Seeing, Dreaming, and Loving...
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Post by sunbow on Nov 21, 2012 18:31:37 GMT -6
They are looking for microbial or bacterial life: lets hope they have some solid proof to help those stuck in the we are the center of creation mode.
i have to laugh at the videos of rocks that are then filtered and claimed to be all kinds of things. Mars does not have Earth's atmosphere, therefore the ambient and diffuse values are radically different, so shadows have a whole different look.
There are also a lot of meteorites on mars and those commonly contain metals. Finding a strange rock is not indicative of anything except that there is some variation in geology, which is likely.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2012 18:25:47 GMT -6
If I were to make a guess at what has been found I would think it would be one of two things possibly. One : Microbial life or fossils of. Two : And this would be my choice of the two,,, I would guess that sample analysis of Mars ( "SAM", which is 3 instruments ) has most likely found methane again. This could be indicative of either life existing now, or in the past on the planet or in it's atmosphere. It could also have originated from a geological event where methane was trapped in ice cages called 'calathrates'. We'll see.......
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Post by swamprat on Nov 25, 2012 12:44:51 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2012 20:11:04 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2012 10:38:33 GMT -6
I think that's interesting too as some of us 'saw' caves and life there when we were doing our experiment
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Post by skywalker on Nov 26, 2012 23:19:46 GMT -6
A cave probably would be one of the best places to find life. Temperatures are much more stable and not exposed to the extremes that exist at the surface. We have caves here on earth where life has evolved that is totally isolated and unique from anything else on the planet. I still think we need to send people there though. I would be happy to volunteer.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2012 5:19:40 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2012 12:24:58 GMT -6
An excuse NOT to share? Just more of the same. If they find evidence of life in those caves or trilobite fossils...will we ever know it? I'm guessing a disappointing...not.
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Post by swamprat on Nov 29, 2012 18:35:50 GMT -6
Update Set About Curiosity Mars Rover NASA will provide a Curiosity update at 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3, at the American Geophysical Union. Rumors of major new findings at this early stage are incorrect. The news conference will discuss Curiosity's use of instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil. Audio and visuals from the briefing will be available via UStream. www.nasa.gov/
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Post by paulette on Nov 30, 2012 10:35:54 GMT -6
How can they announce that rumors of major findings are incorrect? Everything they find there is a major finding. Methinks they protest too much.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 10:48:54 GMT -6
I think..they think too much
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Post by skywalker on Nov 30, 2012 11:32:29 GMT -6
I think what we may have here is a case where a scientist got a little over-excited about a scientific discovery. You have to remember that when people spend their lives analyzing tiny little molecules and specks of dust and stuff anything out of the ordinary might get them excited. Maybe they found a speck of dust that was a slightly different shade of color. That is something that might have other scientists jumping for joy and popping champaigne corks while the rest of us are either yawning or looking for a long hard object to wack the scientists over the head with. I guess you can't blame a scientist for being excited about science.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 11:48:42 GMT -6
You broke your baseball bat
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Post by skywalker on Dec 1, 2012 11:43:15 GMT -6
Only two more days before the so-called big announcement that they are now claiming is not so big but might still be big anyway. It has to be something otherwise they wouldn't be announcing it. Even though it may not be earth-shattering I hope it is at least something mildly interesting. I'll go buy a new baseball bat just in case.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2012 12:55:00 GMT -6
Wow...foresight ;D
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2012 8:07:23 GMT -6
USTREAMwww.ustream.tv/nasajpl/collection/29051f2bb545UPCOMING EVENT: Curiosity Rover Update 9 a.m. PT (12 p.m. ET) on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 The next news conference about the NASA Mars rover Curiosity will be held in San Francisco at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Rumors and speculation that there are major new findings from the mission at this early stage are incorrect. The news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil. One class of substances Curiosity is checking for is organic compounds -- carbon-containing chemicals that can be ingredients for life. At this point in the mission, the instruments on the rover have not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics. The Mars Science Laboratory Project and its Curiosity rover are less than four months into a two-year prime mission to investigate whether conditions in Mars' Gale Crater may have been favorable for microbial life. Curiosity is exceeding all expectations for a new mission with all of the instruments and measurement systems performing well. This is spectacular for such a complex system, and one that is operated so far away on Mars by people here on planet Earth. The mission already has found an ancient riverbed on the Red Planet, and there is every expectation for remarkable discoveries still to come. For more information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
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