The Mars Report - June 18th, 2014

[caption id="attachment_3057" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Martian Surface Curiosity MastCam June 16th 2014[/caption]

(Martian Surface Curiosity MastCam June 16^th 2014)

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. This will be a relatively short edition of ‘The Mars Report’ as NSA/JPL are finishing up with the science projects at the Kimberly Waypoint. That doesn’t mean that nothing is coming out of Curiosity, just that the scientific experimentation is taking precedence over imaging. Our very first image, of this edition, is actually a video.

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This is a video taken by the Mastcam of Curiosity while the rover was… stargazing. Amazing that our robot, the rover Curiosity, is imitating human behavior by gazing skyward at the sun and stars above. Yet, on Tuesday June the 3^rd the rover Curiosity caught a rare event, it captured (on video) the passing of Mercury in front of the sun. There are also two sun spots (reported last week right here at The Other Shoe) in the images of the sun. This is the very first time EVER that a transit of the sun, by a planet, is observed from any planet other than Earth! Mankind is making celestial history in spite of the overt greed and avarice of the few! Kudos, mankind!

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/ILbmfgZ5Uo4]

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As I mentioned, in the opening paragraph of this article, NASA/JPL are just now finishing up with the scientific experimentation at ‘Windjana’ rock byCuriosity. This was the first opportunity we had to drill and experiment on a ‘sandstone’ rock face since Curiosity landed on the Martian surface. Below is a wide-field image of the rock face of ‘Windjana’ after drilling.

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[caption id="attachment_3060" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Wide-field View ‘Windjana’ Rock Face with Drill Holes[/caption]

(Wide-field View ‘Windjana’ Rock Face with Drill Holes)[1]

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For our next image we are going to be looking at the same drill hole, into ‘Windjana’, in the sandstone rockface. This time we are going to see a much closer view of the drilled hole. As well, this image was taken at nighttime! It is not often that we get nighttime images from Curiosity, I am very happy to be sharing this one, today! Notice the laser-etched markers along the inside left of the drill hole. This is markers for distance, used by Curiosity to catalogue the samples taken from the drilled hole.

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[caption id="attachment_3059" align="aligncenter" width="630"] ‘Windjana’ Drill Holes - Nighttime – Close-up[/caption]

(‘Windjana’ Drill Holes - Nighttime – Close-up)[2]

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Now, we are going to move away from the rover, Curiosity, to the single oldest functioning rover left on the Martian surface. My Dear Readers, welcome BACK to Opportunity! If you are one of my long-time readers, you will remember back when my images, from the Martian surface, came from Opportunity and Spirit. They were the only working rovers on the Martian surface, at the time. Now we have Curiosity and we still have a (working) Opportunity.

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On April 18^th 2014 Opportunity managed to get some great landscape images of Endeavour Crater Rim from 'Murray Ridge'. You, My Dear Readers, are very fortunate in that I have downloaded, and am going to share, two different versions of this wonderful landscape image. The difference between the two images is that one (the first) is in ‘True Color’. Meaning, in natural daylight on the Martian surface, the image has been enhanced for better viewing. The second image is done in what is called ‘False Color’. This means that the good people at NASA/JPL have done their best to reproduce the image in ‘Natural Earth Light’. So, if we were to ‘see’ this landscape on Earth, the second image is how it would look here in Earth light.

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[caption id="attachment_3054" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Endeavour Crater Rim From 'Murray Ridge' on Mars - True Color[/caption]

(Endeavour Crater Rim From 'Murray Ridge' on Mars - True Color)[3]

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AND

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[caption id="attachment_3055" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Endeavour Crater Rim From 'Murray Ridge' on Mars, False Color[/caption]

(Endeavour Crater Rim From 'Murray Ridge' on Mars, False Color)[4]

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Now, I like them both… but it seems that you can actually see more in the ‘False Color’ of the Earth Light rendered image. That might just be because we/I are used to seeing (like) everythingwith this light. I enjoyed seeing both of the images, and I imagined that you, My Dear Readers, would… too!

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Well, My Dear Readers, we are coming to the end of this abbreviated edition of ‘The Mars Report’. Now, if you are an avid ‘My Dear Reader’ then you read my personal update in ‘Notes from Behind the Keyboard’ yesterday. You understand, and realize, that I am writing with a bit of a handicap. I spent… too much time in a hospital ER on Monday, and it has taken a lot out of me. I refuse to be neglectful, and not publish my regularly scheduled articles. That is why you have seen; ‘Lost In Space – Our Solar System Tour #2 Venus’ and this edition of ‘The Mars Report’. I am doing my level best to keep writing and publishing, according to my regular schedule. You can look forward to another great episode of ‘The Horror in Smithville’ this Friday, too! Yet, I am going to cut myself a little slack with this edition of ‘The Mars Report’.

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Below is out last image of the day. Labeled (by NASA/JPL) as merely ‘Giant Landforms on Mars’, as I read the information I realized that is was much more than just that… Rather that spend an inordinate amount of time paraphrasing what they have written? I am going to share exactly what NASA/JPL has written about this image. It really is pretty spectacular!

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“Sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms, are classified by the wavelength--or length--between crests. On Mars, we can observe four classes of bedforms (in order of increasing wavelengths): ripples, transverse aeolian ridges (known as TARs), dunes, and what are called “draa.” All of these are visible in this Juventae Chasma image.

Ripples are the smallest bedforms (less than 20 meters) and can only be observed in high-resolution images commonly superposed on many surfaces. TARs are slightly larger bedforms (wavelengths approximately 20 to 70 meters), which are often light in tone relative to their surroundings. Dark-toned dunes (wavelengths 100 meters to 1 kilometer) are a common landform and many are active today. What geologists call “draa” is the highest-order bedform with largest wavelengths (greater than 1 kilometer), and is relatively uncommon on Mars.

Here, this giant draa possesses steep faces or slip faces several hundreds of meters tall and has lower-order superposed bedforms, such as ripples and dunes. A bedform this size likely formed over thousands of Mars years, probably longer.

This image was acquired by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 6, 2014. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.”[5]

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[caption id="attachment_3056" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Giant Landform on Mars[/caption]

(Giant Landform on Mars)[6]

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That, My Dear Readers, brings us to the end of this edition of ‘The Mars Report’ right here at ‘The Other Shoe’. DANG! That image, above, it is just incredible! Honestly, it looks like an art project (of mine) from college at A.C.C. Looks like something that would come out of my mind.
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[caption id="attachment_3058" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Landscape - Martian Surface Curiosity Navcam Left June 16th 2014[/caption]

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I hope that you have enjoyed this edition of ‘The Mars Report’. If you have? I would like to ask you to remember to ‘Like’ the article… here, and maybe ‘Share’ it on Facebook. Sharing is the way I increase readership, and gain new friends on Facebook. Like in life, one can never have too many friends. Thank you for dropping by and giving my work a read. I look forward to seeing you, again, here later this week for; ‘New From Around the World’ and ‘The Horror in Smithville’.

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Adieu!

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Thank YOU!

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="234"] The Other Shoe eBay Store[/caption]

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http://www.ebay.com/usr/enzomatrixlt

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[caption id="attachment_2866" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Hanning of The Other Shoe - May 6th, 2014[/caption]

 

 

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[1]http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/msl/pia18090/#.U6CuW5RdX85

[2]http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/msl/drill-20140515/#.U6CkL5RdX84

[3]http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mer/pia18093/#.U6Cwj5RdX85

[4]http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mer/pia18094/#.U6CwZpRdX86

[5]http://www.nasa.gov/content/giant-landform-on-mars/#.U6CxCpRdX85

[6]http://www.nasa.gov/content/giant-landform-on-mars/#.U6CxCpRdX85