Rense.com


Did Mars Rover Land
'In The Mud'?

George A. Filer
Director MUFON Eastern
Filer's Files #02 2004 Skywatch Investigations
1-7-4



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.
 
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."
 
 
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040106a/PIA04995.jpg
 
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

 

Disclaimer





MainPage
http://www.rense.com


This Site Served by TheHostPros