Curiosity photographs mysterious metal object on Martian rock
Image analysis of shots taken by the Curiosity rover's MastCam last month appears to have revealed a shiny metal object sticking out of a rock on the Martian surface. Italian imaging specialist Elisabetta Bonora was going over Curiosity's latest photographs and found the object in a set of pictures taken by the rover on January …
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Re: Original Image
"the image covers the path taken by Curiosity."
The old track was some 65 meters away from the rover's position when the photo was taken.
The camera elevation was -8.85deg, so unless the mast is 10m tall the spot covered by the photo is much closer to the rover than the old track (something between 10 and 20m away, depending on how high the mast is).
Does anyone know if NASA has released a better resolution picture of the same spot from the left camera as well?
The one I've found so far is 500something by 400something. I've made a stereopair anyway and it clearly shows something sticking out of the rock, but because of the poor resolution you can't see what it is.
It's K9
Got a bit buried in the dust over the years, but ......
Obvious when you think about it
It was what the Magratheans used to attach their tow rope to.
Chavs on Mars
... have been dropping litter.
Eadon can reveal that the metallic looking object is an unwanted Win Phone 8. They are some on Mars, obviously because none have been bought on Earth...
Re: Chavs on Mars
"Eadon can reveal that the metallic looking object is an unwanted Win Phone 8. They are some on Mars, obviously because none have been bought on Earth..."
*sketches artefact outline and hurriedly sends it to the Patent Office*
Oh, snap! Whaddaya MEAN Apple already patented it!!???
T1000
It is of course a Terminator finger. This explains what happened to all the natives.Further investigation will reveal a shiny skull with one glowing red eye.
The Sword in the Stone
"Who so Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of all Mars" - Dejah Thoris 2617
I was wondering where that went ...
That's the gas-pump price/volume reset key I lost in 1974, when working at Trepasso Texaco on the North West corner of Middlefield & San Antonio in Palo Alto.
(Petrol pump, to you Brits.)
Re: I was wondering where that went ...
Sadly people in the UK have taken to calling them gas stations now..oh the horror!
Re: I was wondering where that went ...
Now a Valero (with an Arco [BP] across the street in the southwest corner)...
Re: I was wondering where that went ...
Not round here they haven't...
Thankfully.
@Bela Lubkin (was:Re: I was wondering where that went ... )
The ARCO was "Larry's ARCO" back then, and still part of Atlantic Richfield, not a franchise. I can't remember Larry's last name, but I played a lot of Pinball at that station. In fact, I own the very Bally "Captain Fantastic" machine that I used to waste quarters on as a teenager ...
Have a homebrew, Compadre :-)
It's life, Jim
But not as we know it... How much would we all freak out if it wasn't there the next time they looked?
Re: It's life, Jim
Or, alternatively, it would stick out a bit more?
:)
Part of a ""Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" ?????''
Wait for the "Ka-Boooom"!
Upvote for Marvin
Glad to see I wasn't wrong in my guess, when I went to look.. \o/
Marvin
> Part of a ""Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" ?????''
>
> Wait for the "Ka-Boooom"!
Where's the ka-boom?
There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering ka-boom!
We'd better send another sattelite...
So it can photograph the area in high-res from above just before it nukes it from orbit. After all; we all know it's the only way to be sure.
Re: We'd better send another sattelite...
Surely we have to send some space marines to investigate first?
Re: We'd better send another sattelite...
Not unless you want to be sued by Games Workshop.
Being the proud owner of a piece of iron metorite
I think that looks very much like a bit of it. That doesn’t rust in earths atmosphere!
Look up Campo de Chielo images and you will see lots of extra terrestrial shinies.
Context
I was going to post something about it being a buried metal foot of a Martian robot or something...
And then I realised.
THOSE ARE PICTURES FROM ANOTHER FUCKING PLANET.
Sorry, still too impressed by the fact those rocks are not, actually, somewhere in Arizona but are sitting minding their own business on Mars.
Just too fucking impressive.
Sucker...
Yeah, sure, next you'll be telling me NASA really went to the moon
Re: Context
It *is* easy to forget. I have a couple photos of a desert hike I took in Nevada that look a lot like this, except for the color of the soil. Well that and the metal thing would be a beer can or a pop-tart wrapper...
Re: Context
Apparently ;)
I'm sure they are, but how would you know for sure?
Whatever it is
Apple already have it patented although you won't find it on their map app. Let the down votes flow.....
Re: Whatever it is
although you won't find it on their map app
I doubt you'll find *anything at all* on their map app....
Or perhaps
Wallace and Gromit landed on Mars thinking it was the moon - its part of their cooker
Geology
It's a pity no-one provides a link to a story that discusses the geology of the mother rock. Poor reporting.
I remember this
'You are in a 20-foot depression floored with bare dirt. Set into the dirt is a strong steel grate mounted in concrete. A dry streambed leads into the depression.
The grate is locked.'
>
Use the key! Use the key!
Really Tiny Martians
We've been driving all over their cities for years with our monstrosities, just can't see them.
They're not happy with us.
Why call it Curiosity....
... if you don't send it back to investigate?
Failing that, it should have had a couple baby rovers on board that could be dispatched on an observation-only side mission like this. With today's technology we ought to be able to design something very small using inexpensive, off the shelf components that could do this.
Re: Why call it Curiosity....
"With today's technology we ought to be able to design something very small using inexpensive, off the shelf components that could do this."
Fag-packet maths says no.
Each 1kg of payload uses 180kg of fuel to get it to Mars, and it costs over $10,000 just to get 1kg into orbit. So even if you buy the bits at Maplin, it ain't going to be 'cheap'.
Then we strap the Maplin parts onto a rocket, fly it into space, expose it to vacuum, -270C and a bunch of radiation, then drop it onto a planet from orbit. Then we expose it to temperatures which swing between about 0C and -100C on a daily basis and blast it with sand-storms.
Yeah... should be fine! I
Re: Why call it Curiosity....
It's about $200,000/kg to mars.
Re: Why call it Curiosity....
"It's about $200,000/kg to mars."
Sorry, I was using US figures.... If I plug in UK petrol prices, you're spot on!!!
Fag packet maths again, as curiosity (sic) gets the better of me:
Driving a Lotus Exige S to Mars in 2018 at highway speeds would cost $12,344 / £7,859 per kg at current UK fuel prices.
Maybe I have been drinking but zoomed in it looks like a chicken toe and partial leg. A robot chicken granted, but a chicken leg all the same. Mars KFC outlet?
Or it looks like a miniature delorean from back to the future.....
It looks to me...
...like a small outcropping of naturally occurring unaobtanium.
Or maybe it's just a bit of dark matter that's changed colour having been left out in the sun for so long.
busted
that's a shopping cart I dumped in a mud puddle behind the store. I was gonna go back later and steal it, but now EVERYBODY knows about it.
It's the top of a buried Strata machine
Abandoned aeons ago during the failed terraforming of Mars.
(What? Everybody else got to make sci-fi reference...)
It's a thingy.
A fiendish thingy.
(Copyright Ringo Starr)
It's a TAAAAAAAAAAP!
(For turning on the Martian rivers)
Still waiting for it ?????????????????????????
Consider me amazed that we don't yet have the first person perspectve of Amanfrommars1?
It seems to me that we would all be better served by his comments rather that our collective speculation. Perhaps he's a proponent of "What happens on Mars, Stays on Mars?
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