back to article Curiosity Rover digs into humanity's first alien sand dune

The Curiosity Rover has clocked up another first for humanity by examining an alien sand dune. The nuclear-powered space tank is currently at a spot named "Bagnold Dunes," which can be found on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside the Gale Crater that's been Curiosity's home since it arrived on August 6th, 2012. NASA …

  1. ratfox
    Paris Hilton

    Surely if the dunes move one meter per year, we only need to wait a bit to know what's under the sand?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You mean, like, a giant stone face?

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Or a black monolith?

        1. Teiwaz
          Coat

          Or a pyramid?

          alternatively, hundreds of thousands of 3-legged insect thoraxes (and an eerie psychic message)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Or a Mars rover, if we wait long enough.

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Well, this rover will not last

    We might as well start reciting the litany:

    Bless the Maker and his water

    Bless his coming and his going

    may his passage cleanse the world

    may he keep the world for his people

    1. Someonehasusedthathandle

      Re: Well, this rover will not last

      Prefer the alternative one:

      If you walk without rhythm

      You won't attract the worm

      If your walk without rhythm

      You'll never learn

    2. Teiwaz

      Re: Well, this rover will not last

      We have worm-sign the likes of which even God has never seen...

      Did Nasa have the 'prescience' to equip it with a thumper or two? Or a Maker-hook?

      Proly not, they've been off the Golden Path a while now...

      1. Chris G

        Re: Well, this rover will not last

        I hope the Rover has flies on board, to catch the Sand Trout with.

        If it finds a spice blow, we'll never know, they'll keep it for themselves but look out for VERY blue eyed NASA folk.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Well, this rover will not last

          I suspect that this thread will appear rather weird for newbies who have never read Dune :)

          1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

            Re: Well, this rover will not last

            If you haven't read Dune, why are you reading The Register? You should be reading Dune.

    3. Fink-Nottle

      Re: Well, this rover will not last

      So Curiosity's true missions begun - to uncover the training base of the legion of Sardaukar that Dick Cheney has raised in anticipation of his return to politics.

    4. Zuagroasta

      Re: Well, this rover will not last

      Bi-lal kaifa!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been there, dune that

    NASA also hopes to scoop some sand into the rover's super-sensitive-space-sieve.

    I don't know what that does, but I bet it costs a lot.

  4. Anonymous Custard

    A potent voyager?

    One image released by NASA suggests it's sand all the way down

    You were expecting turtles?

    1. Hollerith 1

      Re: A potent voyager?

      We you get to the bottom of the sand, it's turtles thereafter.

      1. Nunyabiznes

        Re: A potent voyager?

        Surely elephants and THEN turtle?

  5. Yugguy

    Martians!

    Sand all the way down til you get to the Martians world-spanning underground habitats, constructed for the great exodus when the surface became too inhospitable.

    Powered by geothermal energy, housing billions and totally self-sufficient, it's the only world many generations have ever known.

    You never know...

    1. weegie38

      Re: Martians!

      "With just a handful of Martians, we'll start all over agaaaain!!"

      1. Yugguy

        Re: Martians!

        Love that album. I miss the days of proper concept albums, awesome LP cover art.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Alien

          Re: Martians!

          Beneath the sand is a giant alien machine that initiates a nuclear reaction among giant rods carved from radioactive ore. These rods plunge into Mars icy core, releasing oxygen and rebuilding the planet's lost atmosphere.

          Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to reading "Everything I Ever Needed to Know Came From Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies"

          Get your ass to Mars!

  6. Crisp
    Go

    If Curiosity can scoop sand...

    Then there's every chance it can rack up another first. The first sandcastle on an alien world!

    1. Mark 85

      Re: If Curiosity can scoop sand...

      It just needs to find lots of water and then it can make the sandcastle. Cowabunga... surf's up!!!! Oh wait...

  7. chivo243 Silver badge
    Happy

    But..

    We seem to have a convergence of realities...

    "Bagnold Dunes," Surely these must be close to Bagshot row? or perhaps just behind Bagend? Surely not on Arrakis...

    1. Afernie

      Re: But..

      I suspect they are actually named for this chap

      1. chivo243 Silver badge

        Re: But..

        Never heard of the gent, must have been an adversary of this guy

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel

  8. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    "Curiosity's wheels will help it to scrape sand off the top of dunes"

    So, the first Extra-Terrestrial Burn-out...

    1. cray74

      Re: "Curiosity's wheels will help it to scrape sand off the top of dunes"

      So, the first Extra-Terrestrial Burn-out...

      Spirit and Opportunity also used the wheel scraping trick and, of course, Spirit was a little punk whose drifting and donuts etched a phallus on Mars' innocent face.

  9. Winkypop Silver badge
    Boffin

    Metal detector?

    Coins, rings, car keys?

  10. Unep Eurobats
    Joke

    If the sand passes the analysis

    will the beach get a blue flag?

  11. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Re: Paragraph 2

    So you reckon it can see its house from there then?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Your tax dollars at work!

    So, billions of dollars and a decade of planning, design and travel so a bunch of eggheads in Pasadena can play with a dune buggy simulator?

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Your tax dollars at work!

      Exactly! And it has its own frickin' laser!! Fun, isn't it!

      On a more serious note, that dune image Curiosity took is just breathtakingly beautiful, as have been so many this project has brought forth.

  13. Unicornpiss
    Pint

    Lots of sand...

    ...means lots of water in the past, eh?

    1. cray74

      Re: Lots of sand...

      ...means lots of water in the past, eh?

      Or a few billion years of low pressure wind.

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