A Light at Bonneville

March 11, 2004 3:05 PM

Meanwhile, on Mars, The Spirit rover has reached Bonneville Crater, a primary mission objective, and snapped photos of the far side of the crater rim with its navcam. But what is that glint to the left side? (more within)
posted by brownpau (40 comments total)

I thought at first it was just a digital photo artifact, but seeing as how the flash of white appears in several photos from Spirit's navcam on Sol66, my next thought was ALIEN BUILDINGS!!!

Okay, not really. My next thought was that it might be the lander's backshell or heatshield. So I looked up a map of the rover's intended route, and orbital images of the landing site with labels. Apparently the lander's heatshield had impacted a nearby crater. Take a look at the photos, the maps, and the scales. I'n thinking it's definitely the lander heatshield. What do you think?

No word on it yet from NASA, JPL, Space.com, or the major news outlets. Can we beat them to an announcement?

Perhaps I should have put this in AskMefi, but to be honest I intended the "querying narrative" tact to be an oblique way to link to the wonderful Martian exploration resources that NASA/JPL has so generously provided to the public. The "All Images" galleries and the Mars Photojournal (previously linked, I think) are solid gold.
posted by brownpau at 3:06 PM on March 11, 2004

I'd love to have sex on Mars.
posted by the fire you left me at 3:07 PM on March 11, 2004

Clearly it's the work of American Christian Fundamentalist Taliban Homosexual Conservatives.

Those fuckers.
posted by xmutex at 3:15 PM on March 11, 2004

"I'd love to have sex on Mars."

It isn't called the red planet for nothing.
posted by kahboom at 3:16 PM on March 11, 2004

is it one of the bunny's friends? maybe it's a duck.
posted by badstone at 3:16 PM on March 11, 2004

Is it possible that mars has some shiny rocks?

Semi-serious question. Especially near a crater, you'd think it possible to find all sorts of weird stuff you wouldn't find elsewhere on the surface.
posted by Hildago at 3:22 PM on March 11, 2004

...all sorts of weird stuff... Maybe like melted sand? Is it likely to have formed into something that large and smooth, though?
posted by kahboom at 3:24 PM on March 11, 2004

bunny condominium?
posted by re_verse at 3:24 PM on March 11, 2004

But what is that glint to the left side?

So that's where I left my keys. Damn drunken blackouts.
posted by terrapin at 3:25 PM on March 11, 2004

"Sex on the rocks all warm and red, and we all bled."

Isaac Brock beat you to it, the fire you left me.
posted by saladin at 3:30 PM on March 11, 2004

A shiny rock.
posted by delmoi at 3:34 PM on March 11, 2004

You guys got it all wrong. The rover just took a picture of itself to submit to the Mirror Project.
posted by crunchland at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2004

is it one of the bunny's friends?

That damn Energiser bunny really does keep going...
posted by Nauip at 3:45 PM on March 11, 2004

it's probably just a zippo. no big deal!
posted by mcsweetie at 3:47 PM on March 11, 2004

Forget the silly glint, I want to know whats going on with the rocks in this picture. The surface looks very dry and crusted, but when the rover drives on the rocks, they sink a fair ways into the soil, exposing much darker soil underneath. Maybe they'll say something about it soon...
posted by slacy at 3:49 PM on March 11, 2004

The wreckage of the Beagle, perhaps?
posted by FormlessOne at 3:50 PM on March 11, 2004

Slacy - There's definitely a light-colored crust covering the darker soil beneath. I'd love to see true-color photos of those tracks from the pancam.

Formless - They're still working on identifying possible Beagle wreckage, but that's much farther from Spirit than Bonneville.
posted by brownpau at 3:54 PM on March 11, 2004

It's a Pepsi Blue can.

Somewhere, a solitary tear runs down a Martian's face.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:55 PM on March 11, 2004

crash, everyone knows Martians drink Coke.
posted by brownpau at 4:07 PM on March 11, 2004

"I'd love to have sex on Mars."

What a way to earn your red wings. Sheesh.
posted by loquacious at 4:10 PM on March 11, 2004

Kidding, brownpau, kidding.
posted by FormlessOne at 4:16 PM on March 11, 2004

*giggles*
posted by brownpau at 4:22 PM on March 11, 2004

From this page:

"the rover's parachute can be seen as a tiny white dot at the far left, and just above the far crater rim is the heatsheild(sic), visible as a tiny reflective speck."

Anyway, it's still pretty cool. NASA's detritus all over the planet.
posted by drinkcoffee at 4:51 PM on March 11, 2004

Sex on Mars sounds vaguely interesting, but sex in zero-G would be da bomb. Woohoo!
posted by alumshubby at 4:53 PM on March 11, 2004

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The force of your orgasm could propel you backwards across the space station.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:03 PM on March 11, 2004

ITS AN ALIEN HAVING SEX
posted by Satapher at 5:33 PM on March 11, 2004

Every time I see a new Mars image, I say out loud "that's freaking mars!" I always imagine the rover and being there, well, in my imagination it seems to be earth - because that's what I know. That's when I remember that the picture was taken of a place a gazillion miles away. Cool stuff.
posted by tomplus2 at 7:43 PM on March 11, 2004

It's a Starbucks.
posted by wsg at 11:20 PM on March 11, 2004

People have actually had sex in space, right? I'm on a work computer so I can't really google "astronaut sex" or I would...
posted by lbergstr at 11:32 PM on March 11, 2004

"the wonderful Martian exploration resources that NASA/JPL has so generously provided to the public"

Nothing generous about it. It's paid by taxpayer money, so of course the taxpayers should get to see the pictures.
posted by geekhorde at 11:51 PM on March 11, 2004

People have actually had sex in space, right?
Uh, who's in the Parsec High Club?
posted by lathrop at 11:58 PM on March 11, 2004

Could that be two cans of gone-off crab projectile upchucked with such velocity that they escaped from earth's gravity?
posted by zaelic at 1:30 AM on March 12, 2004

Sex on the rocks all warm and red and we bled.
posted by scarabic at 2:28 AM on March 12, 2004

I bet it's a digital watch.
posted by chrid at 5:05 AM on March 12, 2004

The Spirit rover has reached Bonneville Crater ...But what is that glint to the left side?

I think the obvious answer is some sort of Pontiac.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:34 AM on March 12, 2004

lbergstr: The Straight Dope: Has anyone ever had sex in space?
posted by cmonkey at 8:24 AM on March 12, 2004

My money says its an America Online CD.
posted by QuestionableSwami at 9:15 AM on March 12, 2004

My money says its an America Online CD.

Heh. Now that's a theory that makes sense. I was thinking it was a kleig light, you know...on the soundstage...but an AOL CD makes much more sense. ;)
posted by dejah420 at 4:35 PM on March 12, 2004

>I think the obvious answer is some sort of Pontiac.

Indians? Well, I'm sure they won't mind us colonizing then, right?
posted by milovoo at 4:45 PM on March 12, 2004

People have actually had sex in space, right? I'm on a work computer so I can't really google "astronaut sex" or I would...

I thought people had already had zero-G sex, it won an award and everything, too bad they got no publicity.

(the soundtrack has guys from Prodigy and Massive Attack - so it can't be too low budget)
posted by milovoo at 4:52 PM on March 12, 2004