Ah, those Mars rovers. Still struggling on, and still finding new ways to excite their masters. This time Spirit’s broken front right wheel has churnded up the soil as it is being dragged along the ground, instead of wheeling nicely, to reveal some interesting geology.
The front right wheel packed up a year ago, and since then Spirit has been dragging itself backwards, with the broken wheel in tow. How annoying. But no! How wonderful – the ever-optimistic Mars scientists have used Spirit’s misfortune to study the churned-up soil captured inside its pumpkin-like wheels.
And in that wheel Spirit found sulfur-rich salts of iron and calcium.
There’s always a silver lining, Steve Squyres, PI on the rovers project said. With Spirit’s broken wheel “we’re going to dig a 100’s of metres long trench,” he told the throng gathered in this morning’s session.
There are a couple of theories abou the origin of the sulfate salts. They were either concentrated by hydrothermal vents, or left behind by volcanoes, says Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, the rover’s deputy PI.
Spirit’s sibling, Opportunity, has also been busy sending back some cracking images of the edge of Victoria Crater. Read more later on that… if i can get my hands on the images.
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