Mystery Rock 'Appears' In Front of Mars Rover

astroengine writes "After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they'd seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously 'appeared' a few feet in front of the six wheeled rover a few days ago. News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory '10 years of roving Mars' event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The rock, about 'the size of a jelly doughnut' according to Squyres, is thought to have either come from a freak "flipping" event or a very recent meteorite impact. However, the latter isn't thought to be very likely. Although they are still working on the rock's origin, the rover team believe it was 'tiddlywinked' by Opportunity's broken wheel; as the rover was turning on the spot, the rock was kicked from place under the wheel and flipped a few feet away from the rover. Never missing a science opportunity, Squyres told Discovery News, 'It obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate. It's just a stroke of luck.'"

I know what this is!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet it's a rock.

Re:I know what this is!!!!

[Fwipp]

Not just any rock.

An ~~alien~~ rock. From space!

Re:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Many of the newest buildings are not just utilitarian offices but also edifices "on the order of the pyramids," in the words of one senior military intelligence officer.

Re:

[Redmancometh]

"Dude you were eating off of it!"
Sorry I wanted to post that more than spend my mod points.

Re:

[Taco Cowboy]

An ~~alien~~ rock. From space!

Space not included, sorry.

From TFA:

... the rover team believe it was 'tiddlywinked' by Opportunity's broken wheel; as the rover was turning on the spot, the rock was kicked from place under the wheel and flipped a few feet away from the rover

Or, in other words, next time we send up rovers to other planets we outfit 'em with specialized wheels that can flip up rocks while turning.

Re:

[Velox_SwiftFox]

The goal of space rover wheel design is probably going to remain being efficient propelling devices, but in the spirit of your suggestion's practicality maybe this will influence the mudflap design of future missions to the fetid swamps of Venus.

Re:

[danbert8]

Maybe it's a rock lobster? ROCK LOBSTER! ROCK LOBSTER? Rock... Rock... Rock... ROCK LOBSTER!

the photo is remakable

[goombah99]

Two remarks on the photo. One is that the specific 5 sided shape of the rock is disturbingly similar to the crack feature it is resting on as seen in the "before" picture. second, the rock is white.
I assume the latter is why they think it's a "flipped over" rock. But the two observations together are remarkable.

But remember this lander is huge, like the size of a mini van, and has metal tires, so the prospect of it being able to kick rocks would seem to be very large

Re:

[Antipater]

Gorignak!

Re:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I bet it's a rock.

"Deliberately buried..."

Re:

[slick7]

I bet it's a rock.

"Deliberately buried..."

First Contact, and they still refuse to see it.

Re:

[klubar]

I'd bet it's a jelly donut. If it's about the size of a jelly donut, it's probably a jelly donut. Not a good time to speed as there's probably a cop nearby.

Re:I know what this is!!!!

[Zephyn]

Ich bin ein Martianer!

Re:

[plopez]

Calling Homer J.....

Re:I know what this is!!!!

[rubycodez]

that's what my grandpappy used to say, "if it looks like a jelly donut, walks like a jelly donut, and quacks like a jelly donut, it's probably a rover-flipped Mars rock."

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet it's a rock.

Not just a rock, and not just any rock, but a tiger-repellent rock! Do you see any tigers in the rover photos? No, of course not! And why is that you ask? Obviously it's because of the tiger-repellent rock.

Re:

[Brad1138]

It seams to have similar characteristics to this banana! [youtube.com]

Re:

[Carnildo]

Rock? No, it's a CIA camera and microphone, cleverly disguised as a rock.

Re:

[Aighearach]

Or an NSA signal station

Re:

[TrollstonButterbeans]

If I am understanding this correctly, the rock is very small --- the size of a jelly donut --- what is the fuss about?

This isn't like they discovered a Martian Mt. Rushmore. It is a little handsized rock. Ugh.

Re:I know what this is!!!!

[KingMotley]

Opportunity - leaving no rock unturned since 2014.

"It's just a stroke of luck."

[jeffb (2.718)]

Yes -- luck that bored Martian teenagers don't have very good aim.

Re:"It's just a stroke of luck."

[sycodon]

If they next see a paper bag on fire, don't run over it!

dumbest thing out of NASA in a while

[SuperBanana]

"we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years"

You know that Martian soil - completely gas-tight. And you know Martian rocks - for billions of years, they stay completely motionless.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "rocket scientists"

Re:dumbest thing out of NASA in a while

[clarkn0va]

I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?

Re:dumbest thing out of NASA in a while

[cold fjord]

I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?

It would only make sense to include that sort of functionality if it would be regularly used, which isn't likely. Given the tremendous constraints that they are under for space and weight it probably doesn't make sense. As to what is lucky, there is more than one description for that.

Old joke: Lost dog! Blind in one eye, missing right ear, tail missing, recently castrated. Answers to name of "Lucky!"

Re:dumbest thing out of NASA in a while

[Kjella]

I'm just dumbfounded at the implication here that the rover's ability to flip a small rock is regarded as luck. If it's such a valuable occurrence, should they not have included a rock-flipping function in the plans?

Well, maybe it's not as trivial as it sounds to fit an appropriate robotic arm, the sensors to find a suitable rock, the software to try grabbing it and turning it over and compared to the weight, time and effort it's probably just not worth it. Assuming this is really the first time it's happened in the practically ten years (a week left) it's been on Mars it's somewhat of a freak accident, just the right size and shape stone was caught in the wheels in just the right way to flip it over. It's like a free bonus that you weren't even trying to get, isn't that lucky?

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Well, maybe it's not as trivial as it sounds to fit an appropriate robotic arm, the sensors to find a suitable rock, the software to try grabbing it and turning it over and compared to the weight, time and effort it's probably just not worth it.

I'm a fan of these robotic expeditions, but this really speaks to the rate of exploration that a human colony could support.

Re:

[Sockatume]

It has a rock grinder which accomplishes the same task of getting at an unweathered surface. This is just a free lunch, not a new mission capability.

Re:

[mikael]

But then you'd have the scientists designing and playing Martian crazy golf courses all day long ...

Re:

[cold fjord]

Gives new meaning to the phrase "rocket scientists"

Maybe they're Rockettes scientists [rockettes.com]. Great work, if you can get it.

Re:

[rve]

"we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years"

You know that Martian soil - completely gas-tight. And you know Martian rocks - for billions of years, they stay completely motionless.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "rocket scientists"

I don't know about gas tight, but without flowing water or ice, and without plate tectonics, the Martian surface doesn't move around much.

Re:

[Quirkz]

They have wind storms to put our hurricanes to shame. A donut-sized rock surely moves.

Re:dumbest thing out of NASA in a while

[Shadowmist]

While Martian winds may kick up some respectable velocity as far as feet per second, remember it's blowing around an extremely tenuous close to non-existent atmosphere. A martian wind may kick up to four hundred miles an hour, but if you were standing in it it would be no more force to you than a 25 mile per hour gust on Earth.

Horta

[CohibaVancouver]

It's a Horta of course. Doesn't anyone at the JPL watch Star Trek?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Horta [memory-alpha.org]

Re:Horta

[Tablizer]

It's a Horta of course. Doesn't anyone at the JPL watch Star Trek?

Well, kinda horta.

Re:

[newcastlejon]

Our pristine world has yet to fall victim to the scourge of silicon-based life. You will report to the nearest re-education station immediately or prepare to have your gas sacs forcibly removed for inciting unnecessary panic among the loyal citizenry.

Signed,
K'traal, assistant speaker for The Council.

Re:

[arb phd slp]

I am so glad there is someone keeping this alive.

Re:

[frisket]

Nope. Sessile Grog.

That's not a rock...

[surfdaddy]

...it's a SPACESHIP! The aliens come from a microplanet.

Re:

[Tablizer]

it's a SPACESHIP! The aliens come from a microplanet.

Horta hears a Who

Re:

[CanHasDIY]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL2FbGH2DDs [youtube.com]

Re:

[scatteredthoughts]

Have you seen Apollo 18 movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGhKzUUaME [youtube.com] ? the picture in the article is weird as the movie itself

Hollow Wheels

[camperdave]

This rock could have been clattering around in the rover's hollow wheels for a long time, and just recently fallen out.

Re:

[objectdisoriented]

This rock could have been clattering around in the rover's hollow wheels for a long time, and just recently fallen out.

Seems a reasonable explanation.

Any idea why the small gravel-appearing rock is undisturbed in all directions around the donut rock?

I'd expect some gravel to be disturbed in the direction of donut travel.

ummm

[Aryden]

Does no one else notice the almost perfectly rectangular rocks with perfectly straight lines between them as though it was a set stone path or is it just my imagination???

Re:ummm

[Charliemopps]

It's a common weathering pattern in certain kinds of rock. You find the same sorts of thing on earth and amateurs often think they've found ancient steps or something.

Re:

[Paradise Pete]

Ah yes, the human mind's infinite ability to find patterns where none exist.

That doesn't actually happen, it just appears to because of our perception.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

...wow...

There clearly is a pattern in these situations. It's the explanation for the pattern that's the problem.

Re:ummm

[cusco]

The Unmanned Space Flight forums has a much better set of photos in this thread. [unmannedspaceflight.com] Apparently there are at least two rocks that have appeared, and some dirt. They may have rolled from higher up, this spot is on the uphill side of the rover.

Re:ummm

[east coast]

Yeah. It happens in nature [momtastic.com] too.

Re:

[CanHasDIY]

To be fair, whoever wrote that article does a really, really poor job of explaining the science that proves all those things are natural.

schnauzer

[MetalOne]

The dirt above the rock looks a bit like a schnauzer with the face being in the very upper right.

Who else could it have been

[Anonymous Coward]

Marvin did it!

Re:

[Paradise Pete]

And as it was a buried rock, I guess now it's been de-crptyed.

Who installed the Burnout command?

[achbed]

That's what happens when you tell the rover to execute a burn out - sand and rocks fly everywhere!

Jelly doughnut?

[GPS Pilot]

OSCAR WILDE:
Your Majesty, you're like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
THE PRINCE OF WALES:
I beg your pardon?
OSCAR WILDE:
Um ..... It was one of Whistler's.
JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER:
I didn't say that.
OSCAR WILDE:
You did, James, you did.
THE PRINCE OF WALES:
Well, Mr. Whistler?
JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER:
I- I me

So, did Martian bugs crawl out?

[excelsior_gr]

This may have been by accident, but using the rover to flip a rock can also be done on purpose: [blogspot.de]

"Randy Lindemann knows all kinds of crazy stuff the rover can do. He describes using the rover to flip over a rock. You drive it over the rock so that the rock is between the two back wheels on one side. Then you drive all of the wheels backward except for that middle wheel, and as the middle wheel drags backward, its cleats catch the underside of the rock and flip it. If little Martian bugs crawl out, you win un

Re:

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

A jelly doughnut? [youtube.com] And how did it get there?

Game over.

[fahrbot-bot]

Opportunity only brought scissors, not paper [wikipedia.org]...

upside down? and any tracks?

[karstdiver]

How can you tell it is upside down? Are there any other displaced rocks or pebbles or other marks that show its path? (What is different between these two panels?) Just wondering...

Re:

[cusco]

Higher up the thread is a link to the Unmanned Space Flight forums, where there are some much better images. There are at least two rocks and some sand that have moved from one image to the next. Apparently this is on the uphill side of the rover, and the rocks may have rolled down from above.

Unit confusion

[Dzimas]

I know that the US has long resisted a shift to SI measurements, but since when does JPL measure things in jelly donuts?

Re:

[plopez]

Because measuring in VW Beetles would be silly

Re:

[hey!]

The metric system was introduced to Europe by Napoleon, so the standard unit of rock volume should be the "brioche".

I believe i may have the answer. . . .

[sgt_doom]

. . . it is the Pet Rock, I mean the very first ever Pet Rock sold, who stated publicly that it (?) was fed up with all the commercialism on the planet Earth and was going to take a trip to Mars......

I admit I considered the Pet Rock a bit farfetched at the time (I mean its (?) extremely sophisticated vocabulary and lexicon, as it (?) had only been in existence a short while back then?

Poprocks on mars

[An dochasac]

This may be another example of where our geocentric understaning of landscape geology misleads us. Perchlorate-rich soil under carbon-dioxide rich low atmospheric pressure, thermal tides, carbon dioxide ice... What would happen if a bit of CO2 froze inside a rock or in a pocket beneath a stone and eventually got up to its sublimation temperature? Sometimes it would vaporize with enough force to pop the rock somewhere else. What if the perchlorate-water reaction that caused so much excitement with the Viking

According to Ogilvy

[Hognoxious]

The chances of a rock suddenly appearing are a million to one.

Weeping Angels

[Martin Spamer]

Or Martian's playing the childrens game Statue [wikipedia.org]

BTJ weighs in

[Muad'Dave]

You spin your wheels and throw rocks in my county, sonny, and you'll get a Careless and Reckless ticket! -- Buford T. Justice

Why high in sulphur and manganese?

[Randym]

High sulphur could in theory be a waste product of HS metabolism; microbes are known to utilize this [wikipedia.org].