I posted that picture somewhere else in here, but overlooked the "magic carpet." I wonder what kind of experiments the rover will do with this mystery soil.

funny how this is probably the best evidence for the possibility of life, and some safety precautions prevent the study of it.

What about the possibility of NASA moving the rover to this spot at the end of its mission? I think that would be a smart move.

but isn't the point of the mission to find evidence of life?

Originally posted by dunkleskates
but isn't the point of the mission to find evidence of life?

look for water then for life

you must have missed something. the idea is that the mudlike surface makes for a high probablility of water being under the surface.

I'm not sure who you are talking to.

don't worry zzub, im talking to krazyivan

Few words on the Magic Carpet area...

First, I think the lil nicknames some scientist give to stuff is really silly. Though i'm the minority on this. Most my scientific colleages think they are amusing.

Also it wouldn't be liquid water. At best it would be a really mineral dense brine. So water and lots of minerals.

I still stand behind my guess of it being metalic powder and not wet at all. Almost all of my time in research I worked with fine metalic powder and that is exactly what it looked like. On top of just that, the rocks there all look to be metamorphic and not erroded by water.

I'd be really happy to learn it was water, however, i really doubt it.

The rover, spirit couldn't tell if there was life there or not. It has no equipment to detect microbial life. You could point every camera and instrument on the thing at a heaping pile of bacterea and never know it. (I think, need to confirm the magnification on its microcamera)

And before anyone ask, the reason they can't drive near it is two fold. 1) the rover could get stuck in deeper sand/mud and 2) driving by remote that close to the lander risk bumping into eachother and getting locked together and stuck. Hooking a wheel under one of those petals would be pretty easy.

Also of note is that the soil is sticking to the wheels of the rover. I'm gonna look into what the wheel are made of but this could tell us more.