'MAJOR' Mars Rover Finding discussed today.

Email from the 22/3.

NASA ANNOUNCES MAJOR MARS ROVER FINDING

NASA will announce a major scientific finding at a Space
Science Update (SSU) Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST, in the headquarters
Webb Auditorium, 300 E St. SW, Washington. The Mars Exploration
Rover (MER) Opportunity is exploring the martian Meridiani
Planum and recently discovered evidence rocks at the landing
site have been altered by water.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will make opening remarks. SSU
panelists:

--Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator, Office of
Space Science
--Prof. Steve Squyres, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and
MER Principal Investigator
--Prof. John Grotzinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Mass, and a MER Co-investigator
--Dr. Dave Rubin, U.S. Geological Survey Sedimentologist at the
Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, Calif.
--Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon,
Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters

The SSU will be carried live on NASA TV with two-way question-
and-answer capability for reporters covering the event from
participating NASA centers. NASA TV is available on AMC-9,
transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude.
The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and
audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz.

For audio only of the broadcast call: 321/867-1220/1240/1260.
For a live webcast of the briefing and information about NASA
TV on the Internet, visit:

www.nasa.gov...

Interesting, I wonder what this one couldd be? The presence of a Sedimentologist on the panel might suggest that Opportunity has decided whether or not the rocks in its home crater were created underwater or just acted upon by water later on. Will be interesting to see.

News Conference at 2:00PM EST 23/3/04.

I think they will say there was a major/minor lake here. If it was just ground water, why so much hub-bub?

By the way, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your presence here. You are a voice of sanity! Although you look kind of forked-up in the picture!...just kidding!

Well, I aim to please.

As far as the content of the announcement I would tend to lean towards the same conclusion. It does seem like a little too much of a big deal to announce what would be a bad finding (ie no standing water). Although NASA does work in msyterious ways, and they did promise a conference after Opp. left the crater.

(Which it has done today after sliding back down yesterday).
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Who would wager to say it might be a fossil of some type? Hmmmmm.

I was thinking about that, but I think the list of panel members would be different if it was something of that nature. I also don't think opportunity would have left the crater if it just made such a discovery.

Listen, they're going to announce that they finally found what I discovered MONTHS ago...

martian doodlebugs.

It's going to ALL BE GOOD!

I can't wait! **

Probably right, ( best Captain Obvious voice) I guess we'll know when they tell us!

since one of the scientists who will be announcing the finding is a sedimentologist, could it be fossilized bacterial mats? by the way....wtf is a martian doodlebug?

There are nigh on truckloads of evidence toward Martian doodlebugs.

Do you have access to RATS? Because I believe I have documented my findings well there.

At least hopefully I have because it would take great amounts of liquor to get back to the state in which I found them the first time :: !

There are no doodlebugs, just Marvin.

Marvin has already met Mars Rover:




back to the subject.

I bet the anouncement has to do with more water evidence.

I doubt that they have found any evidence of life yet.

[Edited on 22-3-2004 by HowardRoark]

These things are usually the lowest form of a GREAT discovery. It is in all likelyhood just an "upgrade" from the last piece of major news.

My vote - Standing water confirmed, maybe on a stretch, for a long period of time. That the maximum annoncement.

Of course, I can only hope for something more fantastic, but if you look at all the pictures returned everyday on the Rover website, I just don't see anything spectactular.

Okay. I'm with you. But my money is mostly on doodlebugs, because I have well documented their existence.

It's okay that you're not with me. Just follow when the great tide sweeps on.

k? **

I say they discovered mud or some kind of material that is water related. Maybe even perhaps, some form of vegetation.

The lack of a hydrologist or exobiologist on the panel would tend to argue against that. At the conference about the ground water evidence. It was mentioned that Opportunity was to stay in Eagle crater until it had made enough observations to know how the rocks in question were created. This, combined with the presence of a Sedimentologist on the panel, would suggest that this will be the topic for the conference I believe.

Their last major announcement was the evidence that the opportunities landing site was once soaked in water....

So do you think the next "major" announcement will be another "was once soaked in water" scenario?

Hopefully they arent stupid enough to hype up something we already know, that water existed on mars..

Maybe its a welcome mat or something

The last one was just that there was groundwater at Opportunity's landing site at one time in Mars' history. If they have discovered that the rocks were laid under a body of standing water. That is a much bigger discovery. It means at one time there was a lake or possibly even a sea covering the site.

Valhall, by doodlebug do you mean pull bug or sow bug?

A small terrestrial isopod crustacean of the genus Armadillidium closely related to the sow bug and having a convex, segmented, flexible body enabling it to curl into a ball when disturbed.In this sense also called roly-poly.

Incidentally, it was a body of water. Based on chemical clues and the texture of the cross-bedding.

www.atsnn.com...

Good Call, just as suspected, an upgrade to previous announcment. Maybe the next one will determine something on size/depth and duration.

2 inches of water, yeah, i don't think that would constitute as a small ocean, but a puddle. we need to drill some more. we haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg yet.