Curiosity rover detects bright object on surface of Mars...

reply to post by ArMaP


If it's plastic, then surely it would be extremely simple to narrow down exactly where it came from? I mean, NASA would have an exhaustive inventory of parts for the Rover so defining precisely where it broke off of wouldn't be a real problem.

I understand that this vehicle - this miracle of engineering - was designed to withstand the most extreme of conditions; therefore it obviously can afford to "break" in small amounts ands still function.

But I also assume that NASA would already know where this piece of plastic snapped from? I mean, aren't they monitoring its every click and beep?

I just want to point out that they aren't "hiding things" from us. If they were wanting to hide things, we wouldn't have any pictures to start with. It's not like they were "leaked", they were straight out presented and are presented all the time. They freely give all the images that people repost and say "look what they're hiding". They're being extremely open about what they get (extremely compared to what we think of as government disclosure, perhaps not as open as the lunch counter at the local diner).

NASA's not some uber secretive agency that's trying to keep us from knowing they're on Mars, they televised it, they wanted the story out there and they're sharing the photos they get. ... otherwise, we wouldn't even know there was a picture that could be looked at and discussed the way we're doing right now.

....ok, so, what are some other possibilities for what the thing is?

It does look kind of like a plastic shaving to me, could have come off the rover pretty easily.
It could also be some strange, tiny little life form of some sort and that would be extremely cool.
It may just be some strangely shaped metal shard of some sort that we're not familiar with.
There are tons of things it "could" be, so lets get everybody's input, wait for NASA to investigate all of them and find out what the thing is.

I think they should keep digging instead of stopping. If one is there, there are probably more there. If it was part of the rover, some sort of "debris", maybe something more discernable will "come off" or maybe we'll be able to rule it out.

Made a blow up and tried to improve the contrast a little. Pretty interesting object whatever it is, looks organic to me. If it came off the rover it should be possible to identify it.

Maybe Mars is the original home of the babel fish.

It's a piece of tape that has ripped off. With respect to the original photo, the item is an elongated triangle in shape with the hypotenuese to the left. The bottom corner of the triangle is bent back-up and slightly to the right. You quite clealry follow the left hand (hypotenuese) edge. In addition the right hand side (triangle apex) is made up of a small lug that is bent forwards. Again you can quite clearly follow the edges as they curve around the fold.

Bleedin obvious !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh for all those folks thinking a multi million pound item of equipment travelling millions of miles cant "fall apart". It isn't falling apart. The very soft tape that keeps the cables together can easily dislodge now that they are no longer protected in a shell whilst in a vaccuum (the trip) and are now exposed to wind and dust on an alien terrain with items of equipment moving on mechanical arms......sheesh.

Looking forward to the gastronomic delicacy of 2013: Martian Shrimp.

reply to post by karen61057

well then it should be the next thing they analyze. if not they are hiding something

Originally posted by Clavicula
Made a blow up and tried to improve the contrast a little. Pretty interesting object whatever it is, looks organic to me. If it came off the rover it should be possible to identify it.

Maybe Mars is the original home of the babel fish.

edit on 10-10-2012 by Clavicula because: something added.

nice job on that

definitely looks organic to me too, especially to the right where there seems to be an attachment point of some sort like where an insect wing would attach or a leaf node to a branch

Originally posted by PurpleChiten
It does look kind of like a plastic shaving to me, could have come off the rover pretty easily.
It could also be some strange, tiny little life form of some sort and that would be extremely cool.
It may just be some strangely shaped metal shard of some sort that we're not familiar with.

IF it is a plastic shaving or metal shard that big then nasa should be shut down. I mean we're talking about contaminating another planet here

I would suggest they scoop it up and analyze it. why not?

I think if they really wanted to find something they would be doing more than scratching around at the surface. Diggng and looking deeper into Mars. Using for example, ground penetrating radar. Aren't they really just sampling cosmic dust that has fallen on Mars over many years.

reply to post by Extralien

I too believe it's not a tooth you can quite clearly see it's the head of a fish plus they say it's shiny fish have silver scales that shine, tiger teeth don't shine, bs will be given by nasa they will never tell us anything but we have others that will so up yours nasa not interested in your stupid curiosity adventure that will tell us folks nothing, what about the buildings, the pyramid, the faces on cydonia, never a mention of those but they exist, what about the pyramid on the moon and the swatzica on the moon and all those domes with plants in them come on nasa we are not scared just tell us the god damn truth for once... huh will they hell, keep surfing folks happy days are ahead of us all thank the lord!!!

reply to post by charlyv

the thing is it doesn't need to be debated if they scoop it back up and analyze it, right? so why wouldn't that be next? if they ignore it then there should be some suspicion

Originally posted by ArMaP

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
Here's your answer..................'IT'S PLASTIC!" Says NASA.

It does look like plastic.

now all we need is an example of the piece of plastic from the rover that matches or they could just scoop it back up and analyze it. Why waste time on a piece of plastic, you say? I think it would be stupid not to. This needs to be solved without a doubt, I mean it IS our first chance to prove the existence of higher life forms on Mars, right? It would be foolish to pass this off as just "probably a piece of plastic"

Originally posted by ThePeopleParty
Don't worry about it. one of the guys who have been around ATS for ages will be here soon to give there opinion on it and we will all believe them and get on with our lives.

I have no idea what it is but im going to go with something that has fallen off the rover because that's the only thing we will hear that it is from nasa

do you think they should analyze it?

This thing was NEVER in the scoop...it seems many posters here are not aware of that. The scoop in the picture is already full. The plastic cable tie/tape was spotted on the ground while photographing the scoop...they stopped being interested in the first scoop; to find out what the heck this thing was.

On the 11th they are supposed to release full details in a press release; as they took pictures from another cam to help identify it, we should get to see a nice color photo of it during that release.

Forget it. It's impossible to distinguish what this thing really is with such a mediocre picture.
Still waiting for the crystal clear mahli cam picture.

Originally posted by FlySolo
If this turns out to be plastic, am I the only one to see the moronic comedy of a billion dollar rover investigating Earth's first historical contribution of trash, on another planet, as a possible life form? That's pretty funny.

They are not the ones investigating it as a possible life form, they are investigating it to know what it is, where did it came from and if it fell from the rover if that will affect the functioning of the rover.

Originally posted by workinrampage
The video quality is horrendous. Spent billions on a vehicle recording things on VHS then relaying them back home at 56k.

The video is not from the Rover, NASA has published 3 photos of the object, not a video.

Originally posted by intrptr
It looks rather clean for falling there with the rest of the sample.

It didn't fell with the rest of the sample, the sample is on the scoop, while they were moving the scoop to drop the sample on the analyser they photographed that object on the ground, so they stopped what they were doing to see what that was.

Originally posted by bottleslingguy
IF it is a plastic shaving or metal shard that big then nasa should be shut down. I mean we're talking about contaminating another planet here

Don't you think that all the landers and rovers are enough contamination?

Originally posted by nomadros
reply to post by AmberLeaf

 

mmmm....so to get this right, a man made machine gets landed on a planet, moves a couple of hundred meters, sticks a 3 inch wide scoop in the ground and finds something shiny. So either A) the place is crawling with this stuff, B) it's the luckiest coincidence in history or C) something fell off the machine (Nasa's fav). My question is why don't they stick the scoop back in and see if any more bits fall off the rover *cough*

This is exactly the reasoning behind this.

If these things were everywhere then it would be expected that we would have seen them already, like rocks all over the surface. So, it's reasonable to assume that they are not common.

Then, if they are not common to the surface, the chances of digging and then finding one would have to be billions to one. So it's reasonable to rule this out at this stage. That would be a ridiculous coincidence.

Therefore, the most plausible explanation is that this thing fell off of the Rover.

However you interpret all of this, NASA is correct to make the first assessment that this came from the Rover itself. This is not a cover up or a lie of some kind. It's basic science in its most fundamental form. You rule out the most plausible and likely explanation first. The most plausible and likely explanation is that this fell off the Rover.

But of course, people here are determined to find little Green men flying around, or digging around. And suddenly science and rationality takes a back seat to wild speculation and accusations of cover up.