SpecialSetOfSieves

After 8 years of ascending the mountain, this is what it's come to. As this episode documents very nicely, the rover's brush tool has been working perfectly all this time... until now. After stumbling over all that raw sulfur and being forced to backtrack over all this rocky terrain - he's faulty, malfunctioning. Kept babbling on about his mission.

To quote Mars Guy:

that post, spinning at a few hundred RPM, appears to have been jammed into the rock, which was soft enough to result in a shallow hole. Now the remaining question is, after hundreds of uses without jamming the post - what went wrong this time?

These astro-droids are getting quite out of hand. Even I can't understand their logic at times.

I have only anecdotal evidence to support this, but:

Looking at images like this from the same time last Martian year, when we were on the crater floor, it seemed pretty dusty then, as well.

We've known for quite some time, however, that this general time of year (northern hemisphere winter) is dusty, and we're not very far into spring as yet. I think there would be a lot of science value in observing dust devil and wind gust activity from a significant elevation like this, and I long to see the kind of views you're talking about as well. Unfortunately, dust devils are more of a summer thing, and the mission seems determined to get Percy up and over the summit ASAP. I personally learned to look at Mars differently after seeing the colour images from Ingenuity's later flights, and the perspective on this canyon and delta region from the summit could be significant, not to mention inspiring... provided we could actually see what the view really has to offer.

I've complained about the nosebleeds enough already, so I'm going to refrain from commenting on Ken Farley's driving habits.

There's going to be a lot of this for the next little while. From the photos returned over recent sols, it would seem the only nearby target of interest is... the rover itself, or rather, the rover's tracks. (There is definitely worthwhile science to be had from observing the tracks, but the study won't be photogenic in the meanwhile).

To be fair, there isn't much but sand and fine gravel around the rover at the moment and for a distance ahead, but the "Crater Rim" part of the campaign is going to look a bit strange in retrospect. Only two abrasion holes and no cores until we reach the summit? I'm looking forward to hearing the latest update from the rover team, because they seem to be sure of what they're doing.

Moderators, would it be possible to add a pinned post or two, with some resources to give people an overview of what Percy has done so far? The mission website outlines things to an extent, but I'd be happy to add some explanatory material. I'm thinking, to give one example, of a post that shows all the abrasion patches Percy has made to date. IRL I get a lot of blank reactions when I try to show people photos of geological materials on a screen, or comments like, "It's just a rock. So what?" Seeing all of the holes/patches in a montage would be very illuminating, however.

If a pinned post isn't the best way, I'll go ahead with making a new post each time we get suitable images from a new patch, but it might be difficult to find in a search. I look forward to your feedback.

Thanks! They're being thorough with SuperCam and the UV imager again, even if (I suspect) they don't expect fluorescent minerals up here. I imagine this site will get the "full treatment", as Mars Guy puts it.

This latest abrasion hole, with the fair-sized mineral grains it exposes, really makes me wonder about the dark massive rocks capping the hill, which Prof. Ruff tentatively identified as ignimbrites. Everyone came into this mission jazzed about sedimentary geology, but the volanic/igneous history of this place is proving to be pretty interesting, even mysterious.

EDITED an erroneous adjective.

Someone like you, who comes into a calm, science-oriented community with F-bombs and complete cluelessness, should be able to understand this:

I didn't study geology or science for years to answer questions from the likes of you. You want a guide? F*** you, pay me.

No one owes you and your s***ty attitude a damned thing. Don't presume that your talk about "getting interested in science" is fooling anybody or represents anyone else, nor does it make up for your entitlement. Paul Hammond and other volunteers here are doing an amazing job. You want better, do it yourself.

I don't think we need users like Linktank around here.

Aside from the entitlement and total lack of self-awareness on display here, there are plenty of science-aware people who avoid social media precisely because of this kind of cretinous toxicity. I am inclined to increase my "engagement" here, and I've actually increased my scrutiny of this mission because of respectful and genuine questions I've seen online... but when I encounter aggressive BS like this, it doesn't feel worthwhile.

The mission website and associated media can answer basic, er, "questions" like those above, but I actually do think there's more of a need to connect the dots for those who want to actually get a feel for the seriously amazing work this mission is doing. To me Lemmy doesn't seem to be the kind of place where a more detailed guide should be hosted, but I'm open to ideas for how it could be done. I've actually been working for a while on a few posts for this instance myself, but it's a time-consuming process!

Your username works very well here 😁

They've already done an abrasion patch at the 1333 site, and given the mission's emphasis on Pico Turquino, one would assume that they're going to core here as well, but the rover team has been surprising me lately. I must say that the exposed interior we're seeing on 1334 isn't what I expected, but I'd like to see the night-time LED images before getting too caught up here.

Interesting! CacheCam isn't used very often. Would dust on the lens impact operations significantly?

With all the apparent lithologic diversity and patches of flattish bedrock as we've gone higher and higher up the rim, I'd be more surprised if they hadn't thought about coring. They've been shooting a lot more close-ups lately, that's for sure, and not just on the "white rocks". I assumed they were going to wait until reaching some accessible, heavy and stable boulder at Pico Turquino, and I still think they will. Nonetheless, it would be hard to miss the pretty distinct geologic units as we've sidled up to that hill, and erosion clearly has some interesting tales to tell around here. I definitely haven't been able to complain about the rover climbing too fast and blowing past interesting stuff lately.

ZOMG

We're actually backtracking?!?! What have they done with Ken Farley - has he been kidnapped?? He'd never stand for actually going back and deviating from the Mission Plan...

One pill makes you larger

and one pill makes you small

and the ones that Mother gives you

Don't do anything at all