Mystery Martian 'Car Wash' Helps Mars Rover

[NATO AIR]

our alien overlords are friendly and helpful? huh?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6742718

Mystery Martian ‘car wash’ helps rover
Space buggy’s solar panels are swept clean — but how?

NASA / JPL / Cornell
A photo taken by the Opportunity rover shows its solar panels swept clean of dust, with Martian terrain in the background.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 6:49 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2004
A phenomenon akin to a space-borne car wash has boosted the performance of one of the two NASA rovers probing the surface of Mars.

Layers of dust have been swept from the solar panels of the Mars Opportunity vehicle while it was closed down during the Martian night. The cleaning boosted the panels' power output close to their maximum 900 watt-hours per day, after at one stage dropping to 500 watt-hours because of the heavy Martian dirt.

"These exciting and unexplained cleaning events have kept Opportunity in really great shape," the London-based New Scientist magazine quoted NASA rover team leader Jim Erickson as saying.

The chief scientist for the rover missions, Cornell University's Steve Squyres, chuckled at the car wash reference. However, he acknowledged that Opportunity, unlike its twin Spirit rover on the other side of the Red Planet, has somehow been getting a thorough cleaning.

"Spirit’s pretty dirty," he told MSNBC.com. "Opportunity looks like it just came off the showroom floor. We do not understand the process well."

But alien-conspiracy theorists shouldn't get their hopes up quite yet.

"I think it's probably nothing much more mysterious than a few well-timed gusts of wind," Squyres said.

Even though Spirit's solar arrays are grimier, that rover "is actually doing very well, too," Squyres said. Its daily power output had at one point dropped to 380 watt-hours — close to the 280 watt-hours required to keep itself alive — but now the output was "well over 500 and trending upward," he said.

He said two factors were behind Spirit's resurgence: First of all, the depths of Martian winter have passed, and there are more hours of sunlight as spring approaches. Also, Spirit has been positioned to tilt northward on the north flank of Husband Hill.

"It tilts the arrays toward the sun, so that significantly improves the solar output," Squyres said.

Unless something goes awry, the rovers will begin their second year of operation on Mars in January — not bad, considering that the machines were built with a "warranty" lifetime of merely 90 days.

This report includes information from Reuters and MSNBC's Alan Boyle.

 

[CSM]

I already posted this earlier today! Get with the program, swabbie!

 

[NATO AIR]

I already posted this earlier today! Get with the program, swabbie!

oops, guess i was painting the bulkheads too much this afternoon and must be high off fumes

my apologies... don't tell our new overlords of my incompetence :cof:

 

[dilloduck]

oops, guess i was painting the bulkheads too much this afternoon and must be high off fumes

my apologies... don't tell our new overlords of my incompetence :cof:

ahhhhhhhhhhhh Toluene !!!!!!!!

 

[CSM]

oops, guess i was painting the bulkheads too much this afternoon and must be high off fumes

my apologies... don't tell our new overlords of my incompetence :cof:

If you are not careful, little grey one, you will find yourself polishing space junk on Mars!

 

[NATO AIR]

If you are not careful, little grey one, you will find yourself polishing space junk on Mars!

not much worse than here at times but i'm down for it as long as i get to wear a cool spacesuit and angelina jolie becomes my pro-creation partner on mars...

 

[dilloduck]

not much worse than here at times but i'm down for it as long as i get to wear a cool spacesuit and angelina jolie becomes my pro-creation partner on mars...

It could be like Gilligans" Planet !!!

 

[NATO AIR]

It could be like Gilligans" Planet !!!

Yes... very good indeed

 

[CSM]

It could be like Gilligans" Planet !!!

one of my favorite movies...Barbarella!!

 

[NATO AIR]

what was that movie like/about?

 

[CSM]

what was that movie like/about?

Soft porn space opera...one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but fun anyway...only old guys like me and Dillo and Mr. P probably even remember it.

 

[NATO AIR]

Soft porn space opera...one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but fun anyway...only old guys like me and Dillo and Mr. P probably even remember it.

ah the sort someone like tara reid or pamela anderson would star in today.... easy on the eyes if nothing else

 

[CSM]

'Camp: so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing.', 13 May 2004
Author: TxMike von Houston, Tx, USA, Earth


'Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy' is the epitome of 'camp.' The year was 1968, I was in my first year of graduate school, about to get married. I knew of 'Barbarella' but I had never seen it, until today. I think waiting 36 years has actually made the experience better. This is not by any definition a good movie. Jane Fonda, a very bright actress, plays Barbarella suitably as an 'innocent' sent on a mission to a distant galaxy to find the Earthling scientist Duran Duran and bring him back, along with his invention. The story itself is secondary, the charm of the movie resides in all the sexual situations that innocent Barbarella finds herself in. A perfect vehicle for the wild 1960s. The package blurb says 'she acts like a female James Bond.' Hardly. More like a female Austin Powers, and some of the characters would have fit better in a Monty Python movie.

The DVD is fine for an old movie, although blemishes are quite evident. What puzzles me is the 'PG' rating listed on the package and the disk. The opening scene, of Barbarella getting out of her space suit in the weightlessness of her spacecraft, clearly shows her breasts, and her nude butt. Very nice breasts and butt, much appreciated by this elderly 'DOM', nonetheless inconsistent with a 'PG' rating. Plus many other scenes in the movie show groups of men and women in alluring positions, again with some obvious female nudity. So anyone who plans to view this movie with those under 18 should be aware of this. For an adult audience, it should not be an issue at all.

If were not for the fact that I absolutely refuse to watch anything with Jane Fonda in it since her actions during Vietnam, I would go rent it just for the nostalgia. I would love to see a remake of this with some current pop star as the leading role.

 

[NATO AIR]

'Camp: so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing.', 13 May 2004
Author: TxMike von Houston, Tx, USA, Earth


'Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy' is the epitome of 'camp.' The year was 1968, I was in my first year of graduate school, about to get married. I knew of 'Barbarella' but I had never seen it, until today. I think waiting 36 years has actually made the experience better. This is not by any definition a good movie. Jane Fonda, a very bright actress, plays Barbarella suitably as an 'innocent' sent on a mission to a distant galaxy to find the Earthling scientist Duran Duran and bring him back, along with his invention. The story itself is secondary, the charm of the movie resides in all the sexual situations that innocent Barbarella finds herself in. A perfect vehicle for the wild 1960s. The package blurb says 'she acts like a female James Bond.' Hardly. More like a female Austin Powers, and some of the characters would have fit better in a Monty Python movie.

The DVD is fine for an old movie, although blemishes are quite evident. What puzzles me is the 'PG' rating listed on the package and the disk. The opening scene, of Barbarella getting out of her space suit in the weightlessness of her spacecraft, clearly shows her breasts, and her nude butt. Very nice breasts and butt, much appreciated by this elderly 'DOM', nonetheless inconsistent with a 'PG' rating. Plus many other scenes in the movie show groups of men and women in alluring positions, again with some obvious female nudity. So anyone who plans to view this movie with those under 18 should be aware of this. For an adult audience, it should not be an issue at all.

If were not for the fact that I absolutely refuse to watch anything with Jane Fonda in it since her actions during Vietnam, I would go rent it just for the nostalgia. I would love to see a remake of this with some current pop star as the leading role.

i'll e-mail denise richards, her career's in the shits, she needs something like this to get her back in the minds and fantasies of men everywhere

 

[dilloduck]

Soft porn space opera...one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but fun anyway...only old guys like me and Dillo and Mr. P probably even remember it.

hell ya---that's when Jane was a good person :tng:

 

[CSM]

hell ya---that's when Jane was a good person :tng:

Funny how things change aint it?

 

[NATO AIR]

Funny how things change aint it?

i used to think the same of a number of hollywood actors until they compared bush to bin laden and cheered on the iraqi "minutemen"

 

[CSM]

i used to think the same of a number of hollywood actors until they compared bush to bin laden and cheered on the iraqi "minutemen"

Yep. Strong compelling reason why said young women should stick to acting....

 

[NATO AIR]

Yep. Strong compelling reason why said young women should stick to acting....

yep, though i can't promise i won't watch them if they turn to porn.. soft core or the more compelling kind

 

[freeandfun1]

i'll e-mail denise richards, her career's in the shits, she needs something like this to get her back in the minds and fantasies of men everywhere

denise has a sugar daddy now.... no need to work! Oh Sheen is keeping her shined!

A guy I know used to date Denise and I've met her a couple of times. She is really, really cute in person too!

The guy I know that was dating her got dumped cuz he decided to screw some cocktail waitress here in Vegas after a mutual friend's wedding.... Denise called his cell and the the girl answered the phone that he had left in her room! lol