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Home Plate is the first rock structure of its kind to be found at the Spirit landing site - Courtesy NASA
The ongoing Mars Rover Spirit project continues success after success, months after its mandate

744 days after landing, the NASA Mars rover Spirit has reached a rough area of Mars called "Home Plate," which now has scientists rather puzzled.  The plateau is about six feet high and scientists believe it holds the key to help unlock the geologic clues to the planet's past.  Scientists now have a lot of work ahead of them because they now need to try and figure out what exactly Home Plate is.  Researchers know that it is made of layered rocks, but not much is known about them. 

The Spirit landed on Mars in January of 2004, and has been a target that NASA wanted to explore.  The Mars Exploration Rover missions were only supposed to last 90 days after the January 2004 touchdown.  Two years later, both rovers are alive and kicking -- funding for the mission has been extended again until September 2006. 

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cool stuff
By marcuri on 2/13/2006 1:24:03 AM , Rating: 3
Looks like NASA is really getting their money's worth out of those things, or well should i say the American taxpayer is really getting their money's worth. Can anyone find better pics of this thing?

And by the way.. if you read one scientist's remarks, in the article hes quoted as saying, " "Many of us were pretty much reduced to incoherent babble…like ‘WOW!!’, ‘Holy Toledo!’". Who the hell actually uses the phrase Holy Toledo? I think he was lieing. ;p




RE: cool stuff
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 2/13/2006 1:27:55 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
Who the hell actually uses the phrase Holy Toledo?

It's true, NASA people really are that weird.

Kristopher


RE: cool stuff
By jkostans on 2/13/2006 8:51:37 AM , Rating: 2
I will second that. Think half-life scientist weird....


RE: cool stuff
By timmiser on 2/13/2006 6:56:25 PM , Rating: 3
Here is the link to all 140,000+ photos by both explorers...

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html


Mars "true" sky color?
By vailr on 2/13/2006 10:12:47 AM , Rating: 2
The photo posted with this article is a black & white photo.
There have been questions on some web sites concerning the true color of the Mars sky: red vs. blue.
Such as:
http://www.rense.com/general47/filers11404.htm
More often, the official NASA photos show a reddish orange Martian sky.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051114.html




RE: Mars "true" sky color?
By ksherman on 2/13/2006 11:49:27 AM , Rating: 2
I totally refuse to acknowledge the existence of that first link... come on? havent we all had enough of the government conspiracy crap?


RE: Mars "true" sky color?
By Brassbud on 2/13/2006 12:54:47 PM , Rating: 2
The atmosphere is-for all intents and purposes-colorless, just like ours. Mars' atmosphere is so sparce that dust that get thrown by winds does not settle for a long time. This dust is rusty making they sky look red often times. But when speaking of just the gases in the air, the sky has no color, just like our air, just like water. To say that our sky is blue is the same as to say that it is red (or any other color for that matter), both statements are equally defensible.


RE: Mars "true" sky color?
By dmcanally on 2/14/2006 12:23:59 PM , Rating: 2
While our atmosphere doesn’t have color, when you look up the sky is blue. Has been since before humans, will be until the end of the world. This is what he is talking about, not the color of the gasses.


RE: Mars "true" sky color?
By lobadobadingdong on 2/14/2006 1:32:21 PM , Rating: 2
Our sky is viewed as blue by the human eye because the high nitrogen content in the earths atmosphere diffuses the color blue ~10x's more than any other color.


What's the question?
By FoxFour on 2/13/2006 12:19:34 PM , Rating: 2
Home Plate is clearly a landing zone for an ancient spaceport. I mean come on, what else could it possibly be?





RE: What's the question?
By ElFenix on 2/13/2006 2:43:33 PM , Rating: 2
obviously it is used for baseball by giant martians. otherwise they wouldn't call it 'home plate'


RE: What's the question?
By FoxFour on 2/13/2006 4:13:15 PM , Rating: 2
Geez, I never get anything right.


Arizona
By littlebitstrouds on 2/13/2006 9:21:19 AM , Rating: 3
That's so Arizona... you're not fooling me NASA... Nice try.




Holy...!
By SGTPan on 2/13/2006 1:54:44 AM , Rating: 2
If the other common uses are "Holy Sh1t!", and "Holy Crap!", what does that say about Toledo? NASA pwned Toledo, thats what.




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