Keith Mansfield

Despite being in the thick of Johnny Mackintosh pre-publication, I can’t resist pointing people to Emily Lakdawalla’s blog over at The planetary Society. She’s spotted something really weird on one of the legs of the Mars Phoenix Lander.

Here’s her picture, showing the difference between Sol 8 and Sol 31 (a Sol is a Martian day, which is around 24 hours, 40 minutes long):

While the second picture is better lit, it still looks as though it the leg’s covered with more “stuff” whatever that stuff may be. Is it a trick of the light, is additional clumpy soil being blown onto this one leg as more Sols go by, is this leg at the right angle that it’s gathering more frost, or is there mould on Mars?

Time will tell…

~ by keithmansfield on June 28, 2008.

Posted in Science, space
Tags: Emily Lakdawalla, life on Mars, Mars, mould, Phoenix, Planetary Society, space exploration