From the ArcaMax Publishing, Science & Technology Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/technology/s-571162-855254
PASADENA, Calif. (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency's Mars rover Spirit is
still stuck in loose Martian soil, but it's providing scientists data
on the planet's environmental history.
Spirit became stuck in April in an area composed of layers of soil
with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket, NASA
said.
Scientists dubbed the site "Troy."
But while Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping
busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate,
approximately 2 miles from where Spirit landed in 2004.
Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal
investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover,
Opportunity, said Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to
examine Troy's tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil.
"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the
addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and
cemented by the action of thin films of water," Arvidson said. "This
may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of
Home Plate -- or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and
we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the
wind got to it?"
Richard Moddis, a Spirit team scientist, added, "If your rover is
going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so
scientifically interesting."