Did Mars Phoenix pop a spring, lose a screw or what?

Originally posted by RUFFREADY
Good find!! It looks like a fossil to me! I can't believe they would pop a screw ( or have a screw ) as it could get in the way of the "dig", looks like some kind of fossil shell, I found a "fish head/animal head fossil " ( see my avatar) on spirit rover pan cam SOL 006- so a shell/ fossil seems normal to me! Again good find!

NASA missed this one also !!

[edit on 1-6-2008 by RUFFREADY]

thats what i thought too,it looked like a shell/fossil you could find on the beach on earth...interesting

I got a bit intrigued by this object, probably because it looks like it might even be something alive trying to crawl up from the ground. So I started looking for additional images of it, but I could only find this one from another angel:

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...

However there appears to be a somewhat similar object on another Sol 5 image. The excerpt can be found near the left on the bottom of the original image: phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...



Might very well be another fallen of part, it looks somehow artificial to me.

It looks like a peice of "Greenfield"/ flexible steel electrical conduit. Say what you want, and I'm not quite sure how conduit would wind up on Mars either, but ya...it looks like a peice of flex conduit to me anyway. I would imagine the previous posts actually are closer to identifying the object in question. But that's my two cents.
Good find! flag and star

If you look carefully at the photo and others, you will notice that the engines excavated the loose dirt around rocks, displaced rocks from their holes and generally blasted the heck out of the area.

What I notice about that object is that it appears to be anchored in the center of one of those excavation type holes. Like wind turbulence around the anchored object blew the dirt surrounding it clear, leaving it standing up in the middle of a hole. The object has a very symmetrical shape. I hope someone here can clean it up.
I found the link to the original on the Phonix site. Here it is.

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...

The thing this looks most like to me is a piece of rebar. What the hell would rebar be doing on Mars? I think NASA has some splaining to do Lucy!

[edit on 1-6-2008 by Cyberbian]

After looking at the photos, I see another possibility.

Could the "spring" we see poking out of the ground be part of a landing probe connected to the bottom of the foot pad on the lander? If it is, it could signal ground contact and shut off the main engines on descent.

Just a thought, but it reminds me of a similar system used on the Apollo lunar landers.

oh great my tax paying dollars paid for the stupid thing just to get there and it falls apart

[edit on 1-6-2008 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by Horned Frog



All the images of the lander feet show no such sensor, the plates have a round bump on the bottom but nothing protruding from the bottoms.

For example:

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...

I found another , This one looks very different, much sharper, it is a conical spring shape.
phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...



[edit on 1-6-2008 by Cyberbian]

reply to post by sensfan

I think people need to learn how fossils are made before saying something like this they see in a picture is a fossil.

here's a good start. How are fossils made

www.infowest.com...
How fossils are formed, learn how fossils are made

thanks for the science lesson........


but what's funny is this link has a picture(drawing) of a fossil that looks just like the item in question here....






so yea, i think it's a fossil.

anybody know anything about these type of fossil ?




the other pic does look like a screw



is this the same item ??????? it doesnt look the same...

[edit on 1-6-2008 by easynow]

Very interesting...

I think we must be skeptical about this, I know it would be great for it to be a fossil but we don't want wishful thinking to cloud our judgement.

Fossils are normally surrounded by rock too...this seems just to be sitting on the surface. Time will tell I suppose. We must wait for high res images.

reply to post by easynow


EasyNow, I don't think they are the same object. I thought the second one was just a better picture at first, but I feel certain after trying to relate them to landmarks that they are not. I have a suspicion that the second item is some kind of cast off packing material. I do not think that is the case with the first item which looks imbedded.

Sand worm- there's Spice on Mars. How big is the Pheonix? The pictures posted make it look really big. The object in question looks like a spring you would find inside a retractable pen. Would something that small be on the Pheonix (at least in the landing gear)?

It kinda looks like the bones of a type of fish(possible since Mars had water at one point still might have some)

The first image shows more of the unidentified object than the blown up version. And from a different angle. Almost as if they are two totally different objects. Why is that? Anyway, In the first image it clearly looks like a piece of the lander fell off and created a little divot in the martian dust when it fell. THe second blown up image looks more like it was buried. Is there a lapse in time between the photos ?

Nasa just claimed it as a fossil

Originally posted by CommanderSinclair
Nasa just claimed it as a fossil

Source?

-everyone with 5mpixel cellphones
-nasa cameras are the size of small suitcases and have 1024x1024 B&W resolution

anyone buying this BS? There shouldn't be a single fuzzy tiny picture anywhere. To think with our technology even in consumer products and were relegated to 1024 res cameras on these probes is downright laughable. I'm quite sick of all the nasa BS and them keeping everyone in the dark.

[edit on 2-6-2008 by black_suburbans]

I think this object is a filament used for lighting the landing boosters? Filaments are shaped like springs? just a thought.

reply to post by CommanderSinclair


Source?

Originally posted by highfreq
It looks like a peice of "Greenfield"/ flexible steel electrical conduit

That's what I thought too...




Maybe it fell off the lander?

looks like a martian lightsaber to me
but seriously thats not a good sign.
and its the russians sabotaging it