Mars - Sol 676 - Black Box?

Geometric shapes are found in nature - its evidence of some intelligent design to the Universe.

reply to post by inorbit222


Yeah...but wouldn't eons of wind, and sandblasting produce rounded or eliptical curvey shapes, instead of aparent cubes, with seemingly presice edges and overhanging lips?

My experience with sandblasting and wind/sand erosion tend to produce smooth rounded or curvey features, not cuboids.

just a thought but how many objects do you think have crashed on mars? probally alot. there is probally debris from all sorts of vehicles that have crashed or blown apart trying to get to mars.as for the "machinegun"it looks like some sort of scope camera with the "handle"being the part in which it was attached to whatever probe it was sent with.i would like nothing better to find proof of life on mars. i just dont think this is it. sorry. ( i hope i didnt offend anyone,thats not my intent)

reply to post by Monger


Weird, it seems no unatural to me.

Look at all the black exploded burned rocks and then that piece.

Originally posted by badmedia
3d shapes are pretty common in nature.

Three dimensional shapes are common in nature? Do you understand what you just said?

Here is my guess:

The black box is obviously not basalt or some other crystal formation. It is a black box with an overhang like a cover and a place where a cord plugs in and the cord is lying there next to it. The large rock immediately to the left and under it has what appear to be two flat surfaces possibly the whole thing is hexagonal in shape. The other things lying around also appear to be man made.

So what is the logical conclusion? Several mars missions made it to the red planet in the past, only to disappear on arrival. My best guess is that it is a crashed Mars probe sent by either us or the Russians a long time ago and has been covered over by the sand over time. A more far out guess is that it is left over from an ancient Martian civilization. I cannot believe there would be so many things in such a small area which have the appearance of intelligent design unless that were the case.

Originally posted by thegreatobserver
What is interesting and leads to the conclusion that it is NOT a natural formation is the fact that it is the only square object in this picture and area. It clearly stands out.

If you look at the picture of the Giant's Causeway, the whole area is like that. So, it is a natural formation in this specific area.

You always have to see things in relation to its surrounding.

Using the Giant causeway as an example of natural rock formations would be a fair comparison if there was another two or three hundred cube shaped 'rocks' of roughly the same size and texture, in the immediate area...which there isn't by the looks of it...

So yeah, nature does form these shapes naturally, but not usually in singles or lone examples, especially amongst rocks, the majority of which do not appear to be of the same composition.

My take on the picture is that it probably natural and accidentally formed. there is another squarish edged block in the background so reason points that way. If the "black box" were the only square edged item in the picture then I would still be on the fence.

reply to post by notsoobvious


Not many notsoobvious,

Only about 20 or so were launched, and of those only around half achieved Mars orbit (and subsequent landings or crash landings).

So even if we were to treble that number to include any potential hush hush 'military' landing attempts, we are still only talking about maybe 15-20 landings or crash landings.

Spead that out on a planetary scale, and that's not a lot of hardware for a large planet...However...if you are talking about ancient human probe...that's a different story.

I personally believe that the artifacts (most of them, if not all of them) that are apparent on both Mars and our moon, are from previous human high civilizations, that have since either moved on...regressed (to us), or died out forllowing war or catastrophe leaving a few survivors, who then fled to Earth or were here already on a mission at the time.

Quite why the idea of advanced human civilisations in antiquity frightens the hell out of the 'establishment', and must remain a secret baffles me.

Surely, one could say that we achieved a higher level of technology and science before, so we can once again. Instead, they seem to think we will all just become pathetic and give up trying to be better.

As for religion, isn't god supposed to be eternal? (whatever god you're into) He/she/it/they have always been? Why would it matter if the religious historians have the dates off by a few hundred thousand years?

Either god exists and always has existed, or god hasn't and doesn't...timescale has nothing to do with it.

Oops...i'm waffling again, sorry.

reply to post by spikey


Good point.

In looking at other pictures taken nearby by the rover, it seems there are two kinds of rock in the area. One a bedrock underlying the sand and dust, which appears to be more pockmarked and much older. The other--what I figure our box is made of--is of a darker shade and appears to have a smoother and more glossy texture. Again, look at the other photos from the link given in the OP, they depict the difference better than the OP photo. The darker rock I figure to have been introduced into the environment at some point, perhaps by a meteor. The cleavage on these is somewhat angular, with other photos showing pieces split in two while laying close to each-other. Many seem to have a triangular shape, or at least one right-angle. Maybe our box recently(in the past million years) broke off of another rock and was blown in a storm to its current position. Anyway, we will never know though it is fun to speculate.

Ah so that's where I misplaced Pandora's Box. I've been looking for it for two millennia! Thank you ATS.

-Zeus

Originally posted by vip867
Rocks do ata least on earth form cubes. Mostly crystline types, ie rock salt, Pyrite.





Edited to change quartz to pyrite which is in the picture.

[edit on 7-6-2009 by vip867]

Transformers black box?

reply to post by ziggy1706


What kind of planetary geologist has never seen a quartz cristal or square edged gold pyrite. I am an amateur (realy amateur) geologist. That is to say that when I go camping I always bring my geologist tools to look for new and interesting minerals. Just for the fun of it, and to add nice decorations to my house.

I have several examples of very square shaped gold pyrite and quartz cristals, Halite(Salts) and more, that under the right conditons could easily mimic what we see in that photo.

Oh, and Earth is a planet don't forget. What happened here could easily have happened on Mars. No need for a degree to come to that conclusion.

very interesting, but like every other interesting thing in space they will never tell us the truth. what are we to do?

reply to post by vip867

Originally posted by notsoobvious
just a thought but how many objects do you think have crashed on mars? probally alot. there is probally debris from all sorts of vehicles that have crashed or blown apart trying to get to mars.as for the "machinegun"it looks like some sort of scope camera with the "handle"being the part in which it was attached to whatever probe it was sent with.i would like nothing better to find proof of life on mars. i just dont think this is it. sorry. ( i hope i didnt offend anyone,thats not my intent)

Russia, If I recall correctly, has had 13 failed missions to Mars. Who knows were the debris of those craft are. Once they hit the atmosphere, they lost communication so they could be anywhere on the planet. And with Mars minimal atmosphere, the objects would not burn up and a majority of the craft would make it to the surface.

To me it looks like a box with a lid. Almost like a hatch to the underground. It would be logical to build into a rocky area to make it look natural. The cord could be running into the object in front of the rock. Most likely some sort of solar energy generator or survelliance equipment.

The Devil's causeway looks to be carved stone to me. No way will I ever believe that it is natural. Rock does not erode into perfect angles on such a consistent basis.

Originally posted by Bearack
Russia, If I recall correctly, has had 13 failed missions to Mars. Who knows were the debris of those craft are. Once they hit the atmosphere, they lost communication so they could be anywhere on the planet. And with Mars minimal atmosphere, the objects would not burn up and a majority of the craft would make it to the surface.

Any object of earth origin hitting the surface would most probably be just debris after impact, if there were not protected by airbags on impact and used some sort of parachute on descent.

Engineers faced the daunting task of slowing the Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft from about 12,000 miles per hour when they entered the atmosphere to about 12 miles per hour when they hit the surface of Mars.
Source: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by tyranny22
It's my theory that the front half of the plane was sucked into a rip in space and time thus resulting in it's crash (...). This black box is all that's left of the debris.

i don't fully agree : the cockpit came, too : go to the center of original picture.
Then, go 10% to the right and look at the black thing. There it is. Zoom in, you'll even see the windows.
i'm serious.
So if somebody could post the zoom-in i'm talking about ?

Actually this could be even more exciting. If it is a natural crytal formation it most likely formed in the presence of water. That means NASA should have more info on it as they are looking for water.