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Mars Exploration Rover MissionThread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved

Opportunity - March 2004

Opportunity’s microscopic imager captured a picture of a long, thin feature that the science team had not seen in any of the other images sent from Mars.

Many members of the public wondered if it could be a microbe or sign of life on Mars- At 6 millimeters long and 60 microns thick, it is smaller than the size of an average human

hair.

The rover team patiently used their years of experience as engineers and astro geologists to research the root of this feature.

The science team hunted for similar features, scouring every microscopic image transmitted back to Earth …

… but they did not find similar long, thin features anywhere else in the microscopic images.

The rover team decided to test their leading theory that the mysterious feature was a piece of the fabric from the airbags that bounced the rover to safety during

landing.- Artist’s conception of airbags bouncing on mars during entry, descent, and

landing (EDL).

The engineering team gathered airbag material and soil samples from the sandbox at the jet propulsion Laboratory where they test the rovers and sent them to the

science team.- Mars soil simulant on top of airbag material, which is made out of Vectran (a synthetic material stronger than Kevlar, which police use in bulletproof vests).

Using a microscopic imager on Earth, scientists took pictures of what the Vectran airbag fibers would look like on martian soil.

Meanwhile, engineers compiled images and data to figure out the exact location of the rover and its robotic arm at the time the microscopic images was acquired on

Mars.- Notice the airbag bounce marks near the rover.

- Computer software integrates thousands of lines of data from the rovers so that rover drivers can determine their exact location.

- Navigation camera panorama taken before the rover left the lander.- Front hazard avoidance camera.

Since the airbag impacted a few feet away and the images are so similar, scientists agree that the long, threadlike feature is likely a Vectran fiber from Opportunity’s

airbags.-Airbag bounce marks

- Vectran airbag material fibers- L-Meridiani Planum, mars, Sol 19

- R-Pasadena CA, Sol 47

Mars Exploration Rover MissionThread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved

Opportunity - March 2004

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