Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March...
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![Page 1: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Mars Exploration Rover MissionThread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved
Opportunity - March 2004
![Page 3: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
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.
![Page 4: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
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.
![Page 5: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The rover team patiently used their years of experience as engineers and astro geologists to research the root of this feature.
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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.
![Page 7: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
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).
![Page 8: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
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).
![Page 9: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Using a microscopic imager on Earth, scientists took pictures of what the Vectran airbag fibers would look like on martian soil.
![Page 10: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
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.
![Page 11: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
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
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Mars Exploration Rover MissionThread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved
Opportunity - March 2004
![Page 13: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Thread-like features on Mars: Mystery Solved Opportunity - March 2004.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5a4d1b727f8b9ab0599b593d/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
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