"Timber plank" on Mars?

[Potemkin]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1091223/Conspiracy-theorists-wood-trees-spot-timber-plank-Mars.html

Conspiracy theorists can't see the wood for the trees as they spot 'timber plank' on Mars

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:51 PM on 02nd December 2008

An image sent back from the Red Planet has revealed an object bearing an uncanny resemblance to a wooden log. It was captured by the Mars Rover near the Endurance Crater.

The find has excited conspiracy theorists on blogs and websites who claim it is evidence there are vast forests on Mars that have been kept from the public.

It is more likely to be a case of pareidolia - where a random stimulus is perceived as having significance, be it a symbol seen in a cloud or a face on a piece of toast.

Scientists theorize the phenomenon occurs because humans are hardwired to recognise familiar objects as a survival technique.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/02/article-0-02A99127000005DC-818_468x332.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/02/article-1091223-02A9914B000005DC-802_468x183.jpg
mars
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A picture of what looks like timber (close-up below) has excited conspiracy theorists who claim it is proof there are vast forests on Mars

The unusual image was featured in a NASA press release in 2004, although the space agency made no mention of the timber-like object captured on the spacecraft's 115th day on Mars.

But one website insists it is a leaked image that 'could get someone killed.' A writer from TheCrit.com said NASA's claims Mars was a desert world were 'lies' and that 'there are vast forests on Mars, ones that are kept from the public.'

They go on to speculate the 'wood' was brought to its present position by a flood of water that must have happened within 40 years 'because the wood is intact.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/02/article-1091223-02A9916B000005DC-125_468x369.jpg
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Tyre marks indicate the Mars Rover drove over the 'plank' in this image

However, the 'plank' has the same shading and a similar linear pattern to the surrounding rock.

Sadly, there is no scientific evidence of any macroscopic plant life on Mars and the vista in the image is one of a vast and desolate desert.

However, NASA scientists have found water ice in the north polar region of Mars as well as alkaline soil - key ingredients to support life.

In these images there is a polygonal pattern on the ground similar in appearance to polygonal structures in icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth.

'We have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life - whether past, present or future,' Sam Kounaves, lead analyst for the Phoenix spacecraft's mission said.

President Bush announced his intention to support a manned mission to Mars back in 2004. A ready supply of water would be essential to the project.

[jason]

not only are there forests, but someone chopped them down and made them into railroad ties.

The real coverup is where the railroad track goes.

Now that's something to think about :)

[A.T. Hagan]

Vast forests on Mars and everyone on this planet with the technical capability to image those forests are in on the conspiracy to keep everyone else from seeing them.

Uh huh.

.....Alan.

[gsgs]

they don't say how long it is.
THAT makes me suspicious.

[Potemkin]

they don't say how long it is.
THAT makes me suspicious.

You can find the length of the solar cell in the photograph.

From that you can tell the distance to the object and how long it is.

Man, I want to believe it is wood or some type of biological trace.

It MAY be mineral but where are the other similar objects? It may look like the surrounding rocks but are to believe this configuration is unique?

[jason]

Its a rock

[Potemkin]

Its a rock


Sure, probably, but why is it the only one in the field of view?

I guess it could be like that ice field where stones move around during the night.

[Misty]

It's part of the lost ark, transported there by Captain Kirk.

[spinnerholic]

Misty got it! Of course Capt Kirk would want to give us little hints here and there that we ought to get on building the Enterprise, so it could go back in time and leave the log there for us to find!! Of course. How could anyone miss seeing the obvious? ROFLOL

[caonacl]

Is 'worm' clue to Mars life?

http://video.aol.com/partner/cnn/is-worm-clue-to-mars-life/tech:2008:12:02:obrien:mars:worm

[dyrt]

There would be lots of pictures from the other side of object if the rover went over it and it is hard to imagine that the scientist would not stop and sample something that looked like a piece of wood they just ran over.

If there is a conspiracy, it is a viral PR prank by NASA, perhaps to create interest at a time of a new administration and budget priorities.

[caonacl]

There would be lots of pictures from the other side of object if the rover went over it and it is hard to imagine that the scientist would not stop and sample something that looked like a piece of wood they just ran over.

If there is a conspiracy, it is a viral PR prank by NASA, perhaps to create interest at a time of a new administration and budget priorities.
Actually, being a local boy, I heard a lot a rumors at the time that many in NASA wanted to announce that they had found life, but management over-ruled them. The robot was not cabable of doing the test to prove it was life, and they had no way of retrieving the sample.

So what could they do other than take another picture of the same thing?

[dyrt]

Actually, being a local boy, I heard a lot a rumors at the time that many in NASA wanted to announce that they had found life, but management over-ruled them. The robot was not cabable of doing the test to prove it was life, and they had no way of retrieving the sample.

So what could they do other than take another picture of the same thing?If the picture is real then there are lots of pictures from the other angle. They were also doing scooping up stuff and doing chemical tests. They did not have to prove anything but apparently they did not even stop for the simple tests that they could do. It is just a rock with odd shadows or a fake picture.

[Potemkin]

HMMMMMM......... ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7765818.stm

Nasa delays its next Mars mission
MSL (Nasa)
MSL is Nasa's next rover mission to the Red Planet

The US space agency Nasa has delayed the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory rover mission.

MSL was to fly next year, but the mission has been dogged by testing and hardware problems.

The rover's launch has been postponed until 2011, Nasa said.

The mission is using innovative technologies to explore whether microbial life could ever have existed on the Red Planet.

The delay could add $400m to the price tag, which is likely to top $2bn.

"Trying for '09 would require us to assume too much risk, more than I think is appropriate for a flagship mission," said Nasa's administrator Michael Griffin.

The launch date was changed following an assessment by the mission's scientists and engineers of the progress it has made in the past three months.

"Despite exhaustive work in multiple shifts by a dedicated team, the progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, US.

"The right and smart course now for a successful mission is to launch in 2011."

MSL will use novel technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the Martian atmosphere, and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering platform.

It is engineered to drive longer distances over rougher terrain than previous rovers and contains a science payload 10 times the mass of instruments on Nasa's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.

"Up to this point, efforts have focused on launching next year, both to begin the exciting science and because the delay will increase taxpayers' investment in the mission," said Doug McCuistion, director of Nasa's Mars exploration programme.

"However, we've reached the point where we can not condense the schedule further without compromising vital testing."

The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favourable for flights to Mars only a few weeks every two years.

The next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011.

[hillsidedigger]

Is it possible that some large impact on Earth ages ago cast debris (like part of tree trunks) into space and that debris eventually fell to the Martian surface?

Even though the Martian atmosphere is thin, it seems it would still 'burn-up' any wood (freeze-dried as it might be after travelling billions of miles thru space) falling thru it.

[gsgs]

all pictures of that series:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n115.html



in German:
http://grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.blogspot.com/2008/12/foto-kontroverse-versteinerte.html

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/50/klimawandel-mars

[Toner]

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9307/marscampfiresm4.jpg

Looks like someone in the background is having a marshmallow roast over a fire made using all that driftwood laying about...

[Exodia]

Sure, probably, but why is it the only one in the field of view?

I guess it could be like that ice field where stones move around during the night.There seem to be other objects with similar surfaces nearby, like the one to right in this photo:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/n/115/1N138388278EFF2700P1994L0M1.JPG

[Potemkin]

Closeup of that shiny object.

http://www.geocities.com/concorddawn1138/Beto_TatooineWallpaper.jpg

[Johnny]

I can't believe ya'll haven't even noticed the solar panels in the bottom center left!

:beer: