[meteorite-list] Opportunity Mars Rover Stuck in Sand

[Darren Garrison]

On Tue, 17 May 2005 21:35:44 -0500, "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly at bhil.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>
>    <http://makeashorterlink.com/?B38F2271B>
>    Brain teaser.  The nearest crater is not a crater shape (a cone), but a
>bowl-shaped depression surrounded by a nearly flat rim that is distinct from
>the surrounding terrain.  Possibly it is a conical crater in the process of
>being filled in by the loose (sandy?) soil the rover was stuck in, but this is
>not a shape that drifting sand would produce (the rim).
>    Also teasing my brain is the fact that the two little craters do not have
>their apparent shadows oriented in the same direction, so possibly the
>"shadow" is not an albedo feature at all. Tease.
>    The fellow with the "crazy" web site that claims to have discovered
>Martian fossils plows ahead with just enough plausibility edge to bother me.
>I don't "believe" in his "fossils," as many of them are the product of the
>power of the human brain to find patterns in ANYTHING. But then, there's the
>"rotini."


Duh.  Obviously Opportunity has stumbled into the pit of a Dreaded Space Doodlebug

http://thasos.users.btopenworld.com/images/Ant-lion_pits.jpg

http://www.antlionpit.com/digging.html