The mining potential on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 30, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample,” it was probably taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to properly maintain the camera’s temperature.
Nonetheless, the larger region where this photo is located is one of great interest to scientists as well as to future explorers. First note the colors. The wide variations between the bright orange of that peak (only a few tens of feet high) and the light orange and aqua-green of the bedrock to the north and south suggest a terrain with a lot of different materials within it.
The location is in the dry equatorial regions, so the swirls visible on the plateaus north and south of that small peak are not related to near surface ice. Instead, this is warped bedrock, with those swirls also suggesting material of a varied nature, exposed to the surface by erosion processes.
The white rectangle within the inset on the overview map to the right marks this location, near the southern terminus of the easternmost of the two major fissures that make-up Nils Fossae. If you look close at the inset you will see that the low terrain in the picture above is actually a drainage down into a large canyon flowing eastward into that larger fissure. While the smaller canyons were probably formed by some erosion process, either volcanic, water, or glacial in nature, the main fissures of Nils Fossae are likely grabens, cracks that formed when the ground stretched from pressure from below.
Nils Fossae is a region on Mars where orbital data has suggested the existence of lots of minerals. In fact, it is considered one of several areas on Mars with the highest concentrations of minerals, thus making it of great value to future colonists. These facts are why Perseverance landed here (as marked by the black dot in Jezero crater), because it is expected that when it travels west to leave Jezero it will enter this region. Scientists hope to document that mineral content, and therefore get a better understanding of the mining potential of Mars.
It is also why this photo was taken. The more this region can be mapped, the better chance future explorers will know where to go to get the resources they need to establish their permanent colonies.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 30, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample,” it was probably taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the schedule in order to properly maintain the camera’s temperature.
Nonetheless, the larger region where this photo is located is one of great interest to scientists as well as to future explorers. First note the colors. The wide variations between the bright orange of that peak (only a few tens of feet high) and the light orange and aqua-green of the bedrock to the north and south suggest a terrain with a lot of different materials within it.
The location is in the dry equatorial regions, so the swirls visible on the plateaus north and south of that small peak are not related to near surface ice. Instead, this is warped bedrock, with those swirls also suggesting material of a varied nature, exposed to the surface by erosion processes.
The white rectangle within the inset on the overview map to the right marks this location, near the southern terminus of the easternmost of the two major fissures that make-up Nils Fossae. If you look close at the inset you will see that the low terrain in the picture above is actually a drainage down into a large canyon flowing eastward into that larger fissure. While the smaller canyons were probably formed by some erosion process, either volcanic, water, or glacial in nature, the main fissures of Nils Fossae are likely grabens, cracks that formed when the ground stretched from pressure from below.
Nils Fossae is a region on Mars where orbital data has suggested the existence of lots of minerals. In fact, it is considered one of several areas on Mars with the highest concentrations of minerals, thus making it of great value to future colonists. These facts are why Perseverance landed here (as marked by the black dot in Jezero crater), because it is expected that when it travels west to leave Jezero it will enter this region. Scientists hope to document that mineral content, and therefore get a better understanding of the mining potential of Mars.
It is also why this photo was taken. The more this region can be mapped, the better chance future explorers will know where to go to get the resources they need to establish their permanent colonies.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Speaking of mining…I wonder if this would be of use
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq0FsvkPMgo&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fscitechdaily.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo
https://scitechdaily.com/defying-gravity-scientists-solve-mystery-of-magnetic-hovering-beyond-classical-physics/