From: Jan Wee <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Pedro's post & LFM Q & A, online sharing, mission update
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 20:01:20 -0500
Dear discuss-lfm members,
>>>PEDRO's POSTING...
Welcome to our discussion forum, Pedro! Glad to see you
posting along with several others who did so in the
past day!
I took the liberty of opening your attached file and
re-posting it in full form in case others are not able
to open the file and read it.
Here is Pedro's posting...
From: <pescudero@tfn.servicom.es>
Dear discuss LFM members,
This is my question: If there is sand in Mars and its
atmosphere is extremely thin, which is the origin of that sand ?
The barometric pressure on Mars is about 7 (seven) milibars.
On the Earth we have 1.012 milibars as normal pressure. That
means that the air in Mars is not dense enough to produce
erosion on the planet rocks. Could it be that Mars had a
heavy atmosphere millions of years ago ? Or that the sand
comes from the erosion of ancient waters on that Planet ?
Many thanks for your answers
- Pedro Escudero Elorza -
SUGGESTION....ASK THE MARS TEAM!
Since yours is a question about the formation of sand on
Mars you are encouraged to send the question to the LFM Question
and Answer service.... information about how to do this
properly is found at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ask/question.html
Mars Team members respond to questions from participants
of LFM via the Q and A forum. Questions and answers are
posted in the archive for all to utilize and enjoy!
Be sure to >>>>check the archive BEFORE submitting
questions!
This is a great resource for you and your students
as the information is current and the responses
are from the Mars Mission TEAM! What could be better
than hearing directly from the real experts! :-)
The archive is found at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ask/index.html
Here is an example of a Q and A pair from the category
Mars terrain and geology....
QUESTION:
Is there quicksand on Mars?
ANSWER from Jeff Plescia on January 31, 1997:
Probably not. Quicksand is a loose mixture of water and sand.
There is no liquid water at the surface of Mars; the atmospheric
pressure is too low and it is too cold. So while there might
be areas filled with sand, you would not sink out of sight if
you tried to cross them.
Jeff Plescia,research scientist and Mars Surveyor Program
Questions will be accepted from now through the duration
of the LFM project. To submit a question, mail it to the
following email address:
question-lfm@quest.arc.nasa.gov
Perhaps members of our discuss-lfm forum might be able to
contribute a scientific response, but the Q and A is a
sure fire way of getting a response from the experts!
>>>>LET'S DISCUSS...
Say the word and you are ready to respond! What a great
group!
Thanks Thomas R. of Southern CA for sharing the
news of the special event on Nov. 13th! How lucky can
you be to live near JPL. What would be super is if any
of the folks on this list attending could share your experience
with all of us via a posting to this list! Many of us have
fond memories of Donna (in her lucky red suit) being interviewed on
CNN July 4th and featured on the Live From Mars telecasts.
Thanks to Ginny Dexter (who hails from Northern CA),
Marilyn Kennedy Wall (who hails from the East... VA)
and Lucy Marske (from the Midwest). We have covered both
coasts and midwest with this trio of posts! Ginny's
Weather World's Internet Research form, Marilyn's resource
sharing, and Lucy's unique Human Mars/MGS aerobraking activity
gave our forum a jump-start in demonstrating the power
of online forums! Thanks to *all* of you.
>>>>>MARS PATHFINDER MISSION STATUS
8 October 1997, 12:00 p.m. PDT
Just a brief excerpt from the JPL's Pathfinder site at
http://mars. jpl.nasa.gov
The Mars Pathfinder operations team reestablished communications
with the lander on Sol 92 of the mission, after four days of
silence from the spacecraft. The team received a transmission
from the spacecraft's main transmitter. The signal was detected
using the Madrid, Spain 34-meter antenna.
For further information on the Mars Pathfinder Mission,
please call our Mission Status Report line at 1-800-391-6654.
Looking forward to more discussion/sharing!
Jan Wee, discuss-lfm moderator