Starship Asterisk*

Explanation: … the rock's unusual light tones surrounding a red interior created interest in its composition -- as well as causing it to be nicknamed Jelly Donut. A subsequent chemical analysis showed the rock has twice the abundance of manganese than any other rock yet examined ...

A closer look at the rock using Opportunity's robotic arm-mounted instruments revealed even more surprises.

Chris Peterson wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:Though the two de-skewed blink comparisons are excellent (and wish I knew how to extract the secrets embedded in Chris's 3D cross-eye before image ... I haven't been able to "see" those since I was a kid).

Do you prefer anaglyphs?

1. How was a chemical analysis performed on the jelly-donut object ? If one of you can explain that to me I would greatly appreciate it.
2. I wonder why nobody replied to one of the earliest comments in the thread:

   Guest wrote:More likely to be a piece of the aging and decaying rover itself?

MarkBour wrote:How was a chemical analysis performed on the jelly-donut object ?

MarkBour wrote:I wonder why nobody replied to one of the earliest comments in the thread:

Guest wrote:More likely to be a piece of the aging and decaying rover itself?

I think one should consider not just the rover itself. I imagine that a rover landing involves a lot of debris of various materials. And I think that these rovers travel relatively small distances in their travels. So, for example, a piece of styrofoam or parachute or some other such material, having blown in the wind to rest near the rover seems a possibility. Perhaps slim, perhaps not. It may be that ta152h0, posting just above, is thinking along the same lines, at least in part.

MarkBour wrote:I am wondering 2 things.

1. How was a chemical analysis performed on the jelly-donut object ? If one of you can explain that to me I would greatly appreciate it.
2. I wonder why nobody replied to one of the earliest comments in the thread:

   Guest wrote:More likely to be a piece of the aging and decaying rover itself?

I think one should consider not just the rover itself. I imagine that a rover landing involves a lot of debris of various materials. And I think that these rovers travel relatively small distances in their travels. So, for example, a piece of styrofoam or parachute or some other such material, having blown in the wind to rest near the rover seems a possibility. Perhaps slim, perhaps not. It may be that ta152h0, posting just above, is thinking along the same lines, at least in part.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/mysterious-mars-rock-looks-jelly-doughnut-defies-explanation-2D11972899 wrote:It's like nothing we [sic] ever seen before. It's very high in sulfur, very high in magnesium, it has twice as much manganese than anything we've seen on Mars," Squyres said with excitement in last week's Jan. 16 event.

Nitpicker wrote:Are there any chemists on board the Starship?

Nitpicker wrote:Damn it, now I'm wondering about the precise chemistry of the lithium ion batteries (LIBs) used by Opportunity, and what kind of chemical reaction one might see on the Martian soil, if the batteries were to leak. It seems there is a wide variety of chemistry across the range of LIBs and some include manganese. And magnesium sulphate appears to be in abundance in Meridiani Planum. Are there any chemists on board the Starship?

geckzilla wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:Are there any chemists on board the Starship?

Chris knows everything but dancing.

Strangerbarry wrote:
I'm a bit surprised at all the fuss and cafufle over what I thought was a harmless prank, but I'm really enjoying the reaction.

geckzilla wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:Are there any chemists on board the Starship?

Chris knows everything but dancing.

Chris Peterson wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:Damn it, now I'm wondering about the precise chemistry of the lithium ion batteries (LIBs) used by Opportunity, and what kind of chemical reaction one might see on the Martian soil, if the batteries were to leak. It seems there is a wide variety of chemistry across the range of LIBs and some include manganese. And magnesium sulphate appears to be in abundance in Meridiani Planum. Are there any chemists on board the Starship?

Here's a useful paper about the batteries and their chemistry.

While Li ion batteries utilize liquid electrolytes, the volume is very low, so there's not a lot to leak. And in the case of the rovers, the batteries are inside the radioisotope heated, insulated warm box, so I think the likelihood of anything from the batteries coming into contact with the martian surface is extremely small.

This chemistry utilized our first generation low temperature Li-ion battery electrolyte, i.e., 1 M LiPF₆ dissolved in equi-proportion ternary mixture of ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate and diethyl carbonate.

Walker1001 wrote:It's a Tim Horton's blueberry donut, put there before Dunkin Donuts could get there. The puzzle is how did we Canadians do it?

BMAONE23 wrote:
Here is an interesting article on the rock in PHYS.ORG containing an image
of the likely former resting place partially visible beneath the Rover Solar Array Wing

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