Entries in the Category "GEOL 390"
April 23, 2006
It is becoming clearer to how we will figure out what exactly this feature is. We will be making a computer model of the figure using 3-D images taken from Spirit both of the feature and of the opposite side of the formation behind the feature. This will be done over the summer at Ohio State where there is a professor who specialized in making these kinds of models.
April 29, 2006
The project itself has been put on hold over the past couple weeks. On a couple more articles have been found including one specific one that addresses the possibility of solufluction found by the other rover, Opportunity. However i have not read the article yet and don't know its exact contents. Instead i have been writing the proposal. At this point i have written it and have gotten input. I am in the process of editing it and adding pictures and references.
Week of March 6, 2006
There has been no progress on my project lately due to midterms. But as pertaining to questions i must answer from class, the general idea behind this project is to see if solifluction occurs on mars in a small scale. The answer to this question will help us understand much more about how deep water is on mars when we arrive where to build and where not to build. For example if solifluction occurs at a proposed building site...the building would collapse in only a couple years. For this project it is just as important if there is no solifluction then if it is present because then we definately know what is not there. I believe this project can definately be done through models and research. A couple reasons that it can be done is because the models are not difficult to make and that regions of Antarctica right here on earth act very similar to the regions on Mars that I am testing.
Week of Feb 19, 2006
Some progress is being made in my senior project. For the most part, I am done with looking up photographs that may show more solifluction on Mars, which leaves 3 pictures that are possibilities. I may look more in the future but that is not the focus of the project anymore. Over the past two weeks it has been information-gathering. I have been looking up and printing out various journal articles. Over the next couple weeks i will be reading these articles to learn more about solifuction. All i know is that beyond that we will make models and somehow determine if solifluction is actually occuring on Mars.
Week of Feb. 5, 2006
Work on my senior project is moving along. Such as location of the original picture we found and I am still looking to see if there are any more. Nothing concrete yet. Besides that most of the work has been involved in find past research articles addressing the subject. I am guessing for a while most of work I will be doing will be studying the research that we have found so far.
Week of Jan. 29, 2006
I've finally decided on what my senior project will be. It is not either of the project ideas i mentioned last week but something that was come across accidentally: solifluction on Mars. Although this has been studied, it has not been addressed at as small a scale as I will be studying. So far it has been simple information gathering on what it is and if it's occuring anywhere else. The more specific work and experimentation wiill come later in the semester.
Week of January 22, 2006
Right now I am trying to decide what project to do. I would like to start on the project early so most likely I will make a decision before the weekend. So far the top two decisions are finding ways of keeping Martian dust from sticking to and getting into space suits and of programming robots to detect certain gases. The second option would be useful with trying to find water (water vapor) or life (waste gases released). The dust project would involve much lab experimentation work and the robots would involve working underneath several people. I am currently trying to weigh the pros and cons and will decide among these two or another if such an option arises.