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Now, I am going to give as much information as I can about this anomaly, so that everyone will have a good basis to start from, in reviewing this anomaly post. I found the Birdman in photos in Rover Opportunity Sol day 2171. I will be posting direct links to the Rover photo, an well as screen shots. The Birdman also is found in Rover Opportunity SOL day 2173, and I will post a direct link for that also.
First, I will provide the Mission Manager's Reports for the SOL days associated the Rover Opportunity Photos that I will be discussing and posting. I will also provide a link to the complete Manager's Report for all Opportunity SOL days, for your future reference. http://marsrovers.jp...rtunityAll.html
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sols 2158-2165, February 18-25, 2010: Investigating Material Ejected From Young Crater
Opportunity is located near the very young crater "Concepción."
The rover has been investigating the ejecta material around the crater, with some rocks exhibiting a dark rind. On Sol 2158 (Feb. 18, 2010), Opportunity continued the in-situ investigation of the rock target, "Chocolate Hills." The robotic arm (IDD) was used to collect a Microscopy Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target "Dano" before placing the Mössbauer (MB) spectrometer on the target "Tears." On the next sol, the robotic arm was retracted from the rock and a panoramic camera (Pancam) image was taken, before the Mössbauer spectrometer was placed down on the target Dano.
On Sol 2161 (Feb. 21, 2010), Opportunity drove away from Chocolate Hills rock and headed toward one of Concepción's dramatic ejecta rays. The rover drove about 12 meters (39 feet) towards some rocks exhibiting the interesting dark rinds. A 4.6-meter (15-foot) closer approach was performed on Sol 2163 (Feb. 23, 2010). Because the terrain would not permit a closer approach for in-situ work, Opportunity drove away on Sol 2165 driving 8.6 meters (28 feet) further along the crater's ejecta ray.
As of Sol 2165 (Feb. 25, 2010), the solar array energy production was 278 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.396 and a dust factor of 0.481. Total odometry is 19,360.14 meters (12 miles).
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sols 2166-2171, February 26 - March 03, 2010: Driving Around Material Ejected From Young Crater
Opportunity is continuing the circumnavigation of "Concepción" crater. During this period Opportunity traversed around a ray of ejecta that is comprised of rock debris from the impact that formed the crater.
In Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images these rocks and their shadows appear as dark streaks extending to the south and southwest from Concepción crater. Data collected on Sols 2165 (Feb. 25, 2010) and 2166 (Feb. 26, 2010), indicated potential targets for direct measurements with the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD). A 22-meter (72-foot) drive along the ejecta ray was performed on Sol 2167 (Feb. 27, 2010). However, because of the assessed mobility risks associated with this part of the jumbled rock field, no in-situ targets were approached. Instead the rover continued the circumnavigation campaign with an 18-meter (59-foot) drive around the ejecta ray on Sol 2171 (March 3, 2010).
As of Sol 2171 (March 3, 2010), the solar array energy production was 278 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.396 and a dust factor of 0.481. Total odometry is 19,399.57 meters (12 miles).
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sols 2172-2177, March 03-09, 2010: Driving Away From 'Concepción' Crater
Opportunity finished the circumnavigation campaign around "Concepción" crater.
Numerous targeted images were taken of rocks around the crater but no new rock targets were chosen to be analyzed using the in-situ (contact) instruments of the rover's robotic arm (IDD).
During the last leg around the crater on Sol 2172 (March 4, 2010), the third and final checkout for the AEGIS automated targeting software was successfully run. For this checkout, AEGIS analyzed a Navigation Camera (NavCam) image and searched for "cobbles" using a profile that prioritized rocks based on rock size and brightness. The top target found was an excellent example of a cobble. AEGIS then took a high quality, quarter-frame, 13-filter, Panoramic Camera (PanCam) image of this target.
Opportunity drove away from Concepción crater on Sol 2177 (March 9, 2010), and has driven about 130 meters (427 feet). Opportunity has now returned to the original path to Endeavour crater.
As of Sol 2177 (March 9, 2010), the solar array energy production was 278 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.446 and a dust factor of 0.504. Total odometry is 19,492.84 meters (12.11 miles).
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Well, the managers reports for those days sound pretty mundane, considering something just blew this place to pieces!
So, here we go! Rover Opportunity Sol day 2171 photos came to my attention from another poster on a similar forum. He was presenting the devastation shown in the area, and questioning "what happened here", while highlighting various possible anomalies. From that I developed a significant interest in Rover O's work, and just kept coming back to these SOL days. There really is a lot of "stuff" on the ground that Rover O has photographed that just doesn't look natural. (Also, there does appear to maybe be a few extra "shadows" in some of the pics???) Something (or some thing) has really messed up this place - meteor, missile, or whatever!
After coming back to SOL day 2171 numerous times, I finally saw the Birdman "statue". I refer to it as a statue because I don't know what else to call it. With a little magnification, the Birdman is pretty easy to see. Actually, it is only 1/2 statue, because the lower half is not there (but maybe not completely gone, as I will discuss later). I don't know how Birdman is constructed. His body appears to be formed to look like feathers/plumage. as well as the back of his head clearly displays some type of plumage, real/formed, or engraved. In the photo, we can only see the right side of his face. His facial features are humanish, but on the birdish side. His nose is very pointed, his face appears to be veined, his eye and mouth appear small, and the top of his head appears bald. In the photo, we can see his right hand, and that appears to be different - maybe two or three fingers. The hand seems to be shown gloved, or maybe colored like some birds feet are. If we look closely, we maybe can just make out a vague and similar left hand, but really very vague.
To me, this seems to be a real piece of reality for all of us. This birdman may not be the most significant piece found on Mars to date, but it is the most significant and telling thing I have seen on the planet. At this point we have no way of knowing whether this is "Look-Like" statue for a race of people somewhere, or, is it just a statue that makes a human type look like a bird, or a bird-god??? If the latter is the case, then by this we can know that there are ET human types, that know about feathered life-forms, which broadens our perspective, and would broaden the scope of ET life. If one does a search on the internet, as I have now done, you find many many different depictions of humanish bird statues, ---just FYI!
I am going to post this now, for everyone. I do have additional information to pass along, but that will get into the area of "semi-intelligent conjecture", and i don't want to bring that into this post yet. What I have shared is what I see in the Rover photo that I am posting for you. Yes, there are rocks in the screenshot, and a lot of rocks and sand in the full photos. I have given my complete description this time, to try to help each of you visualize the "Birdman of Mars" as best possible, as you review it..
SOL day 2171 (one of several individual photos on that day that shows the subject) http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/2171/1P321006692EFFABMIP2386L5M1.JPG
SOL day 2173 (likewise, one of several on this SOL day) http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/2173/1P321186928EFFABMIP2582R7M1.JPG
And the screen pic comes next, if it works!
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Edited by rdunk, 10 September 2011 - 12:01 AM.
