Posted on 02/24/2004 4:52:19 PM PST by Phil V.
Daily Updates - February 24, 2004
Spirit Status for sol 51 Making Ground posted Feb. 24, 2 pm PST
To inspire a morning "run" on sol 51, which ended at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, PST, Spirit woke up to Vangelis’ "Chariots of Fire." The rover deployed its arm, took microscopic images of the soil in front of it and then proceeded toward its target, "Middle Ground." Spirit drove 30 meters (98.4 feet), breaking its own record for a single-sol traverse. Along the way, Spirit paused to image rocks on both sides of the drive path with its panoramic camera.
The auto-navigational software that drove the last 12 meters (39.4 feet) of the traverse to the "Middle Ground" target warned Spirit that the slope into the hollow that houses it was too steep (according to parameters set by rover engineers). Spirit then paced along the rim, looking for a safe way down. Unable to locate a secure path into the crater before the sol ended, Spirit ended up facing slightly west of north instead of northeast, as called for by the plan. This orientation will reduce the amount of data the rover can return (due to interference between the UHF antenna and items on the rover equipment deck), but it will be corrected in the coming sols.
As of today, Spirit has moved 183.25 meters (601.21 feet) and is now roughly 135 meters (442.91 feet) from its landing site, Columbia Memorial Station.
The intent for the next several sols will be to drive Spirit into "Middle Ground" and take a full panorama of the surrounding area to identify scientifically interesting rocks.
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Opportunity Status for sol 30 A Beautiful Grind posted Feb. 24, 11:15 am PST
On sol 30, which ended at 2:56 a.m. Tuesday, February 24, Opportunity performed its first rock abrasion tool operation on a rock target known as 'McKittrick Middle Rat' at the El Capitan site inside the crater. The tool shaved the rock over a period of two hours, grinding into a total depth of about 4 millimeters (.16 inches).
The auspicious day began with the song 'Rock'n Me' by Steve Miller and some miniature thermal emission spectrometer sky surveys and sky stares to study the atmosphere. After completing these activities, Opportunity took a short siesta to recharge its batteries. The rover has been doing a lot of science work at night, and the season on Mars is changing to winter, so the rover has less energy to work with than it did earlier in the mission. The martian days are getting shorter and the sun angle is not allowing either rover to power up the solar panels as much as in the past.
Opportunity woke up from its nap at 11:30 Local Solar Time on Mars to run through the series of commands required to retract the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and close its doors; take several microscopic images of another nearby rock abrasion tool target called 'Guadalupe;' flip the wrist; take a microscopic image of "McKittrick Middle Rat;" and place the rock abrasion tool on its target to run at 13:00 Local Solar Time.
After the abrasion tool was retracted, a series of microscopic images of the scene were taken, and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer was successfully placed into the abrasion tool's hole late in the day.
Some additional panoramic camera, miniature thermal emission spectrometer readings, and hazard avoidance camera imagery was completed through the day.
The plan for sol 31, which will end at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday, February 25, is to continue getting long Moessbauer readings of the rock abrasion tool hole and to prepare the tool for more work again on sol 33 or 34.
Doesn't look so much like "dots" to me, but more like a round object with a series of radial arms. Maybe something like the "stars" at the lower left corner of the photo.
The two geodes in the upper-right of that page (repeated at the bottom) are reminiscent of the Mars spheres, they even have the hole at the end, but they lack the "peach line" that so many of them feature. Can you think of any explanation for that "peach line" -- something that would explain why it's on so many of them? (Possibly all, since we see at most only half of each sphere.)
Am I the only one here that thinks it's more than a little strange to play wake up music to a computer?
You have company.
I've griped about it a little on other threads, but I've not become sufficienty irritated to gripe to NASA/JPL. It's the kind of cutesy, inane pablum that is more befitting of Walt Disney. But at another level it is a symptim of the depth of utter indoctrination of today's "scientists" in "social PC" . . . It leads to an accretion at the top of "scientists" who decide to scrap more reliable products for more "environmentaly friendly" products . . . and dead astronauts.
This generation has devolved by a factor of ten from the "Von Braun" crowd that got us to the moon.
The triumph of junk science over real science - I can't argue with you there.
Just another example of NASA's PR hacks getting carried away.....
The weirdest part is that they don't think it's strange. I guess when you get paid by the taxpayers you don't have to make sense. It's not like we can fire them. They get their sinecures no matter what happens. If the rovers crashed on landing, not one of these hacks would be out looking for a productive job.
Looks very much like a fossil. Similar to one we might find here.
I hope I am right.
They forgot to bring some canned air to blow the trash off.
I doubt they have slept well for days.
I used to be that way in my trades. This is all very interesting stuff for anyone who enjoys science.
Phil V: You have company.
I've griped about it a little on other threads, but I've not become sufficienty irritated to gripe to NASA/JPL. It's the kind of cutesy, inane pablum that is more befitting of Walt Disney. But at another level it is a symptim of the depth of utter indoctrination of today's "scientists" in "social PC" . . . It leads to an accretion at the top of "scientists" who decide to scrap more reliable products for more "environmentaly friendly" products . . . and dead astronauts.
This generation has devolved by a factor of ten from the "Von Braun" crowd that got us to the moon.
Frank Discussion: Wow. Such grumpiness, such curmudgeonry. Some people are both able to have a little fun AND do serious work. This has been the case since before, during, and after the Von Braun era.
They might have said the music was for the rover, but it was really for the team. Just a fun little marker to start out another mission day. Lighten up.
I'd be inclined to agree with Frank on this one, especially since the team that's working with these two rovers aren't keeping meticulous track of time on Mars for fun. They actually have divorced themselves from Earth time, and are living on "Mars Time". Thus, they actually do physically "wake up" when the Rovers do. So, in my opinion, they're not really playing the music "for the rovers", but for themselves to get "going" in the "morning". (Martian "morning" that is)
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