U.S. Rover Lands on Mars, Strong Signal Heard

Reuters ^ | Sat, Jan 03, 2004 | Dan Whitcomb and Gina Keating

[anymouse]

A U.S. spacecraft carrying a robotic rover designed to search for signs of life on Mars arrived safely on Saturday, capping an almost seven-month space journey and dangerous six-minute final plunge through the hostile Martian atmosphere.

The spacecraft carrying the Spirit rover made its touchdown on the red planet known by sending back a series of tones to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The control room erupted in cheers and smiles each time the spacecraft appeared to hit its marks during the six-minute entry sequence but turned to tense silence as flight engineers frantically searched for a signal from Spirit.

The craft broke several minutes of radio silence at 8:52 p.m. PST (11:52 EST) to announce it had survived its perilous journey through the Martian atmosphere and had arrived at its designated landing site in a massive impact crater.

Signals from the spacecraft showed it had landed on its base, as project managers had hoped, capping an approach to the planet that appeared to be textbook-perfect.

The presence of NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe made clear that the $820 million mission's success was of utmost importance to the U.S. space agency, which had seen its last two Mars missions end in failure because of software and mathematical errors.

The spacecraft entered Mars' atmosphere at about 7:29 p.m. PST (10:29 p.m. EST) after an approach that took the spacecraft from a top speed of 12,000 mph to a full stop in six minutes.

To arrive intact on the planet's surface, the spacecraft had to deploy a parachute, jettison its heat shield, and fire retro rockets to slow a descent that officials predicted could be "hell."

A final drop of about four stories was cushioned by giant airbags, which allowed the lander to bounce across the bleak Martian landscape for up to half a mile before coming to rest inside the giant Gusev crater.

Inside the lander is the Spirit rover, a golf-cart sized mobile geology laboratory that will study the rocks and soil on Mars for evidence of water and past or present life.

Project managers said the landing was the riskiest part of a mission that began with launch in June.

Earlier, optimistic scientists from the space agency said their craft appeared to be hurtling toward a "bulls-eye" touch-down.

The scientists had made final adjustments to the parachute deployment to accommodate a dust storm blowing on Mars, but found themselves on such a perfect course that they could scrap more navigation maneuvers.

"Today is a great day to land on Mars," deputy mission manager Mark Adler told reporters.

Spirit's arrival was the climax of a weekend of interplanetary discovery after a U.S. spacecraft on Friday gathered particles from a comet in a first that could give scientists clues about how Earth began.

Project managers picked Gusev, an impact crater bigger than Connecticut, in part because they believed it may have once held a lake.

"We couldn't have possibly hoped to do better," said Louis D'Amario, Mars Exploration Rover navigation team chief. "This is essentially hitting the bulls-eye. We're very happy."

Though the unexpected dust storm was blowing on the other side of the planet from where Spirit was due to land, the scientists said it had warmed and thinned the upper Martian atmosphere, prompting them to plan on an earlier deployment of the parachute.

A second rover, nicknamed Opportunity, is expected to land on the other side of the Red Planet in three weeks.

[armymarinedad]

These look like pictures my son sent back from Iraq. I guess now we know where Sadaam comes from.

[Gracey]

How Wonderful!!!! Makes us proud of NASA today.

[Bon mots]

Hey, look over there.... it's.... the Beagle!

[ChadGore]

Beagle = The worlds most expensive MP3 player ever to be placed at the bottom of a martian crater.

[CrazyIvan]

Two of them? IF they're Chicago drivers we've just introduced road rage to another planet.

[Thebaddog]

I heard the NASA Mars lander had a can of gas aboard for the Beagle.

[Gracey]

LOL PIMP

[jigsaw]

Yahoo slide show of Mars photos (Very Good!):

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/sc/120303mars&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=&e=1&t=&prev=20

[KevinDavis]

I'm glad it happen, however I'll be more excited when humans are goingto Mars.

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[bonesmccoy]

thanks for your sentiments. The moderator pulled my thread from the breaking news after 30 minutes of posting it.

I have never received an explanation why.

[Orbital Velocity]

Spacecraft performing great......Press Conferences later today.

[Phil V.]

You bet!

I've had legit BREAKING threads removed also . . . it sucks.

[Phil V.]

also . . . the near "blackout" of comment on the Sunday AM tv talk shows is absolutely pathetic.

I can appreciate the shortness of time in putting together material, but ferchisakes it was near BLACKOUT! You suppose that there's a "limit" to the number of good things that can be spotlighted in this election year?

[Howlin]

I'm glad you said that; I was surfing around trying to find ANYBODY talking about it; nothing.

And to tell you the truth, with this going on, I'm not in the mood to listen to that other sniping and gossip!

[medscribe]

IMHO, President Bush will pull a JFK and set a deadline for a manned Mars expedition in his State of the Union Address. Probably set goals of a permanently manned lunar station by the end of this decade and then a manned mission to the Red Planet by the end of 2020. There are still a few hurdles to overcome (artificial gravity for the crew during the 6+ month journey, landing and habitat systems, surface fuel choices, etc), but the mission is certainly doable.

As for Europe and the UN, they can't even pay parking tickets in NYC, how the heck can they pull their noggin together to do something so ambitious and so grand and so daring? I see a US-Russian alliance on Mars, with other countries scrambling to get a share of the glory. China is still way too far behind to mount a serious challenge.

[Phil V.]

I'm glad you said that . . .

I'm glad that YOU'RE glad! I just hate being the only KOOK feeling as though I ought to be wearing tinfoil. . . . speaking of which . . . uh . . . ok . . . now that the ReynoldsWrap is off . . . uh . . . INTO THE SHOWER!!!

[bonesmccoy]

The reasons for these blackouts are political bias by the major news outfits on the west coast.

[bonesmccoy]

Reposting link to live thread from last night:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1050940/posts?q=1&&page=1#1

[martian_22]

Enjoy it while you can. We're deciding how to prepare this "probe" for dinner.

Send more probes. They're delicious. ;)

[bonesmccoy]

it was really silly to see FNC playing more incessant chatter about Michael Jackson while the probe was landing and we were watching it live over the internet.

It just goes to show how detached the people in New York are from the rest of the solar system.