NASA Rover Sends Photos Back From Mars

AP ^ | Jan 04, 2004 | ANDREW BRIDGES

[optimistically_conservative]

By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer

PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA (news - web sites) rover plunged through the atmosphere of Mars and bounced down upon its rocky surface Saturday night, beginning a mission to roam the Red Planet in search of evidence that it was once suitable for life.

AP Photo

(AP Video)

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory let out whoops of joy and embraced one another as signals from the Spirit rover indicated it had survived the landing.

Within hours it began sending back photos of the Red Planet. Among the first was a tiny black and white image showing a sundial on the rover. Another showed the Martian horizon and portions of the lander.

"This is a big night for NASA — we are back!" NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe crowed at a celebratory news conference, relishing a success after a difficult year that included the agency's Feb. 1 Columbia space shuttle disaster.

"I'm very, very proud of this team and we're on Mars. It's an absolutely incredible accomplishment," O'Keefe said. He then toasted the mission's members with champagne he said he had been saving for more than 20 years.

The spacecraft landed upright Saturday night, which made it easy for the four-petaled lander that contains the rover to unfold, allowing it to take photographs, said Chris Jones, director of planetary flight programs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The photographs, zipped to Earth across 106 million miles of space, showed a flat landscape peppered with rocks.

"This just keeps getting better and better. The pictures are fantastic," said mission science manager John Callas.

Spirit is one of two-identical six-wheeled robots expected to roam the planet for 90 days, analyzing Martian rocks and soil for clues that could reveal whether the planet was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life.

Mission officials said the rover won't trundle off on its own for another nine days.

The rover relied on a heat shield, parachute and rockets to slow its descent to Mars. It touched down inside Gusev Crater, a Connecticut-sized indentation just south of the Martian equator. Eight seconds before landing, a giant set of air bags inflated to cushion its bouncy landing.

"This is essentially perfect navigation. We couldn't have possibly hoped to do better than this," navigation team chief Louis D'Amario said.

Previously, about two of every three attempts to land spacecraft on Mars have failed. The latest apparent failure was the British Beagle 2 lander, which has not been heard from since it was to have set down on Mars on Christmas.

"It's an incredibly difficult place to land. Some have called it the 'death planet' for good reason," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science.

NASA's last attempt at landing on Mars, in 1999, failed when a software glitch sent the Polar Lander crashing to the ground. Since then, the space agency has increased oversight of its missions.

The $820 million NASA project also includes a twin rover, Opportunity, which is set to arrive on Mars on Jan. 24.

Today, Mars is a dry and cold world. But ancient river channels and other water-carved features spied from orbit suggest that Mars may have had a more hospitable past.

"We see these intriguing hints Mars may have been a different place long ago," said Steve Squyres, the mission's main scientist.

The rovers were built to look for evidence that liquid water — a necessary ingredient for life — once persisted on the surface of the planet. A direct search for life on Mars is at least a decade away, NASA scientists said.

Together, the robots were launched in the most intensive scientific assault on another planetary body since the Apollo missions to the moon, said Orlando Figueroa, director of NASA's Mars exploration program.

NASA launched the 384-pound Spirit and its twin in hopes they would become the fourth and fifth U.S. spacecraft to survive landing on Mars. Twenty other spacecraft from various nations have failed.

Scientists are taking advantage of the closest approach Mars has made to Earth in 60,000 years. NASA intends to send spacecraft to Mars at regular 26-month intervals, or each time the Earth laps the Red Planet as they both circle the sun.

The highly anticipated Spirit landing follows another important American space mission. On Friday, a NASA spacecraft flew through the bright halo of a distant comet to scoop up nearly a thimbleful of dust that could shed light on how the solar system was formed.

___

On the Net: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

[birg]

Darwin's work may have been misused...y'know

Reverse extrapolation but Mars really exists though

That is no theory..... chuckles...

[weegee]

It's late/early. You search for it. Don't know if there is a Mars keyword in the thread or not but it was posted yesterday if that helps.

There may be more.

[birg]

Who created Mars would be the next trick question...
Why would the source of life on Earth be different from the source of life on Mars?

The design space spans 'em both

[djf]

If there is life on Mars, and IMHO there is probably at least some forms of microbial stuff, it probably originated on Earth. All it would take is one good comet impact on Earth to seed the inner half of the solar system.


Bugs are everywhere. They probably have roaches on Mars.

[djf]

Here is a Pathfinder image of dawn on Mars.



Yes, there are clouds on Mars. And the sky is blue, not red.

[leadpenny]

. . . it probably originated on Earth.

Or vice versa?

[djf]

Yup. I just meant it only needed start on one planet to infect the rest. Venus is gonna be tough, though!

[G.Mason]

"The cost is well justified if you consider how these pictures will confuse Sheila Lee Jackson."

That's a beaut!

Is there intelligent life on Sheila Lee Jackson?

If there is they should be charged as "squatters".

[tom paine 2]

bump

[VOA]

The lost probe to which you refer was the Mars Climate Observer. It was lost not because
of distance conversion miscalculations, but thrust miscalculations during
the course of orbital insertion.

So please make sure you have the facts straight when issuing such blanket condemnations. "

Thanks for the pointer. I guess Chemical and Engineering News should be
more precise withtheir English (note last line of paragraph below).
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/today/june42003.html

"After NASA adopted a policy of making missions smaller and cheaper,
the agency launched a pair of missions, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the
Mars Polar Lander, in 1999. The Lander was to have collected and analyzed rock
samples. But both those missions were lost due to calculation errors
and miscommunications.

"Besides, if NASA were truly comprised of the caliber of morons you think
they must have, we wouldn't be celebrating this latest and greatest success."

Congratulations. Honest.
I'm all for the projects. And at least a bit of accountability when
two projects end up as part of a very expensive space junkyard.
I'm not talking about sending the folks responsible for the goofs to Uday's torture chamber.
And I should admit that I understand that one of the project managers who didn't
push hard enough about investigating possible problems prior to the latest Shuttle tragedy
got a bit of a smack-down.

If NASA was a privately funded organization, I'd want them to succeed...
but their goofs would be their bidness.

[VOA]

You wouldn't have heard about said termination even if it occurred. It's none of the
public's business if a private individual is reprimanded or released from his position.

If this were true, a fair number of major newpapers would have been sued out
of existence.
Over the years, I can recall less than favorable articles about
named individuals "released" from employment with the pubically-funded organizations
in Oklahoma.
The latest one is the forensic scientist released from the police lab in Oklahoma City.
She got PLENTY of coverage in The Daily Oklahoman and even a segment of CBS's Sixty Minutes
for her warping of evidence in order to get convictions.

I can see people fired/released from private organizations not being named
if they are kicked overboard (and negotiate a quiet departure)...but a cloak
of invisibility when released from a publically-funded organization?

If so, I regret working in private industry and understand why so many
people want to work for the guvmint.

[Moonmad27]

The thread may be a duplicate, but do the others have the "actual" picture of proof of life on Mars? When people gripe that Starbucks is "everywhere", apparently they're right!

[djf]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970816.html

[ChadGore]

From:http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/images/

[mewzilla]

Where's Marvin?

[kittymyrib]

More pictures of rocks...and many millions of tax-dollars wasted. If NASA was axed in next year's budget, would anyone notice any difference in their lives? But who would employ these NASA people if not for the government, so it's really a jobs program for men with no marketable skills. Maybe we could outsource it to India and save some really big bucks.

[Bon mots]

Hey, look! The Beagle!

[djf]

Anybody know what time of day we will start getting new pics? Anybody have any details about rover deployment?

[Archangelsk]

This is great science! Congratulations JPL, you are still steely-eyed missle men (and women).

[Archangelsk]

More pictures of rocks...and many millions of tax-dollars wasted. If NASA was axed in next year's budget, would anyone notice any difference in their lives? But who would employ these NASA people if not for the government, so it's really a jobs program for men with no marketable skills. Maybe we could outsource it to India and save some really big bucks.

Here's a suggestion, burn your computer, car, PDA and every other device that has made your life what it is and then go live with the Amish and use some handtools. Luddite.