Posted on 01/05/2004 9:06:06 AM PST by Pikamax
U.S. Rover Calls Home, Beams Back Color Photos Mon January 05, 2004 10:12 AM ET
By Gina Keating PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The U.S. robotic probe Spirit beamed panoramic color images of unprecedented clarity back to Earth Sunday after establishing direct contact with NASA scientists guiding its search for ancient signs of life on Mars.
The successful deployment of the rover's lollipop-shaped main antenna cuts the delay in communications between the rover and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to about nine minutes from the hours needed to relay signals through two Mars orbiters, flight director Jason Willis said.
At 9:20 p.m. PST, the control room at JPL erupted in cheers as test signals showed that the rover had correctly located Earth in the Martian sky and had positioned the main, "high gain" antenna correctly.
"This is just fantastic. We got the high gain antenna to work on the very first try," Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager, said. "We are ready for the rest of the mission."
Spirit began transmitting science and telemetry data, as well as the mission's first color images of the Martian landscape from the rover's high-resolution panoramic cameras.
"I expect to see a lot of good stuff on this pass," Adler said, adding that scientists planned to "wake up" the rover four or five times during the night to calibrate temperature sensors that may have failed.
The mission fell behind Sunday as scientists ran out of time to cut cables that tied the folded-up rover to battery and electronics systems on its landing pad, an omission that may delay its three-stage "stand-up" by one Martian day, or "sol," about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, Adler said.
The team also may try to retract airbags that cushioned the rover's landing but now block its path to the planet's surface, adding another sol to the time needed to prepare the robotic rover for its three-month trek across Mars' surface to look for ancient evidence of life-giving water in the rocks and soil.
The rover's "stand-up" was scheduled for sols three through five, after more cables bolting the rover's wheels and robotic arm are cut by pyrotechnic blades, and its six wheels are moved to their correct positions, Adler said.
Once the rover is freed, scientists will "do a little drive" on top of the lander and turn it to drive off the lander -- about sol eight or nine.
The team of scientists and engineers that guided Spirit to a bouncy but textbook-perfect landing pored over data beamed back by the rover Sunday to learn more about its descent, landing and exact position on the hostile planet.
The craft landed Saturday night -- mid-afternoon Mars time -- almost exactly on target, at Gusev Crater, a massive basin the size of Connecticut that scientists believe may be the site of dry lake bed once fed by a long, deep Martian river.
Besides being an ideal place to search for evidence of water, and possibly life, the landing zone is an area free of large boulders and thick accumulations of dust, making it easier to maneuver the rover.
"It's a lot flatter than I expected and a lot less rocky than I expected," geologist Wendy Calvin told reporters at an Sunday evening news conference.
Mission controllers said Spirit appeared to have come through its rough-and-tumble descent and touchdown in good working order. "All in all things performed pretty nominally and we are very satisfied," Prasun Desai, NASA trajectory analyst, said.
Spirit is the fourth probe ever to successfully land on Mars, following in the footsteps of two Viking landers in the 1970s and the Pathfinder mission in 1997. Spirit's twin explorer, the rover Opportunity, is due to land on the opposite side of the planet on Jan. 25.
Spirit's triumphant arrival Saturday night, confirmed by a radio signal at 8:52 p.m. PST, came after it plunged through the thin Martian atmosphere tethered to a parachute, then bounced to the surface cushioned in a cluster of air bags. The landing climaxed a seven-month journey to the fourth planet from the sun -- the second closest to Earth after Venus.
Mars has proven a perilous destination. NASA said more than half of man's missions to the red planet have ended in failure. Mars claimed two NASA spacecraft in 1998 and 1999.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe called the $820 million mission a "double-header" following the successful Stardust mission Friday that intercepted a comet and gathered particles from its tail in a first that could offer clues about how Earth began.
Where's the beef?
What's the source of the quote you cite? I didn't say it, and it's not in the article.
.
, Ohhh, you meant the other quote.
I saw it in Yahoo or google news. But, It has moved from when I saw it earlier and I can't find it now.
However; I did find this one from yahoo, appears to support your statement as well:
"PASADENA, California (AFP) - NASA (news - web sites) has begun receiving high resolution color photographs of Mars from the Spirit rover and is processing them for release. "
This is outside Yuma AZ!
This is a joke - repeat this is a joke!
I in no way want to infer that this is a faked landing or that NASA cannot easily accomplish the taks of landing equipment on Mars that functions as desired.
Where do you get that number from? Did we land 25 moon probes before sending Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins?
Now that I could live with. I don't mind sending machines to set up for our arrival, but right now it's just the status quo repeated ad nauseum with no tangible goals in sight.
I totally agree with you. And I think it's time we got off the pot. Robots are cool, the pictures are neat (I love looking at them), but there's a LOT more to do, and no one seems to be trying to make the necessary strides to do it.
I'm not denying there's danger involved in a manned expedition, but I highly doubt there'd be a shortage of ready and willing volunteers for such a mission. Hell, I'd volunteer if they'd take someone with some Army training and a Bachelor's in Mass Communication!
Not if it's being unceremoniously dumped down a similarly-shaped commode. Just because our tax dollars are being spent on one group that we're interested in rather than a group we have little to no interest in doesn't necessarily mean it's being well-spent. We need results, we need direction, we need a goal. Right now, NASA is offering none of the above.
The moon is 250 thousand miles from Earth. Mars is 9.3 Million miles from Earth. It makes a difference.
Logistical differences required by the huge difference distance traveled mean that at the moment a manned mission to Mars is not with in the abilities of NASA.
The Apollo missions to the Moon took 3 days.
It is estimated that a manned mission to Mars will take 6 months at minimum one way.
Once an engine is developed that can push a spacecraft from the Earth to Mars in a week or a month a Mars mission will make logical sense.
The Pres is supposed to issue a fresh goal statement for NASA in a couple of weeks. They will ramp up spending 7%, but more important, they will be directed to head back to the moon. Not necessarily to land on the moon anytime soon, but to head that direction. Of course, coming about the time of Rover 2, if that is also successful, he might pump up the Mars program as well. It is time to raise the sail and go someplace.
Your right Elephant....it is Awesome. Great animation. Now if the real hardware can only live up to its billing!!
Have a good long look at the number of space flights that were done prior to the lunar landing. I'm talking Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Also note that we had not one, but TWO Apollo missions that only served only to demonstrate that we could reliably get to the moon and back before we even attempted a landing.
All of that preparation was done so we could cross roughly 500,000 miles of space (round trip).
With a Mars mission, we are talking about several orders of magnitude more complexity in terms of planning and mission execution. Even in optimal conditions, the one-way trip to Mars over 140 million miles. A round-trip journey would also require an extended stay on Mars until Earth and Mars again approach perihelion distance (an aphelion departure from Mars would add another 26 million miles to the journey).
And you think we shouldn't set a bar on how many successful consecutive unmanned missions we should have before sending people out there?
I want to meet the astronaut who volunteers to land on Mars the way Spirit did.
I think the label of "irresponsible" fits with respect to calls for human landings on Mars at this time. We simply don't have enough of a track record with the unmanned craft to justify a manned mission at this time.
During the Apollo program, right up to the events that cost the lives of Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee, there was a throw-caution-to-the-wind mindset that was later dubbed "Go Fever." It cost the lives of three people in 1967. The disease made a comeback in the '80s and claimed seven lives on January 28, 1986.
Judging from the calls to send people to Mars at this time, I'd say the disease is making the rounds again, albeit in the public sector only.
Considering that we're approaching the 1-year anniversary of the Columbia tragedy, I'd rather not see people once again fall under the impression that space flight is somehow "easy."
There was somebody who went over Niagara Falls in an inflatable get-up. Like Michelin Man. Don't remember if he made it.
Just get that guy who went over Niagra Falls in the barrel a few months ago....
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