NASA Rover Rolls Off Lander and Onto Mars

AP via Yahoo ^ | Jan. 15, 2004 | Andrew Bridges

[Simmy2.5]

PASADENA, Calif. - The Spirit rover successfully rolled onto Mars early Thursday, placing its six wheels on solid martian ground for the first time since the unmanned robot bounced down on the Red Planet nearly two weeks ago.

Engineers and scientists at NASA (news - web sites)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory cheered loudly after receiving confirmation at 2 a.m. PST that the maneuver was a success.

Black-and-white pictures beamed from Spirit showed its two rear wheels on the martian soil, with its lander behind it. Tire tracks led away from the lander.

"This is a big relief. We are on Mars. Spirit has landed," said Rob Manning, manager of the entry, descent and landing portion of the mission. "Our wheels are finally dirty."

NASA said Spirit would take less than two minutes to travel the 10 feet from the unfolded petals of its lander onto Mars. Engineers said the move likely would be the riskiest of Spirit's entire three-month mission to explore Mars.

[Simmy2.5]

Whoooohoooo!

[BigSkyFreeper]

Mission Control was cheering and clapping as the pictures of the landing craft was seen from a distance from the rover. Clearly seen in some of the pictures I saw on NASA TV were the tire tracks in the Martian soil! :)

[ArtDodger]

The adventure begins.....

[leadpenny]

I've been watching NASA via the web.

Once again I've been shown why I don't watch local news. In DC the snow did not arrive but that didn't prevent WRC-4 (NBC) from pre-empting everything else to talk about how the snow crews did not have to go out. Still, not a word of history being made 100 million miles away.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Earlier thread :

Mars Exploration Rover - Moving!

[Atlantic Friend]

Yes, an adventure of epic scale, that will give mankind the key to the stars... The NASA guys are just awesome.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

News Conference at 2:45 AM PST, 10 minutes from now. One accesss via Real Player :

NASA

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Changed to 3:00 AM! Rats!

[BigSkyFreeper]

I hate the fact that some stations put the TV show you're watching into a small box with text in large letters crawling along the bottom and a map of the state with counties flashing various colors. That's my biggest pet peeve about local TV.

[BigSkyFreeper]

They must be busy popping corks and getting snockered. LOL

[BigSkyFreeper]

Drinking and driving

[CasearianDaoist]

Yahooo

[leadpenny]

Briefing on now.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

News Conference starting!!!

[leadpenny]

Have to give to CNN. They are covering it.

[Lokibob]

[kinsman redeemer]

Excellent!

[Travis McGee]

What a shot! Mars dirt tracks in the rear view mirror!

[Warren]

HA! Can't fool me, it's all fake just like the moon landing.
All filmed on a hollywood set.
/s/

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

It's Bush's fault!