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.

[archy]

I cannot tell a lie, found it with Google Image Search after keying in War of the Worlds. Looks like it may have been an actual miniature used for special effects on the flick. Either that, or someone's got WAY too much time on their hands.

It's a model diorama crafted from a scene in the movie is my guess, probably for a local competition. The film was pretty well-done for its day. From their other offerings and examples, it looks like they're into serious professional archetectural modelling, rather than just *having too much time on their hands.*

[archy]

You can see some clumping along the edges of the tire tread marks

NASA geologists have so far been stumped by this characteritic of martian soil -

Magnetic iron or ferrous oxides?

[Professional Engineer]

I love this photo.

[Hunble]

Yes, like you, I love this photo and what it represents.

Next task for NASA: invent a robot that can stand up and turn around in less than 1 week.

GRRRRRR......

[Constantine XIII]

We'll know if the wind kicks up a bit, eh? :)

[theDentist]

Engineers said the move likely would be the riskiest of Spirit's entire three-month mission to explore Mars.

Something about this sounds like so much puffery.

[Hank Rearden]

Great picture! That movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.

So I went to see it about 10 times.

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

Wow, outstanding post-post research, thank you!

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

Wow, outstanding post-post research, thank you!

[Dead Corpse]

Actually, this article mentions the soil sticking to the wheels. I think "interesting soil dynamic" is how the NASA guys put it.

If it were a man there, he could bend down, stick his golve in it and make a better determination than what we can with a probe.

[archy]

If it were a man there, he could bend down, stick his golve in it and make a better determination than what we can with a probe

Unless, of course, he sunk into it beyond the depth of his enviornmental suit's exhausts.

[tet68]

If it were a man there, he could bend down, stick his golve in it and make a better determination than what we can with a probe.


If there were a woman there, she could bend down, look at the mud, and head for the nearest car wash.