Spirit Has 'Brief Outing' On Martian Surface

Pasadena - Nasa scientists sent the robotic rover Spirit out for its first spin on Martian soil on Thursday, commanding the six-wheeled vehicle to roll off its landing platform 12 days after it arrived on the Red Planet.

Radio signals instructing Spirit to make its initial excursion were beamed to Mars at 8.30am and confirmation that the rover had ventured onto the planet's surface came with a return transmission about an hour and 40 minutes afterward.

Moments later, mission controllers received the first pictures taken by rover looking back at the lander, showing tracks left by Spirit in the martian soil.

'Its initial excursion were beamed to Mars at 12.21am' The brief outing took Spirit only about three metres straight ahead but was cheered by project managers at the Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a successful prelude to Spirit's mobile search for signs of life-sustaining water.

"We are definitely on the surface of Mars," declared Rob Manning, one of Nasa's project managers. "Being on the soil marks a major turning point for the project."

For at least the next 78 days, the golf cart-sized explorer is to roam its surroundings in Gusev Crater, a barren, wind-swept basin about the size of Connecticut that scientists believe may have been the site of an ancient lake bed once fed by a long, deep martian river.

Spirit has already sent back stunning, three-dimensional, colour photographs of Mars revealing the planet's terrain in vivid, unprecedented detail. The JPL team is even more eager to closely examine soil and rocks using a collection of high-tech geologic gadgets carried on the rover's robot arm.

Spirit's first jaunt away from the landing pod in which it bounced to the martian surface on January 3 comes as Nasa looks forward to a new era of manned space exploration called for on Wednesday by President George Bush, including the eventual goal of sending astronauts to the Red Planet.

'We are definitely on the surface of Mars' 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.

On January 24, Spirit's twin rover, named Opportunity, is scheduled to land on the opposite side of the planet for its own three-month mission.

Later on Thursday, JPL controllers plan to aim an instrument called a mini-thermal emission spectrometer, or mini-TES, upward to obtain a reading of infrared radiation emitted by particles in the martian sky at the time the European obiter Mars Express snaps the same type of images from 300km overhead.

The simultaneous images of the martian sky from opposite vantage points will provide scientists with newly detailed data about the composition of the planet's atmosphere, deputy project scientist Albert Haldemann said.

Rover rolls on to Martian soil

How the space robot Spirit will explore Mars

The US robotic probe that landed on Mars 10 days ago has rolled off its lander and on to the Martian surface. The Spirit rover rolled down the three- metre-ramp on to the red soil of Mars, widely considered one of the riskiest steps in the US Space Agency's mission.

If all goes well, it will take part in joint experiments with US and European orbital spacecraft.

It can now embark on its mission of exploration to find evidence of water, past and present, in the Martian soil.

Confirmation of the successful manoeuvre off its landing pad was given at 1000 GMT.

Sand box

"Mars is now our sand box and we are ready to learn," Charles Elachi, director of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told a news conference in Pasadena, California.

"For centuries, people have been looking up and wondering what's up there (Mars). Now we know what's up there."

Mission controllers sent the command for the rover to "egress" or depart at 0900 GMT. The rover sent a "beep" back to earth to say it had completed the task at around 0944 GMT.

But Nasa waited for images taken by the onboard cameras before they could be sure it was safely on the soil.

There was loud cheering at mission control when the images were flashed up on computer screens.

Spirit looks behind to its landing pad

Images taken from Spirit's rear "hazcam" camera showed the landing pad 81 centimetres (32 inches) behind the rover and parallel tracks on the Martian soil.

Pictures from the front of the rover show "Sleepy Hollow", a mysterious depression near where Spirit touched down.

"A couple of days ago I said 'we are a rover'. Today I say: 'we are a rover...on Mars' - in our native environment," said Chris Lewicki, flight director for Spirit.

"We have cut the umbilical cord and the baby free, as of today," said mission scientist Joel Krajewski.

As the robot rover touched down on the Martian surface, it encountered a 10-centimetre (3.9-inch) drop.

It will now halt for three or four days to test the soil and rocks immediately around it to prepare for travelling across the surface.

Mars is now our sand box and we are ready to learn
Charles Elachi, Nasa

In response to an observation that the soil disturbed by the tracks in the picture from the rear camera looked "cakey", lead mechanical engineer Kevin Burke told journalists: "It's very different to what we experienced in test."

Manned mission

With America now contemplating a manned mission to Mars, the rover is tasked with examining Martian rocks and dust for evidence of the past presence of water.

The six-wheeled robot has been sending back images of the desolate, dust-swept landscape but its actual descent onto the surface was hampered when airbags used to cushion its landing appeared to be blocking its direct ramp.

Nasa's mission controllers back on Earth had to rotate Spirit 115 degrees to line up its wheels with another ramp, and the third and last turn was accomplished on Wednesday.

Spirit's identical twin, Opportunity, makes its scheduled landing on the other side of Mars on 24 January.

"Sleepy Hollow" lies ahead of Spirit

Spirit is now free to roam the Gusev Crater - a crater the size of Wales - which may once have been a lake.

Its ultimate destination is a nearby hollow carved by a meteorite hitting the planet.

Scientists believe it is a good place to look for deposits which could have contained water, a key ingredient for life.

Later on Thursday, the rover is due to carry out coordinated scientific observations with a Nasa orbiter, the 2001 Mars Odyssey.

Spirit is set to take to point its cameras skyward while the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter looks down on the site in a bid to allow scientists to study the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere.

On Friday, the rover will repeat the experiment with another orbiter, the European Space Agency's Mars Express.

Cool colours

Among the rover's transmissions have been stunning colour images of the Red Planet, allowing scientists a detailed look at the landing site.

The best resolution ever returned from Mars Some data has been returned from the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer - an instrument which sees infrared radiation, or heat, emitted by objects.

By measuring the brightness of that emission in 167 different "colours" of infrared for each point it views, the Mini-Tes can work out from afar the mineral composition of Martian rocks and soils.

This will help scientists decide which boulders to roll up to for further investigation.

Traces of carbonate minerals showed up in the rover's first survey of the site with the instrument.

Carbonates form in the presence of water, but it is too early to tell whether the amounts detected come from interaction with water vapour in Mars' atmosphere or are evidence of a watery local environment in the past, the scientists emphasise.

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