Mars Rover Takes 'Sunday Drive' Across Red Planet

Reuters ^ | Tue, Jan 20, 2004 | Dan Whitcomb

[presidio9]

After a weekend of driving that took it about 10 feet across the surface of Mars, the Spirit rover was parked on Monday in front of a rock that NASA scientists plan to study for much of the next week.

Though Spirit is capable of moving more quickly across the rugged surface of the red planet, the six-wheeled craft spent 30 minutes traveling to the rock, nicknamed "Adirondack" by project managers, because like any Earth-bound tourist it stopped repeatedly to take pictures.

"We went for a little Sunday drive," joked mission manager Mark Adler.

The scientists believe that the pyramid-shaped Adirondack, which is about the size of an American football, is most likely basalt, spewed onto the surface of Mars hundreds of millions of years ago by a volcano.

If so, Adirondack is not particularly unusual for Mars, which is in part why project managers chose it as Spirit's first object for detailed geologic study as they hunt for evidence of past water -- and life -- there.

In the coming days, Spirit will reach out with its robotic arm to examine Adirondack with microscopic imagers and spectrometers. Then the rover will use the same arm to drill a tiny hole in the surface and give scientists a glimpse of its interior.

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Researcher Dave Des Marais said Adirondack will serve as a kind of "time capsule" into the past of Mars, which will allow the science teams to better understand how the rock was formed and what the planet was like millions of years ago.

Adirondack will also be a good test of Spirit's geology tools, which will then be used on other rocks and soils to establish a better database about the planet, Des Marais said.

When scientists finish with Adirondack, the golf cart-sized explorer will further explore 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 Martian river.

Spirit, which bounced onto the Martian surface two weeks ago after a six-month journey through space, rolled off its lander on Thursday. Since its Jan. 3 landing, Spirit has sent back stunning, three-dimensional, color photographs of Mars revealing the planet's terrain in unprecedented detail.

Project managers say the mission had gone so well that they will consider extending it beyond the scheduled three months once Spirit's twin rover -- Opportunity -- lands on the opposite side of the planet, expected on Jan. 24.

The twin Mars rover missions, which if successful will provide NASA with a much-needed shot in the arm, have taken on additional importance in light of President Bush (news - web sites)'s announced plans to ultimately send humans there.

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. More than half of man's missions to the red planet have ended in failure.

[presidio9]

[.cnI redruM]

Somewhere, in the bowels of The Mighty Red Planet, NASA probes found the origins of the Howard Dean carbon-based life form.

[m1-lightning]

They should have sent a metal detector and a shovel with that thing just for curiosity.

[GulliverSwift]

You know, I support Mars exploration but to talk about taking pictures of rocks in such an excited fashion is not quite normal to me.

[ken5050]

ya know...since the crater was a lake bed...it could be a shark's tooth.....

[presidio9]

Reminds me of an old Simpsons episode where Homer is watching a newscaster talk about an upcoming space launch:

Tom: It's a lovely day for a launch, here, live at Cape Canaveral, at
the lower end of the Florida Peninsula, and the purpose of
today's mission is truly, really electrifying.

Man 2: That's correct, Tom. The lion's share of this flight will be
devoted to the study of the effects of weightlessness on tiny
screws.

Tom: Unbelievable, and just imagine the logistics of weightlessness.
And of course, this could have literally millions of applications
here on Earth -- everything from watchmaking to watch repair.

Homer: Boring. [tries to switch channels, but the batteries fall from the remote control] No! The batteries!

Tom: Now let's look at the crew a little.

Man 2: They're a colorful bunch. They've been dubbed "the Three
Musketeers". Heh heh heh --

Tom: And we laugh legitimately. There's a mathematician, a different
_kind_ of mathematician, and a statistician.

[GulliverSwift]

LOL! My sentiments exactly. Wasn't that the episode where the ants get loose in the shuttle and Kent Brockman thinks they're coming to take over the world?

I realize that NASA feels a need to justify itself even though it is one of the few deserving gubmint programs, but to get so excited over some rock that looks like dog poop...

[presidio9]

Kent Brockman: Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

[Truth666]

Don't forget the foil head that made the discovery of the new pyramids possible
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/images/670800.GIF

[Vroomfondel]

Zardoz!

[Elsie]

Others also seem interested...............

[RightWhale]

to talk about taking pictures of rocks in such an excited fashion

Why do you suppose that piece of rock is undercut? You'd think the dust and wind would wear away the exposed surface, but it looks like the shielded surface has been eaten away.

[Revolting cat!]

Yeah, but was it Sunday on Mars?

[RightWhale]

was it Sunday on Mars?

Dealing with the Martian calendar would be harsh. Something like dealing with metric when one has been raised on English measure.

[New Horizon]

That's not a meteor. That's a big pile of frozen sh!t!
What? N-no. That's a meteor. It fell from the sky.
I'm sure it did, cause it fell from an airplane. See the peanut there?
Maybe it's space peanut.
Nope, that's a big ball of frozen poopy.

[ChefKeith]

I was just thinking that looks a lot like what I've seen in a cow pasture before.

[Bloodclot]

So, what's with the square hole in that rock.

[RightWhale]

Turn that flat rock over and see if something crawls out. Most of the rocks seem to be very small. Like peanuts. Maybe even smaller.

[Verginius Rufus]

It looks like the nose Woody Allen tried to clone in Sleeper.

[Dead Corpse]

So, what's with the square hole in that rock.

And why does it look like pertrified wood?