Posted on 01/28/2004 3:35:26 PM PST by demlosers
1 hour, 49 minutes ago
By Leonard David Senior Space Writer, SPACE.com
PASADENA, Calif. -- Operators of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity have successfully deployed its wheels and completed the first half of a stand-up process -- all part of readying the rover to do what it was built to do best, rove.
If all continues on track, the robot may wheel itself onto the flat and dark terrain of its landing spot, inside a small crater at Meridiani Planum this coming Sunday. That drive is eagerly awaited by scientists gathered here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Within easy driving range is a perplexing rock outcropping. These layered rocks measure only 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall and are being hotly debated as being either volcanic ash deposits or sediments carried by water or wind.
Opportunity landed at approximately 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, January 24, Earth-received time.
One small hop
"It's been another great day for Opportunity at Meridiani," said Rick Welch, JPL's Activity Lead for the MER project at an early morning press briefing here today.
In completing the first two part of a four-part stand-up routine of the rover atop its landing perch -- now tagged the Challenger Memorial Station -- all is going smoothly toward Opportunity's "one small hop" onto Mars' surface, he said.
By tugging on Opportunity's rearward airbags, the front edge of the lander hardware will be lowered, permitting easy, straight-ahead egress of the rover during its ninth day on Mars.
Tumbling end-over-end
Meridiani Planum "is the smoothest, flattest place we've ever investigated on Mars," said Matt Golombek, JPL Science Team Member for the MER endeavor. But in a roll of the dice -- or airbags in this case -- Opportunity made a figure-eight traverse within a small crater. It tumbled end-over-end, down-and-up, up-and-down the crater's walls before coming to full-stop.
Opportunity sits in a crater that is roughly 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter.
Left in the process are sets of circular shapes and radial spokes. These impressions in the soil show the behavior of Opportunity before stopping, said. Jim Bell, Lead Scientist for the Panoramic Camera (Pan Cam) from Cornell University. They offer clues to scientists about both the makeup of martian soil within the crater and what to expect when the rover begins it driving duties, he said.
"These marks are telling us something about the physical properties of the material. We are leaving an indent in this soil," Bell said. The airbags appear very clean, with that material not sticking like that seen at the Spirit Mars rover site in Gusev Crater.
Up and out
Golombek said the robot's Panoramic Camera (Pan Cam) has provided some tantalizing glimpses over the crater's rim to the outstretched landscape that is Meridiani Planum. Eventually, Opportunity will do "up and out" driving from the floor of the small crater onto the flat territory, he said
Once the rover has wheeled out of the crater, Bell said that another set of images will be taken to yield a 360-degree Pan Cam sweep of Meridiani Planum. "We're just piling on the pixels," he added. A pixel is the smallest picture element of a digital image.
Clearly attracting attention of scientists are the thin layers in rocks, just a modest drive away from where the rover temporarily sits. Those layers -- some no thicker than a finger -- are deserving of up-close, detailed scrutiny.
One-stop-shopping for science
Bell told SPACE.com that more detailed shots of that outcrop are planned from where the rover now sits. Finding a spot in the exposed rock that exhibits multiple types of materials would be ideal. That would allow Opportunity to conduct a type of "one-stop-shopping" for science in one driving session.
"It would be irresponsible not to study that material which could provide some key to the action of water in this area," Bell said.
Golombek said he is hopeful that Opportunity's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) will identify compositional variations in the rock outcrop. There is also a "strong desire" to trench in the soil with the rover's wheels while still within the crater. "It's all sitting there for us," he said.
On the other side of the planet, engineers continue to troubleshoot the software problems that bedevil the Spirit rover in Gusev Crater. "We're still not quite there," said Jennifer Trosper, JPL's Mission Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover program.
Significant steps forward, however, are being made daily, Trosper said, to "getting Spirit back on its feet," she said. The rover may well be in a healthy state to restart science-gathering tasks next week.
No wonder it took forever to come to rest!
Wouldn't that be a hoot?
Wouldn't that be a hoot?
From obvious tinfoil types:
Norman Monteith Bryden writes, "I have spent thousands of hours studying the Mars Global Surveyor images. I am a graduate of Control Data Institute for Computer Technology. I have had love of science my entire life. This and my curiosity has driven me to great lengths.
I think that I have discovered evidence of intelligent life on Mars. George Filer of Filer's Files has been very kind to me. He has put up on his site slideshows of my work. By clicking on the link below it will take you to the images.
When you get to the web page click on the numbers below the introduction and a slide show will start. The images will change about every 10 seconds. To the left of each slide show are thumbnails that can also be accessed for that slide set. These images show evidence of running water, vegetation, animals and even full blown cities on the planet Mars. Thanks to Norman Bryden
One of these days a Tinfoiler is gonna be right. :)
The stopped clock has the advantage in that it never changes its story. :)
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