Rover Daily Updates - Spirit for sol 62 Rolling Along-Opportunity for sol 42 No Hole This Time

NASA - JPL ^ | 03-07-2004 | Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters

[Phil V.]

Daily Updates - March 7, 2004

Spirit Status for sol 62 Rolling Along posted Mar. 7, 12:15 pm PST

During its 62nd sol on Mars, ending at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, PST, NASA's Spirit advanced about one-fifth of the remaining distance between where it began the sol and its mid-term destination, the rim of the crater nicknamed "Bonneville." In the martian afternoon, Spirit took images and infrared readings of the area right in front of its stopping place to support the following morning's close-up inspection of that new location with instruments on the rover's robotic arm.

Spirit drove 26.15 meters (85.8 feet) on sol 62, bringing its odometer total to 250.71 meters (822.5 feet). Some of the drive maneuvered around obstacles. The net gain in the northeasterly direction toward the crater rim was 22 meters (72 feet), and that destination was estimated to be about 88 meters (289 feet) away from Spirit's new location. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer was used for ground and sky observations both before and after the drive.

The wake-up song for the sol was "My First Trip to Mars," by Atticus Fault.

For sol 63, ending at 11:10 p.m. Sunday, PST, Spirit's agenda is to drive on toward the crater rim after using the microscope and spectrometers on its arm to inspect the site where it wakes up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opportunity Status for sol 42 No Hole This Time posted Mar. 7, 12:15 pm PST

NASA's Opportunity attempted to grind a shallow hole into a target called "Flat Rock" during its 42nd sol on Mars, ending at 10:51 a.m. Sunday, PST. However, the operation of the rover's rock abrasion tool produced almost no discernable impression on the rock. All indications are that the tool is healthy. Controllers plan to run some diagnostic tests during sol 43 (ending at 11:31 a.m. Monday, PST) to aid with tuning parameters for a second grinding attempt on the target on sol 44.

Opportunity observed the Sun with its panoramic camera on sol 42 as a practice run for future imaging of Mars' moon Phobos passing in front of the Sun. The alpha particle X-ray spectrometer was placed against "Flat Rock" for an overnight reading to identify the chemical elements present.

Wake-up song for the sol was "Break on Through (to the Other Side)," by The Doors.

[thedugal]

chemical elements present

Todays program was brought to you by the letter H, the number 2 and the letter O.

[Phil V.]

Author = "Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters"

SORRY 'BOUT THAT!

Author = NASA/JPL

[Phil V.]

If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please FRail me

[Darksheare]

"..rover's rock abrasion tool produced almost no discernable impression on the rock."

The rock was completely unimpressed with the rover's abrasive tool?

[ChadGore]

Re: no discernable impression

Much like john kerry :)

[Darksheare]

Yeah, Kerry kinda has that effect.

[Indie]

the operation of the rover's rock abrasion tool produced almost no discernable impression on the rock metal?

[Reactionary]

Metal?

Well...

[Phil V.]

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

Phil, is it possible to reproduce the pix in black and white as well as in 3-D? I am blind in one eye and cannot see it in 3-D and it is kinda hard to see it very cleary with the green and red stuff.

You are doing a great job in keeping all of us posted with the Mars stuff. It is a history in the making!

[Frank_Discussion]

That's what happens when a person is an abrasive tool...

[Darksheare]

LOL!
True.
(Too bad we cannot REALLY send Kerry to Mars to attempt to impress the rocks.)

[Darksheare]

Those are still some of the weirdest rocks I've ever seen.
So far we have rock spheres, attack rabits of mars, and a rock with a crack in it that shows remineralisation.
And a rock that refuses to be dented.

[Darksheare]

rabits = rabbits..
Sheesh I'm out of it right now.
(Typing under the influence of a skull splitting migraine..)

[Frank_Discussion]

Migraine. My sympathies, those sucketh mightily.

[null and void]

At least you didn't say Rabbi's...

[null and void]

I've found that Prozac has an interesting side effect - it utterly killed my migrains...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Phil V.]

This link will take you to the image (one of) that I used for the 3-d - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/040/1M131734181EFF0544P2931M2M1.JPG