Posted on 06/15/2004 4:26:54 PM PDT by ckilmer
Mars rovers arrive at long-awaited sites
12:59 14 June 04
NewScientist.com news service
NASA's Mars rovers have completed their long cross-country quests and are now at two very different sites that scientists have been restlessly waiting to reach.
Opportunity is inside the Endurance crater, having plunged over the rim on Friday in what could be a journey of no return. Dozens of new images have been sent back already showing the rock-strewn slope it has been descending.
The NASA team decided late last week that for this initial foray into the steep arena-sized bowl, Opportunity would go only about seven metres down, keeping its wheels as much as possible on rock rather than the loose sandy soil that might not give enough traction.
The pictures sent back so far show that it is crossing what may be the most densely rock-strewn area either of the rovers has seen on Mars so far.
After studying some of the bedrock in the crater with its suite of instruments, Opportunity will attempt to retrace its route and head back up out of the crater. If this works - and the team now believes that it will - they may gain confidence to attempt a deeper foray into the bedrock-rich crater.
Meanwhile, halfway around the Red Planet, the rover Spirit has now officially completed a trek of more than three kilometres across a rolling rock-strewn terrain thought to be an ancient lakebed. This journey is so far beyond the planned lifespan of the rovers that the team had thought at the beginning it would be a long-shot to achieve.
Magnesium and sulphur
Spirit currently stands at the base of the Columbia hills, and is beginning to head a little uphill on a reconnaissance mission looking for wider views and interesting targets for its instruments.
The rover is expected to spend some time surveying along the base of the hills, providing information that could help the team decide whether to attempt a substantial climb in search of layered bedrock. It will also capture wide views of the surrounding terrain inside the Gusev crater.
On its long trip to the hills, Spirit carried out research that adds to the building case for past water on Mars.
Elements detected inside a trench that Spirit carved in the soil showed magnesium and sulphur concentrations that give direct evidence for past water at that site, although far less of it than has been detected by Opportunity at its site on Meridiani Planum.
"You don't need a lake to do this," says rover chief scientist Steve Squyres. "The most likely explanation is water percolated through the subsurface and dissolved out minerals."
David L Chandler
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