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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 12.11.04 11:46l 93 Lines 3928 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 4F0415ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Rover to exit Endurance crater
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<DB0EA<DB0RES<ON0AR<7M3TJZ<ZL2BAU<ZL2AB
Sent: 041112/1004Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:51683 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
*Opportunity Rover to Pack Up and Leave Crater *
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 11 November 2004
6:00 p.m. ET
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will back its way out of a crater it has
spent four months exploring after reaching terrain that appears too
treacherous to tread.
Sitting at an incline inside "Endurance Crater" in Meridiani
Planum, Opportunity has apparently reached in impasse. To the rover's
right, slopes are too steep to pass, while on the left the
terrain appears to contain sandy patches where Opportunity could bog down.
A move in either direction could prove mission-ending for a rover
that has performed well-beyond its nominal six-month mission. With other
science targets still remaining outside of "Endurance," flight
controllers have decided to leave the crater after looking - but not
touching - an area dubbed "Burns Cliffs," a 22-foot (10-meter) high scarp
that has tantalized researchers since Opportunity first entered the crater
on June 8.
"We wanted to get a little closer than we are but this is what we can
get safely," said Joy Crisp, project scientist for the rover mission at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in a telephone interview.
"Really what we want to see is the structure and textures of the layers
in the cliff."
The rover is still 50 feet (15 meters) from the a region at the base of
the cliff where two layers of rock meet at different angles. Opportunity
will use its mast-mounted panoramic camera and miniature thermal
emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) - both remote sensing instruments - to
collect information researchers hope will show whether the Burns Cliff's
layers were formed by water or deposited by wind.
"But after we're done here, it'll be time to turn around," said Steve
Squyres, principal investigator for the rover mission at Cornell
University, in a statement. "Going any farther could cut off our line of
retreat from the crater, and that's not something anybody on the team
wants to do."
Other attractive sites await Opportunity outside the stadium-sized
"Endurance Crater." They include the heat shield that protected the
rover when it slammed into the Martian atmosphere during landing and
"Victoria Crater," a depression six times larger than Endurance sitting
three miles (5 kilometers) south of Opportunity's current position.
*Troubleshooting Spirit *
Rover engineers have also completed troubleshooting efforts with
Opportunity's robotic twin Spirit, which is currently exploring the
Columbia Hills on the other side of Mars.
The rover has been intermittently sending out signals indicating the
brakes on two of its wheels were functioning properly.
But after a series of tests and analysis, engineers have determined that
the rover sensor charged with checking Spirit's brake release is most
likely sending out a false indication. In the future, rover drivers will
disregard the alert and presume Spirit's brakes are releasing as expected.
Some Mars researchers hope the rover may even summit one of the Columbia
Hills.
"I would like to get to the top and get to look down," said Jim
Erickson, rover project manager at JPL, in a telephone interview. "I
don't know what we're going to see."
-=###=-
73, Alan
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