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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 08.02.04 22:53l 81 Lines 2997 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 6B0497ZL2VAL
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Subj: Opportunity poised over Snout
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Sent: 040208/2023Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:35403 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
Opportunity Nestles Up Against 'Snout' Rock
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 05:45 pm ET
07 February 2004
The Opportunity rover on Mars has been wheeled into position to begin
up-close surveys of exposed rock within a crater at Meridiani Planum.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) commanded Opportunity
yesterday into today to carry out several tasks.
A Microscopic Imager was utilized to further investigate the intriguing
soil under Opportunit's wheels. The rover then maneuvered a few feet in
bursts of short moves and a turn -- in the direction of a rock now
tagged as "Snout". That rock is on the northeast edge of the outcrop in
the Meridiani crater.
The next day of work with Opportunity has it deploying its robotic arm
and taking several images of Snout with its Microscopic Imager. That
would be followed by putting the robot's Moessbauer spectrometer down on
the rock. This scientific tool looks for the composition and abundance
of iron-bearing minerals in soil and rock.
Snout will also be analyzed by an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
(APXS) - designed to ascertain elements that make up rocks and soils.
Arcing traverse
Within the next couple of days, Opportunity is to start an arcing
traverse around the lower edge of the rock outcrop, said Matt Wallace,
JPL's Opportunity Mission Manager.
Over several days time, engineers and scientists are to work
hand-in-hand driving Opportunity in such a way as to carefully examine
the rock outcrop. That assessment is expected to help piece together the
geologic history of Meridiani and discern the role of water on the red
planet.
"The science team is deciding how many "bus stops" we want to hit along
the way," Wallace told reporters today during a telephone briefing. The
number of stops now varies between three to seven, he said.
The total traverse that Opportunity would make as it parallels the rock
outcrop is on the order of 100 feet (30 meters), Wallace said. In
start-stop fashion, the robot would wheel itself as much as 20 feet (6
meter) per drive.
Slippery nature of crater driving
Wallace told SPACE.com that driving Opportunity on the side of the
crater wall -- where the rock outcrop can be meticulously analyzed --
will be "somewhat challenging."
The slippery nature of up hill and down hill roving, as well as moving
laterally across crater wall slopes is to be carefully monitored.
"We have a pretty good understanding of how this particular soil is
behaving," Wallace added. "It's going to be challenging as we go around
in this arcing fashion - but I am pretty confident we will be able to it,"
he concluded.
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
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Message timed: 09:17 on 2004-Feb-09 (NZ local)
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Points to ponder
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Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
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