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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 10.02.04 12:11l 117 Lines 5559 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : E70502ZL2VAL
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Subj: Spirit takes the wheel
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Sent: 040210/0943Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:35515 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
NEWS RELEASE: 2004-054
February 09, 2004
Mars Rover Pictures Raise 'Blueberry Muffin' Questions
NASA's Spirit rover has begun making some of its own driving decisions
while its twin, Opportunity, is presenting scientists with decisions to
make about studying small spheres embedded in bedrock, like berries in a
muffin.
Both rovers are on the move. Late Sunday, Spirit drove about 6.4 meters
(21 feet), passing right over the rock called "Adirondack," where it had
finished examining the rock's interior revealed by successfully grinding
away the surface. The drive tested the rover's autonomous navigation
ability for the first time on Mars.
"We've entered a new phase of the mission," said Dr. Mark Maimone, rover
mobility software engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. When the rover is navigating itself, it gets a command
telling it where to end up, and it evaluates the terrain with stereo
imaging to choose the best way to get there. It must avoid any obstacles
it identifies. This capability is expected to enable longer daily drives
than depending on step-by-step navigation commands from Earth. Tonight,
Spirit will be commanded to drive farther on a northeastward course
toward a crater nicknamed "Bonneville."
Over the weekend, Spirit drilled the first artificial hole in a rock on
Mars. Its rock abrasion tool ground the surface off Adirondack in a
patch 45.5 millimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter and 2.65 millimeters
(0.1 inch) deep. Examination of the freshly exposed interior with the
rover's microscopic imager and other instruments confirmed that the rock
is volcanic basalt.
Opportunity drove about 4 meters (13 feet) today. It moved to a second
point in a counterclockwise survey of a rock outcrop called "Opportunity
Ledge" along the inner wall of the rover's landing-site crater. Pictures
taken at the first point in that survey reveal gray spherules, or small
spheres, within the layered rocks and also loose on the ground nearby.
NASA now knows the location of Opportunity's landing site crater, which
is 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter. Radio signals gave a preliminary
location less than an hour after landing, and additional information
from communications with NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter soon narrowed the
estimate, said JPL's Tim McElrath, deputy chief of the navigation team.
As Opportunity neared the ground, winds changed its course from
eastbound to northbound, according to analysis of data recorded during
the landing. "It's as if the crater were attracting us somehow," said
JPL's Dr. Andrew Johnson, engineer for a system that estimated the
spacecraft's horizontal motion during the landing. The spacecraft
bounced 26 times and rolled about 200 meters (about 220 yards) before
coming to rest inside the crater, whose outcrop represents a bonanza for
geologists on the mission.
JPL geologist Dr. Tim Parker was able to correlate a few features on the
horizon above the crater rim with features identified by Mars orbiters,
and JPL imaging scientist Dr. Justin Maki identified the spacecraft's
jettisoned backshell and parachute in another Opportunity image showing
the outlying plains.
As a clincher, a new image from Mars Global Surveyor's camera shows the
Opportunity lander as a bright feature in the crater. A dark feature
near the lander may be the rover. "I won't know if it's really the rover
until I take another picture after the rover moves," said Dr. Michael
Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. He is a member of the
rovers' science team and principal investigator for the camera on Mars
Global Surveyor.
Opportunity's crater is at 1.95 degrees south latitude and 354.47
degrees east longitude, the opposite side of the planet from Spirit's
landing site at 14.57 degrees south latitude and 175.47 degrees east
longitude.
The first outcrop rock Opportunity examined up close is finely-layered,
buff-colored and in the process of being eroded by windblown sand.
"Embedded in it like blueberries in a muffin are these little spherical
grains," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.,
principal investigator for the rovers' scientific instruments.
Microscopic images show the gray spheres in various stages of being
released from the rock.
"This is wild looking stuff," Squyres said. "The rock is being eroded
away and these spherical grains are dropping out." The spheres may have
formed when molten rock was sprayed into the air by a volcano or a
meteor impact. Or, they may be concretions, or accumulated material,
formed by minerals coming out of solution as water diffused through
rock, he said.
The main task for both rovers in coming weeks and months is to explore
the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils
about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and
possibly suitable for sustaining life. JPL, a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover
project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and
additional information about the project are available from JPL at
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
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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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