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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 13.02.04 06:54l 87 Lines 3334 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 9C0485ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: First photos of Martian soil
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Sent: 040204/1005Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:35034 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
NASA Rover Snaps First Mars Soil Photos
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press
posted: 05:15 pm ET
03 February 2004
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA's Opportunity took the first microscopic
photographs on Mars of soil that scientists believe could contain
evidence the now-dry planet once was a wetter world capable of
sustaining life.
The pictures, released Tuesday, show a coin-sized patch of grainy soil,
peppered with tiny pebbles. Opportunity captured the images with its
microscopic imager, one of four instruments at the end of its robotic arm.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, began this week conducting what NASA
hoped would be sustained science operations. The rovers, 6,600 miles
apart, both reached out with their mechanical arms to study firsthand
the soils and rocks on the ground beneath their wheels.
Opportunity rolled onto the ground Saturday, a week after it landed.
Spirit arrived Jan. 3 but a couple of weeks later it was sidelined with
software problems.
Mission manager Jennifer Trosper said Spirit returned to work, even as
engineers worked out the final kinks in the software.
Opportunity has transmitted its first 360-degree color panoramic image
of its landing site. The rover touched down in one of the flattest,
smoothest regions on Mars but ultimately came to rest inside a crater
just 72 feet across.
"It provides us with a real sense of 'you are there,'" said scientist
Jeff Johnson of the U.S. Geological Survey office in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Johnson likened the mosaic image to the overlapping snapshots tourists
often take of the Grand Canyon to capture its full sweep.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration next planned for
Opportunity to put its Mossbauer spectrometer to the ground. The
German-built instrument measures the composition and abundance of
iron-bearing minerals.
Spirit resumed its own scientific observations, and NASA planned for it
to brush off the surface of a volcanic rock called Adirondack, removing
any dust and allowing the rover's microscopic imager to photograph it.
NASA launched the pair of roaming robots to find geological evidence of
past water activity on Mars. That could show the planet was hospitable
to life perhaps billions of years ago.
Opportunity hasn't had to venture far to gather evidence.
Halfway around Mars from its twin, the robot already has discovered an
iron-rich mineral called gray hematite. Preliminary measurements suggest
the mineral is of a variety that forms in liquid water, providing the
first hint that the now dry site once was wetter.
NASA announced it would name seven hills east of Spirit's landing site
in memory of the astronauts killed a year ago aboard the space shuttle
Columbia. The agency must submit the names to the International
Astronomical Union for official designation.
NASA previously said it would name another group of hills at the site to
memorialize the three Apollo 1 astronauts killed in a launch pad fire in
1967.
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
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Message timed: 22:46 on 2004-Feb-04 (NZ local)
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Points to ponder
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Birthdays are good for you;
the more you have,
the longer you live.
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