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Opportunity Slips On First Crater Exit Attempt
Pasadena - Mar 22, 2004 NASA's Opportunity tried driving uphill out of its landing-site crater during its 56th sol, ending at 10:05 p.m. March 21, PST, but slippage prevented success. The rover is healthy, and it later completed a turn to the right and a short drive along the crater's inner slope. Controllers plan to send it on a different route for exiting the crater on sol 57. Earlier on sol 56, Opportunity successfully examined a patch of soil dubbed "Brian's Choice" with its Moessbauer spectrometer, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and microscopic imager. Following the drive, it made observations with its navigation camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Wake-up music for the sol was "Fly Like an Eagle," by the Steve Miller Band. Meanwhile at Gusev Crater, Spirit drove 90 centimeters to a rock called "Mazatzal". after waking up on sol 77, which ended at 8:24 a.m. PST on March 22, 2004, to "One Step Closer" by the Doobie Brothers. Before beginning the .9-meter (2.95 feet) drive to Mazatzal, Spirit analyzed the soil target "Soil 1" at its current location with the microscopic imager and Moessbauer spectrometer. During the Moessbauer integration, Spirit also took panoramic camera images and performed miniature thermal emission spectrometer analysis of the atmosphere and Mazatzal work area. At 1:25 p.m. Mars Local Solar Time, Spirit completed the Moessbauer integration, took a few microscopic imager images of the impression left on "Soil 1" by the Moessbauer spectrometer and then stowed the instrument arm. Spirit then proceeded the short distance toward Mazatzal and took hazard avoidance camera images to confirm that its final resting place put the intended rock targets in reach of the instrument arm. Following the drive, the rover acquired more panoramic camera and mini thermal emission spectrometer observations of the atmosphere, and of interesting areas near the Mazatzal site including targets named "Sandbox," "Saber" and "Darksands." Spirit finished up sol 77 by getting the mini thermal emission spectrometer in position for morning observations on sol 78. Spirit will spend most of Sol 78, which will end at 9:04 a.m. PST on March 23, analyzing Mazatzal with the instruments on the robotic arm.
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