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Rover Passes 400 'sols' on Mars
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2005 The Spirit rover passed its 401st sol, or Martian day, Thursday, marking 311 more sols than its original mission design, NASA officials said. After more than 13 Earth months on the red planet, Spirit's solar panels have collected a fine layer of dust, which has reduced its energy levels, but the golf-cart-sized rover continues to operate normally. In its most recent mission, Spirit found a class of water-affected rock on Mars that contains more sulfate salt than any other rock the rover has discovered. The rock, which mission scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory nicknamed Peace, is part of an outcropping in the Columbia Hills, which rim Gusev Crater, the vast flat plain where Spirit landed in January 2004. "Where did the salt come from?" asked Stephen Squyres, principal scientists for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity "We have two working hypotheses we want to check by examining more rocks. It could come from liquid water with magnesium sulfate salt dissolved in it, percolating through the rock, then evaporating and leaving the salt behind. "Or it could come from weathering by dilute sulfuric acid reacting with magnesium-rich minerals that were already in the rock. Either case involves water." So far, Spirit has traveled about 2.75 miles (4.4 kilometers) across the Martian surface. All rights reserved. Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of by United Press International. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend. |
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