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Spirit Takes A Winter Break From Travels But Remains Busy
Pasadena CA (SPX) May 08, 2006 As Spirit began collecting images for its 360-degree McMurdo panorama last month, the rover captured this view of a dark boulder with an interesting surface texture. The boulder sits about 40 centimeters (16 inches) tall on Martian sand about 5 meters (16 feet) away from Spirit, which is laying low during the planet's winter. The boulder is one of many dark, volcanic rock fragments - many pocked with rounded holes called vesicles - littering the north-facing slope mission scientists have named Low Ridge. The rock surface is similar in appearance to the surface texture on the outside of lava flows on Earth. Meanwhile, the mission team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports Spirit is healthy and making progress with its winter campaign of scientific experiments. Last week, Spirit continued work on the McMurdo panorama, which will combine 27 columns of images. The mission team anticipates the rover will finish collecting the first 10 of those columns by May 8, on Martian day, or sol, 834. Spirit also continued studies of two soil targets nicknamed Progress and Halley. A winter soil analysis experiment will involve a multi-step process of removing the M�ssbauer spectrometer from the target, flipping the wrist joint at the end of the robotic arm to put it in a better position for exchanging tools, re-touching the target with the M�ssbauer to confirm precise placement, and exchanging tools from the M�ssbauer spectrometer to the rock abrasion tool. Using the brush at the end of the rock abrasion tool, Spirit will remove a layer of soil up to 1 millimeter thick (the thickness of a dime). During brushing, the rover will take a movie of the procedure with the right lens of the hazard-avoidance camera. After the brushing, the rover will acquire a microscopic image of the freshly exposed surface as well as a color image using all 13 filters of the panoramic camera. The rover will then start the process again and remove another layer of soil. Controllers also have poised Spirit to begin a five-month, remote, photometric study of seasonal changes in surface properties of soil exposed in the rover's tracks. As the newly arrived Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues the aerobraking phase of its mission, using friction from the Martian atmosphere to refine its orbit, high-frequency X-band communications directly between Spirit and Earth will not always be available. On May 4, or sol 830, NASA's Odyssey spacecraft began transmitting communications to Spirit at UHF frequencies. Sol-by-sol summary: Sol 828 (May 2): Spirit conducted remote sensing and completed acquisition of column 8 of the McMurdo panorama. Sol 829: Spirit conducted a third day of M�ssbauer spectrometry of the Progress soil target, for a total of 69 hours of analysis of the target with the instrument. Sol 830: Spirit began progressive brushing of loose soil for the first time and collected microscopic images. Sol 831: Spirit conducted remote sensing, acquired column 9 of the McMurdo pan, and completed an 18-hour analysis of Progress with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Sol 832: Plans called for Spirit to acquire microscopic images of Halley. Sol 833: Plans called for Spirit to conduct remote sensing, acquire column 10 of the McMurdo pan, and complete a second 18-hour study of Progress with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Sol 834 (May 8): Plans call for Spirit to continue remote sensing studies and begin monitoring changes in surface properties of soil exposed in the rover's tracks. As of sol 831, Spirit's total odometry remained at 6,876.18 meters, or 4.27 miles. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Mars Rovers at JPL Mars Rovers at Cornell Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Mars Drilling Tests Will Seek Knowledge And Resources
Houston TX (SPX) May 08, 2006Geologists, biologists and archaeologists for years have used core samples to look back in time, tunneling through layers of soil and stone to study history. NASA engineers are taking this veteran technique into the future with a design that can bore into other planets using just a light bulb's worth of power. |
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