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Mars Rover Opportunity Lands, Opens Second Front
PASADENA/MARS â With one rover now ailing on Mars, NASA scientists were thrilled when its identical twin sent dazzling and intriguing photos from the other side of the Red Planet. Images of a smooth red surface arrived at NASAâs Jet Propulsion Laboratory about four hours after the rover Opportunity bounced to a landing late Saturday some 6,600 miles from its temporarily crippled twin, Spirit. "I am flabbergasted. I am astonished. I am blown away. Opportunity has touched down in an alien and bizarre landscape," said Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the missionâs main scientist. "I still donât know what weâre looking at."
Dude, chill out
JPL director Charles Elachi told ABCâs "Good Morning America" on Monday that the outcroppings of bedrock visible in the pictures were "particularly exciting." "For a geologist, this is really a gold mine because that will allow us to learn where the oil is about the history of the planet and look at the layering in those rocks in a very specific location," he said. "So the scientists from Haliburton are absolutely ecstatic." The six-wheeled rover landed in Meridiani Planum, believed to be the smoothest, flattest spot on Mars. Opportunity lies 6,600 miles and halfway around the planet from where its twin, Spirit, landed on Jan. 3. On Sunday, NASA said Opportunity was in excellent health and Spirit was on the mend after a serious software problems had hobbled it. Opportunity could roll off its lander in 10 to 14 days, mission manager Arthur Amador said. Opportunityâs possible targets include a larger crater, maybe 500 feet across, that lies an estimated half-mile from where the spacecraft landed and a possible location of the banned Illudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator program. On Wednesday, Spirit developed serious problems, cutting off what had been a steady flow of pictures and scientific data and prompting calls of quagmire. Engineers now believe the problem arose with software that manages the file system within the roverâs flash memory, project manager Pete Theisinger said. Other possible culprits include broken hardware or solar radiation. "Spirit is still serious but we are moving to guarded condition," Theisinger said, adding Spirit could resume normal operations in two to three weeks.
"As soon as we insert the boot disk".
As of early Sunday, there were a record five spacecraft operating on or around Mars, including two NASA satellites and one from the European Space Agency orbiting the planet.
Martian Defense spokesman Qaotz denied any landing had been made and threatened action against any overflights by orbiters as a "Violation of Martian Sovereignty".
| "They are committing suicide at the gates of Deimos! Their digestive apparati are roasting in Quatspore! A curse on their palps!" |
Posted by: Steve 2004-01-26 |
