[meteorite-list] Second Mars Rover Successfully Completes Primary Mission

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Apr 26 20:28:26 2004
Message-ID: <200404270028.RAA24329_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20040426-1515-ca-marsrovers.html

Second Mars rover successfully completes primary mission
By Andrew Bridges
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 26,2004

LOS ANGELES - The second of NASA's twin Mars rovers wrapped up its
primary mission on Monday, the 90th full day Opportunity has spent
on the Red Planet since landing late in January on a broad, dry
plain it's since discovered was once drenched in water.

NASA expects the six-wheeled Opportunity to continue working through
September or longer, possibly tripling in duration its planned
mission of just 90 days. It's traveled 2,676 feet so far across Mars.

"We're ready, willing and able to carry on with the extended mission,"
said deputy project manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.

As of Monday, Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have completed all
the baseline tasks NASA required before the space agency would
consider the double mission a success.

Each identical rover traveled at least 1,980 feet, took stereo and
color panoramas of its surroundings, drove to at least eight
locations and operated simultaneously with its twin for 60 days.

Spirit is already well into its own extended mission. It began on
Monday its 112th day on Mars, halfway around the planet from its
twin.

The goal of the $835 million double mission is to scour Mars for
geologic evidence that the planet once was a wetter place capable
of sustaining life. Opportunity has found that evidence in spades
at Meridiani Planum, where rocks suggest a shallow sea covered the
region at one time in the distant past.

It's now about 660 feet from Endurance Crater, a broad basin that
scientists hope preserves in its rocky rim further evidence of the
region's watery past. The crater appears too steep for the rover
to enter, Erickson said.

On the opposite side of Mars, Spirit has found evidence of only
limited amounts of past moisture at Gusev Crater.

Spirit is now about 50 days from reaching the Columbia Hills,
where it likely will spend the balance of its mission prospecting
for traces of more substantial amounts of water, said Mike Carr,
of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists believe the Columbia Hills could contain deposits laid
down in the past, when a lake may have filled the vast impact
crater that Spirit landed in three weeks before Opportunity.

While en route, Spirit recently passed the one-kilometer (.62-mile)
mark, Erickson said.

Mechanical breakdowns and the fierce martian cold likely will be
the death of the rovers, which will remain on Mars once their
mission ends.
Received on Mon 26 Apr 2004 08:28:12 PM PDT