[meteorite-list] Spirit Rover Establishes New Mars Driving Record

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:21 2004
Message-ID: <200402110204.SAA05604_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040210spirit.html

Spirit rover establishes new Mars driving record
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
February 10, 2004

The rover Spirit drove into the Martian history books Monday night by making
the longest single-day traverse on the Red Planet, eclipsing the mark set by
Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner rover in 1997.

Spirit cruised 69.6 feet (21.2 meters), shattering Sojourner's record of 23 feet (7
meters).

"The basic goal was drive as far as they could and see how things went in the
time they had. They did very well," mission manager Jim Erickson said of the
Spirit rover controllers.

"They used two different types of drives. A blind drive -- a pre-planned with
no hazardous avoidance turned on -- for 13 meters. And then they performed a
drive with a go-to waypoint."

That second drive instructed the rover to drive from one point to another on its
own, making a turn autonomously.

"Everything seemed to go fine there," Erickson said.

Spirit is headed for a large crater in the distance called Bonneville. Exactly how
long it will take to reach the target isn't known, but engineers hope the amount
of driving will increase each day.

"Tomorrow's plan is further driving. The day after that is driving even further,"
Erickson said.

"I expect we are going to start out kind of slow -- although 21.2 meters is not
that slow -- and built up as we get more experience in long-term driving."

Spirit began roving late Sunday, leaving behind the first rock it examined. The
craft moved 21 feet (6.4 meters), and simply drove over the pyramid-shaped
Adirondack.

The rover spent several weeks parked in front of Adirondack as the science
instruments examined the rock, determining the mineral and elemental
composition. The Rock Abrasion Tool then carved a small hole into Adirondack
to remove the outer surface.

"It's really opened up a window into the interior of this (rock) that we can use
to understand this rock really well," lead scientist Steve Squyres said.

With the cutting complete, the Microscopic Imager, Alpha Particle X-Ray
Spectrometer and Mossbauer Spectrometer instruments then examined the
RAT hole.

"What you are seeing there is a beautifully cut, almost polished rock surface,"
Squyres said, referring to the microscopic image. "It looks very, very much like
-- in the image -- a volcanic rock, a basalt. And, in fact, when we look at this
with the APXS and Mossbauer, we find compelling compositional evidence that,
in fact, what we are looking at is a volcanic basaltic rock.

"So the RAT has revealed the interior of this rock. We know what it is -- a
piece of volcanic stuff. And it is time to move on."
Received on Tue 10 Feb 2004 09:04:26 PM PST