[meteorite-list] High School Students Land on Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:00 2004
Message-ID: <200401090141.RAA01436_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster (818) 354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

NEWS RELEASE: 2004-012 January 8, 2004

High School Students Land on Mars

While their peers sweat out their next geometry quiz, high school
students Courtney Dressing and Rafael Morozowski are sweating out the
commencement of surface activities with the rest of the Mars
Exploration Rover team.

Dressing, a sophomore from Virginia, and Morozowski, a senior from
Brazil, are members of an international team of students working
directly with scientists and engineers overseeing the science payload
on the Mars Exploration Rovers. The two 16-year-olds are the first of
16 "Student Astronauts" aged 13 to 17 who, all told, call twelve
different nations home. They won their places aboard the Mars
Exploration Rover team through an essay contest run by the Planetary
Society followed by oral interviews. This is the first time that an
international group of young people has been selected through open
competition to participate in an active planetary spacecraft mission.

"We were there in the control room when Spirit landed," said
Morozowski. "I was totally speechless. Then, we were there when the
first pictures from Mars came back. We were seeing great things that
were over 170 million kilometers (about 100 million miles) away. It was
fascinating."

But Dressing and Morozowski, and the 14 Student Astronauts to follow,
are there to do more than observe. They are involved in one of three
programs where high school students become official Mars Rover
participants. As Student Astronauts, Dressing and Morozowski have
their own offices, attend team meetings, serve as ambassadors
communicating to the world about life inside a Mars mission team, and
are tasked to process images taken of the rover's "MarsDial".

"The MarsDial is a sundial but this one is different and cooler
because it is on Mars," said Dressing. "It is used by the rover's
cameras for calibration purposes. We are going to process these
calibration images, add hour marks electronically and provide them
online. This should gets kids excited about space exploration and help
them and their teachers learn about time and celestial motion."

Also receiving an education from the Mars imagery on a daily - if not
hourly - basis, are the full-time scientists and engineers working on
Spirit. During this morning's briefing, Cornell University's Dr. Jim
Bell, the mission's payload element lead for the Panoramic Camera,
revealed some more remarkable imagery of Columbia Memorial Station.
This latest "Postcard From Mars," downloaded using the rover's
high-speed, high gain antenna, depicts the view north -- behind the
rover. The image has an apparent slope with relation to the horizon
due to a tilt of the lander deck. There is a dune-like object to the
right side of the image that has piqued the interest of the science
team and may become a future target of the rover's onboard
instruments. On the left of the image, the circular topographic
feature dubbed Sleepy Hollow can be seen along with dark markings that
scientists think may very well be surface disturbances caused by the
airbag-encased lander as it bounced and rolled to rest.

"Originally, we thought that prominence right in front of the rover
was a big rock," said Matt Wallace, a mission manager at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But after we downloaded the
more high-resolution images, we realized it is actually just a very,
very dirty, dust-coated airbag."

The airbags themselves have become a topic of conversation among the
team. An attempt during Sol 5 to fully deflate and retract an airbag
at the front-left side of the rover was not as successful as the team
had hoped. Commands will soon be beamed up to Spirit to again retract
the uncooperative airbag and then lower the lander's pedestal.

"This rover is a thoroughbred, and I have a great deal of confidence
we could drive right over that airbag," added Wallace. "But we are 100
million miles away and have several other options for egress, so we
will take our time and get it right. We are going to be brave but
we're not going to be stupid."

While Spirit's exploration is just getting warmed and Opportunity is
waiting for its moment in the martian sun, JPL's first duo of Student
Astronauts is wrapping up a one-week stint living and breathing the
red planet. But while their tour of duty ends Saturday, their interest
in the mission will continue, apparently far beyond the rover's
lifespan.

"After I finish my education I think I want to work right here at
JPL," added Dressing. "I love space and I think this is a great place
for that. After all, where else can you go to Mars?"

Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach its
landing site on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and
Universal Time; Jan. 24 PST). The rovers' task is to explore for clues
in rocks and soil about whether the past environments in their landing
areas were ever watery and suitable to sustain life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington. Images from Spirit and additional information
about the project are available from JPL at

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at

http://athena.cornell.edu/ .

-end-
Received on Thu 08 Jan 2004 08:41:23 PM PST