[meteorite-list] Spirit Free to Head for the Hills

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:01 2004
Message-ID: <200401132341.PAA15239_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_update_040113.html

Spirit Free to Head for the Hills
By Leonard David
space.com
13 January 2004

PASADENA, Calif. -- A robot patiently sitting on the surface of Mars has
received its first marching orders.

Scientists have charted where the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover is to
journey once the robot's wheels hit the dirt. After driving off its perch,
Spirit will first analyze neighborhood soil and rock, then travel to a
nearby crater.

But the long-haul hopes of scientists and engineers here at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is to have Spirit head for the hills.

Ready to rove

Spirit is now ready for action, with a final cable cutting fully-freeing the
rover from its landing platform. The robot's wheels have all checked out and
are ready to roll into Gusev Crater.

Touchdown on Mars for Spirit -- when all six wheels are to sit on the
martian surface -- is slated for tomorrow night into the early morning hours
of Thursday.

"It was a fantastic day - Spirit is a rover," said Chris Lewicki, JPL Flight
Director for the Mars Exploration Rover project, during a morning press
briefing here. The robot backed up a bit, then oriented itself 45 degrees
clockwise from where it sat, the first of a three-part turn to get into a
final egress direction.

"The engineering team is just elated that we're driving finally," Lewicki
said. "We cut our ties loose and we're ready to rove."

Down the runway

Two more turn-in-place maneuvers are on the schedule for tomorrow, Lewicki
told SPACE.com . "That will get us aligned down the runway," he said.

Spirit will drive down a ramp onto Mars. "I'm looking forward to getting six
wheels on the soil," Lewicki added. New images of where the robot's wheels
are headed show it clear of rocks and any other surprise obstacles, he said.

Joe Guinn, JPL Navigation Team Member for the Mars rovers, said Spirit's
touchdown spot at Gusev Crater has been pinpointed down to a 100 feet (30
meter) patch on Mars. Images taken by the robot's Panoramic Camera (Pan Cam)
system of the surrounding scene have helped gauge exactly where the robot is
now parked.

Using that data, coupled with overhead imagery clicked by the Mars Global
Surveyor and Mars Odyssey -- two NASA Mars orbiters -- is letting experts
outline Spirit's science trail.

Mission-long traverse

"Wow! ...Is that a technical term?" exclaimed Tim Parker, JPL Science Team
Member and a Landing Site Mapping Scientist. "This is just a hoot," he said,
in helping to decide where Spirit will explore.

"We know where we are now - and we know where we are going," said Steve
Squyres, Principal Investigator for the Mars Rover effort from Cornell
University.

As would be the case for any explorer that just got his or her bearings, a
mission-long traverse for Spirit can now be sketched out.

Window into subsurface Mars

Once Spirit has its Mars legs and taken initial soil and rock measurements
at its landing site, "an extremely attractive target" is some 800 feet (200
meters) away, Squyres said. An impact crater located there has excavated
subsurface material - an ideal feature rich in science information.

How close the rover will drive up and then steer itself to the crater rim is
a decision to be made on the move.

"It will provide a window into the subsurface of Mars," Squyres said. In
surveying that crater scientists will have seen as deep into the red planet
as feasible on Spirit's mission -- it is the largest crater accessible at
the moment.

Sand or dust dunes?

The crater that Spirit will inspect up-close and personal has not been named
as yet, Parker said.

"I'd vote to go inside the crater," said Michael Malin of Malin Space
Science Systems in San Diego. "The dunes inside the crater are going to be
really pretty," he said.

Malin, a rover science team member, said the physical makeup of dunes on
Mars is still being argued.

"If it is sand that would be great stuff for this rover to drive over. If
it's dust - well, we don't know how you make dust dunes. So it would be a huge
leap in our understanding," Malin said.

Reach for the hills

After the crater stop, Squyres said, "we're going toward the hills" --
clearly visible in Pan Cam photography.

"I cannot tell you that we're going to reach those hills," Squyres
cautioned.

About the size of a riding mower, Spirit was built to traverse some 1,970
feet (600 meters). "These hills are five times that far away," with the
closest part of those features roughly 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) distant.

Although the rover might not make the whole traverse, the view from Spirit
of what's now called the "eastern hills" will get better and better.

"We'll see what we see - I don 't know how it' s going to turn out," Squyres
said.

Parker told SPACE.com that the rover could well last beyond a projected 90
days on Mars. "I think we'll make it - that's my gut feeling."

Putting those hills in Spirit's cross-hairs is going to be a "shared
adventure" that is unprecedented in human history, Squyres said. "I think
it's going to be a lot of fun."
Received on Tue 13 Jan 2004 06:41:28 PM PST