[meteorite-list] Rover Team Readies For Second Landing While Trying to Mend Spirit

From: j.divelbiss_at_att.net <j.divelbiss_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:08 2004
Message-ID: <012420040226.6782.4416_at_att.net>

Ron,

Do you know if the rover was still parked in front of the Adirondack named
rock?

I was just curious where it was and what was it doing. Someone mentioned a
rumor was that it drove into a "soft" spot. I thought it was parked by the
rock.

John

>
>
> 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: 2004-031 January 23, 2004
>
> Rover Team Readies For Second Landing While Trying to Mend Spirit
>
> Some members of the flight team for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are
> preparing for this weekend's landing of the second rover, Opportunity,
> while others are focused on trying to restore the first rover, Spirit,
> to working order.
>
> "We should expect we will not be restoring functionality to Spirit for
> a significant amount of time -- many days, perhaps two weeks -- even
> in the best of circumstances," said Peter Theisinger, rover project
> manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
> Spirit transmitted data to Earth today for the first time since early
> Wednesday. The information about the rover's status arrived during
> three sessions lasting 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 15 minutes.
> Engineers will be examining it overnight and developing a plan for
> obtaining more on Saturday morning.
>
> Spirit's flight software is not functioning normally. It appears to
> have rebooted the rover's computer more than 60 times in the past
> three days. A motor that moves a mirror for the rover's infrared
> spectrometer was partway through an operation when the problem arose,
> so the possibility of a mechanical problem with that hardware will be
> one theory investigated.
>
> "We believe, based on everything we know now, we can sustain the
> current state of the spacecraft from a health standpoint for an
> indefinite amount of time," Theisinger said. That will give the team
> time to work on the problem.
>
> Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars at 05:05
> Universal Time on Jan. 25 (12:05 a.m. Sunday EST or 9:05 p.m. Saturday
> PST) at a landing site on the opposite side of the planet from Spirit.
> Opportunity's landing site is on plains called Meridiani Planum
> within an Oklahoma-sized outcropping of gray hematite, a mineral that
> usually forms in the presence of water. Scientists plan to use the
> research instruments on Opportunity to determine whether the gray
> hematite layer comes from sediments of a long-gone ocean, from
> volcanic deposits altered by hot water, or from other ancient
> environmental conditions.
>
> Analysis of Spirit's descent through Mars' atmosphere for its landing
> at Gusev has contributed to a decision by flight controllers to
> program Opportunity to open its parachute higher than had been planned
> earlier, said JPL's Dr. Wayne Lee, chief engineer for development of
> the rover's descent and landing systems.
>
> The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter has
> taken an image of Spirit's landing region that shows the spacecraft's
> lander platform on the ground. The jettisoned parachute, backshell
> and heat shield are also visible, noted Dr. Michael Malin of Malin
> Space Science Systems, San Diego, lead investigator for the orbiter's
> camera and a member of the rover science team.
>
> 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, D.C. Images 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-
>
>
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Received on Fri 23 Jan 2004 09:26:00 PM PST