[meteorite-list] Opportunity Sits in a Small Crater, Near a Bigger One

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:09 2004
Message-ID: <200401260153.RAA27657_at_zagami.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: 2004-037 January 25, 2004

Opportunity Sits in a Small Crater, Near a Bigger One

A small impact crater on Mars is the new home for NASA's
Opportunity rover, and a larger crater lies nearby. Scientists
value such crater locations as a way to see what's beneath the
surface without needing to dig.

Encouraging developments continued for Opportunity's twin,
Spirit, too. Engineers have determined that Spirit's flash
memory hardware is functional, strengthening a theory that
Spirit's main problem is in software that controls file
management of the memory. "I think we've got a patient that's
well on the way to recovery," said Mars Exploration Rover
Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Opportunity returned the first pictures of its landing site
early today, about four hours after reaching Mars. The pictures
indicate that the spacecraft sits in a shallow crater about 20
meters (66 feet) across.

"We have scored a 300-million mile interplanetary hole in one,"
said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.,
principal investigator for the science instruments on both
rovers.

NASA selected Opportunity's general landing area within a region
called Meridiani Planum because of extensive deposits of a
mineral called crystalline hematite, which usually forms in the
presence of liquid water. Scientists had hoped for a specific
landing site where they could examine both the surface layer
that's rich in hematite and an underlying geological feature of
light-colored layered rock. The small crater appears to have
exposures of both, with soil that could be the hematite unit and
an exposed outcropping of the lighter rock layer.

"If it got any better, I couldn't stand it," said Dr. Doug Ming,
rover science team member from NASA Johnson Space Center,
Houston. With the instruments on the rover and just the rocks
and soil within the small crater, Opportunity should be allow
scientists to determine which of several theories about the
region's past environment is right, he said. Those theories
include that the hematite may have formed in a long-lasting lake
or in a volcanic environment.

An even bigger crater, which could provide access to deeper
layers for more clues to the past, lies nearby. Images taken by
a camera on the bottom of the lander during Opportunity's final
descent show a crater about 150 meters (about 500 feet) across
likely to be within about one kilometer or half mile of the
landing site, said Dr. Andrew Johnson of JPL. He is an engineer
for the descent imaging system that calculated the spacecraft's
horizontal motion during its final seconds of flight. The
system determined that sideways motion was small, so
Opportunity's computer decided not to fire the lateral rockets
carried specifically for slowing that motion.

Squyres presented an outline for Opportunity's potential
activities in coming weeks and months. After driving off the
lander, the rover will first examine the soil right next to the
lander, then drive to the outcrop of layered-looking rocks and
spend considerable time examining it. Then the rover may climb
out of the small crater, take a look around, and head for the
bigger crater.

But first, Opportunity will spend more than a week -- perhaps
two -- getting ready to drive off the lander, if all goes well.
Engineering data from Opportunity returned in relays via NASA's
Mars Odyssey orbiter early this morning and at midday indicate
the spacecraft is in excellent health, said JPL's Arthur Amador,
mission manager. The rover will try its first direct-to-Earth
communications this evening.

The main task for both rovers in coming months is to explore the
areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils
about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery
and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional
information about the project is available from JPL at

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

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

http://athena.cornell.edu/ .
                              -end-
Received on Sun 25 Jan 2004 08:53:06 PM PST