[meteorite-list] Gear on Opportunity Rover Passes Martian Health Check

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:09 2004
Message-ID: <200401262325.PAA05817_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: 2004-038 January 26, 2004

Gear on Opportunity Rover Passes Martian Health Check

During the second day on Mars for NASA's Opportunity rover, key
science instruments passed health tests and the rover made important
steps in communicating directly with Earth.

Halfway around the planet, during its 22nd day on Mars, NASA's Spirit
obeyed commands for transmitting information that is helping engineers
set a strategy for fixing problems with the rover's computer memory.

On Earth this morning, scientists marveled at a high-resolution color
"postcard" of Opportunity's surroundings. The mosaic of 24 frames
from the panoramic camera shows details from the edge of the lander to
the distant horizon beyond the rim of the rover's small home crater.

"We're looking out across a pretty spectacular landscape," said Dr.
Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the
panoramic cameras on Spirit and Opportunity. "It's going to be a
wonderful area for geologists to explore with the rover."

The color view shows dark soil that brightened where it was compacted
by the rolling spacecraft, and an outcropping of bedrock on the inside
slope of the 20-meter (66-foot) crater in which the rover sits.
Opportunity will be commanded to finish taking a 360-degree color
panorama of the site during its third Mars day, which began at 12:01
p.m. PST today.
 
Another major step planned for Opportunity's third day is to begin
using its high-gain antenna for communicating directly with Earth at a
high data rate, said Jackie Lyra of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., activity lead for this rover event. In preparation
for this transition, Opportunity found the Sun with its panoramic
camera yesterday. Once oriented by knowing the position of the Sun,
it can calculate how to point its high-gain antenna toward Earth.

"We're making steady progress in our effort to get the wheels of the
rover dirty," said Mission Manager Jim Erickson of JPL. Still the
earliest scenario for the rover to drive off its lander platform is
more than a week away.

Opportunity has tested the three scientific sensing instruments on its
robotic arm that will be used for up-close examination of rocks and
soil: the microscopic imager, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer
for determining what elements are present, and a Moessbauer
spectrometer for identifying iron-containing minerals. "I'm pleased
to report that all are in perfect health," said Dr. Steve Squyres of
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the
science instruments on the rovers.

Squyres had been especially concerned about the Moessbauer
spectrometer because tests conducted while the spacecraft was on its
way to Mars showed that an internal calibration system was not working
as intended. However, after the rover landed on Mars, the instrument
is functioning normally again. The Moessbauer spectrometer's function
for identifying iron-bearing minerals will be important in the
scientific goal of determining the origin of iron-bearing hematite
deposits in the Meridiani Planum region selected as Opportunity's
landing site.

"We have a perfectly functioning Moessbauer spectrometer, and given
that we are now perched atop the hematite capital of the Solar System,
that's a good thing," Squyres said.

Restoration efforts continue making progress on Spirit. "We have a
patient in rehab, and we're nursing her back to health," said JPL's
Jennifer Trosper, mission manager.

Engineers found a way to stop Spirit's computer from resetting itself
about once an hour by putting the spacecraft into a mode that avoids
use of flash memory. Flash memory is a type common in many electronic
products, such as digital cameras, for storing information even when
the power is off. The rover also has random-access memory, which
cannot hold information during the rover's overnight sleep. One of the
next steps planned is to erase from flash memory the files stored
there from the spacecraft's cruise to Mars from Earth. That is
intended to lessen the task of managing the flash memory files.

The rovers' main task is to explore their landing sites during coming
months for evidence in the rocks and soil about whether the sites'
past environments were ever watery and possibly suitable for
sustaining 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, 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-
Received on Mon 26 Jan 2004 06:25:54 PM PST