[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rovers Update - March 11, 2004

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:48 2004
Message-ID: <200403120610.WAA20176_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit is "Livin' on the Edge" - sol 66, Mar 11, 2004

Aerosmith wrote the song "Livin' on the Edge" long before Spirit reached
the edge of Bonneville crater, and probably never imagined it would be the
wake-up song for a rover on Mars. But its words are appropriate. After a
21-meter (68.9 feet) drive and an elevation gain of 1.5 meters (4.9 feet),
Spirit is in fact at the edge of Bonneville crater.

Spirit began Sol 66, which ended at 1:09 a.m. PST March 11, 2004, by taking
a look back at the lander with the panoramic camera, and then analyzing
selected ground targets. At about 11:30 a.m. Gusev time, Spirit began a
30-minute directed drive of 16 meters (52.5 feet). It then turned right for
a final auto-navigation drive that was intended for 6 meters (19.7 feet), but
resulted in about 4 meters (13.1 feet). That drive put Spirit in perfect
position to look inside "Bonneville" crater and send back stunning images
from the navigation camera.

The camera mast was then positioned for a nighttime sky observation of the
Orion Constellation. During NASA's Mars Global Surveyor pass tomorrow morning,
the navigation camera and panoramic camera will take images of the Orion
Constellation using long exposure times.

On Sol 67, which will end at 1:48 a.m. PST March 12, 2004, Spirit will drive
about 14 meters (46 feet) to a better vantage point on the crater rim and
continue to investigate Bonneville with the panoramic and navigation cameras.



OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Berry Nice News - sol 46, Mar 11, 2004

On sol 46, which ended at 1:30 p.m. PST on Thursday, March 11, Opportunity
awoke at 9:20 Local Solar Time to two songs in honor of researching the
mysterious "blueberries" with the instruments on the robotic arm. The wake-up
songs were "Berry Nice News" by Raffi and "Huckling the Berries" by Country
Cooking.

Opportunity performed a series of activities including microscopic imaging of
the berries and placing the Mössbauer spectrometer on the berries to
analyze their chemical composition. The miniature thermal emission
spectrometer later made multiple atmospheric observations. After a short nap
to conserve energy, Opportunity awoke in the afternoon to perform some
additional remote sensing observations and to transmit data to Earth via
the Odyssey orbiter.

Later in the evening Local Solar Time, Opportunity collected data with its
alpha particle X-ray spectrometer at two locations.

The plan for sol 47, which will end at 2:10 p.m. PST on Friday, March 12 is
to continue analyzing the blueberries and the "Berry Bowl." By early next
week, Opportunity will drive to a new area dubbed "Shoemaker's Patio."
Received on Fri 12 Mar 2004 01:10:25 AM PST