[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update - March 13, 2004

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:49 2004
Message-ID: <200403142318.PAA21966_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Spirit Status for sol 68
Spirit Sits Still for Science
posted Mar. 13, 1 pm PST

Spirit spent all of sol 68, which ended at 2:28 a.m. PST on March 13, 2004,
at the "Bonneville" crater location. It began the morning operating the
panoramic camera to acquire the first images of what will be a 360-degree
shot of "Bonneville's" rim and basin, and the "Columbia Hills" to the
southeast.

Spirit also moved the instrument deployment device, or rover arm, into
position to acquire panoramic camera images of the magnets on the rock
abrasion tool. It then placed the Moessbauer spectrometer on soil for a
short integration after taking five microscopic imager images.

Around 13:35 Mars Local Solar time, one of Mars' moons, Deimos, passed in
front of the sun. Scientists and rover controllers took this opportunity to
image the moon's transit with the panoramic camera before completing mini
thermal emission spectrometer observations of the crater interior.

Spirit's work isn't over though. The Moessbauer will continue analyzing
the soil at "Bonneville's" rim through the night.

Sol 69, which will end at 3:07 a.m. PST on March 14, 2004, will also be a
no-drive sol during which Spirit will acquire the second half of the
360-degree panoramic camera image of Bonneville. Spirit will also perform
remote sensing of the inside of the crater and analyze soil targets with
the Moessbauer and alpha particle x-ray spectrometer.
Received on Sun 14 Mar 2004 06:18:22 PM PST