[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update - May 12, 2004

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu May 13 11:46:20 2004
Message-ID: <200405131546.IAA20932_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Speeds to 'Lead Foot' - sol 124-126,
May 12, 2004

Spirit drove 80 meters (262.5 feet) on sol 124, bringing its
total odometry to 1,909.52 meters (1.2 miles). Spirit has
less than 1.2 kilometers (.75 mile) to go before reaching
the base of the"Columbia Hills," and will reach them by sol
160. Later in the martian day, after completing the sol 124
drive, Spirit took a 360-degree afternoon panorama of its
surroundings with the navigation camera.

On sol 125, Spirit continued driving and set a new one-sol
driving record of 123.7 meters (405.8 feet). Science on Sol
125 included morning atmospheric sky and ground remote
sensing, mini thermal emission spectrometer observation of
the sol 126 instrument deployment device work volume,
imaging with the panoramic camera, and cloud observations.

After the long sol 125 drive, Spirit was in perfect
position to work with the instrument deployment device on
sol 126. This included alpha particle X-ray spectrometer,
M?ssbauer and microscopic imager work on a target
called "Lead Foot" (in honor of the big drive on sol 125).
The M?ssbauer was used as the feeler for all these
activities but touched down on rocks rather than soil at
the "Lead Foot" location, compromising the M?ssbauer and
microscopic imager data (images out of focus). Spirit also
did some driving on this sol, and added 55.6 meters (182.4
feet) to the odometer, bringing Spirit's new drive total to
2,089 meters (1.3 miles). At the end of the sol, Spirit
successfully executed a sequence that used the panoramic
camera to find the Sun and correct for accumulated rover
attitude errors.
Received on Thu 13 May 2004 11:46:08 AM PDT