[meteorite-list] Mars Rovers Survive Severe Dust Storms, Ready for Next Objectives

From: batkol <batkol_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2007 15:09:50 -0500
Message-ID: <002b01c7f254$3a183c70$1fa980a6_at_DJV2WH71>

certainly the Timex's of planetary probes. looking forward to seeing
everyone in Denver next week. take care
susan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321 at hotmail.com>
To: <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>; <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mars Rovers Survive Severe Dust Storms, Ready
for Next Objectives


> I'm starting to suspect that these two have evolved into a new,
> indestructible, perpetual-life, life form!
>
> Amazing!
>
>
> Cheers,
> Pete
>
>
>
>
> From: Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com (Meteorite Mailing List)
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Mars Rovers Survive Severe Dust Storms,Ready for
> Next Objectives
> Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 14:00:20 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>
> Sept. 7, 2007
>
> Dwayne Brown
> Headquarters, Washington
> 202-358-1726
> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
>
> Guy Webster
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> 818-354-6278
> guy.w.webster at jpl.nasa.gov
>
> RELEASE: 07-187
>
> MARS ROVERS SURVIVE SEVERE DUST STORMS, READY FOR NEXT OBJECTIVES
>
> PASADENA, Calif. -- Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe
> storms nearly killed NASA's Mars exploration rovers, the
> solar-powered robots are awake and ready to continue their mission.
> Opportunity's planned descent into the giant Victoria Crater was
> delayed, but now the rover is preparing to drive into the half-mile
> diameter crater as early as Sept. 11.
>
> Spirit, Opportunity's rover twin, also survived the global dust storm.
> The rovers are 43 months into missions originally planned to last
> three months. On Sept. 5, Spirit climbed onto its long-term
> destination called Home Plate, a plateau of layered bedrock bearing
> clues to an explosive mixture of lava and water.
>
> "These rovers are tough. They faced dusty winds, power starvation and
> other challenges -- and survived. Now they are back to doing
> groundbreaking field work on Mars. These spacecraft are amazing,"
> said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission
> Directorate, Washington.
>
> Victoria Crater contains an exposed layer of bright rocks that may
> preserve evidence of interaction between the Martian atmosphere and
> surface from millions of years ago, when the atmosphere might have
> been different from today's. Victoria is the biggest crater
> Opportunity has visited.
>
> Martian dust storms in July blocked so much sunlight that researchers
> grew concerned the rovers' daily energy supplies could plunge too low
> for survival. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
> Pasadena, Calif., put Opportunity onto a very low-energy regimen of
> no movement, few observations and reduced communication with Earth.
> Skies above both rovers remain dusty but have been clearing gradually
> since early August.
>
> Dust from the sky has been falling onto both rovers' solar panels,
> impeding their ability to collect energy from the sun. However,
> beneficial wind gusts removed some of the new buildup from
> Opportunity almost as soon as it accumulated.
>
> Opportunity drove to the lip of Victoria Crater in late August and
> examined possible entry routes. This week, Opportunity has been
> driving about 130 feet toward its planned entry point. The route will
> provide better access to a top priority target inside the crater: a
> bright band of rocks about 40 feet from the rim. "We chose a point
> that gives us a straight path down, instead of driving cross-slope
> from our current location," said Paolo Bellutta, a JPL rover driver
> plotting the route. "The rock surface on which Opportunity will be
> driving will provide good traction and control of its path into the
> crater."
>
> For its first foray into the crater, Opportunity will drive just far
> enough to get all six wheels in; it will then back out and assess
> slippage on the inner slope. "Opportunity might be ready for that
> first 'toe dip' into the crater as early as next week," said JPL's
> John Callas, rover project manager. "In addition to the drives to get
> to the entry point, we still need to conduct checkouts of two of
> Opportunity's instruments before sending the rover into the crater."
>
> The rover team plans to assess if dust has impaired use of the
> microscopic imager. If that tool is working, the team will use it to
> observe whether a scanning mirror for the miniature thermal emission
> spectrometer (Mini-TES) can function accurately. This mirror is high
> on the rover's camera mast. It reflects infrared light from the
> landscape to the spectrometer at the base of the mast, and it also
> can be positioned to close the hole in the mast as protection from
> dust. The last time the spectrometer was used, some aspects of the
> data suggested the instrument may have been viewing the inside of the
> mast instead of the Martian landscape.
>
> "If the dust cover or mirror is no longer moving properly, we may have
> lost the ability to use that instrument on Opportunity," said Steve
> Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator
> for the rovers' science instruments. "It would be the first permanent
> loss of an instrument on either rover. But we'll see."
>
> The instrument already has provided extensive valuable information
> about rocks and soils in the Meridiani region where Opportunity
> works. "Mini-TES has told us a lot about the rocks and soils at
> Meridiani, but we've learned that the differences among Meridiani
> rocks are often too subtle for it to distinguish," Squyres said. "The
> same instrument on Spirit, at Gusev Crater, has a much more crucial
> role for us at this point in the mission because there is such
> diversity at Gusev." Researchers will rely heavily on a different
> type of instrument, Opportunity's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer,
> for analysis of rocks at the bright-band target layer in the crater.
>
> For images and information about the rovers, visit:
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
>
>
> -end-
>
>
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Received on Sat 08 Sep 2007 04:09:50 PM PDT