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

From: Jerry <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:32:24 -0400
Message-ID: <BBE5EC2E24F34FB1B20387737D0C6200_at_Notebook>

The Energizer Bunny!!!!!!!
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "batkol" <batkol at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321 at hotmail.com>; <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mars Rovers Survive Severe Dust Storms,Ready
for Next Objectives


> 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 05:32:24 PM PDT