[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update - March 3, 2008

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 15:08:00 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200803032308.PAA14818_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

SPIRIT UPDATE: Tenacious Rover Just Might Make It - sol 1464-1470,
March 3, 2008:

Spirit has achieved a northerly tilt of 29.9 degrees! As a result, based
on power projections, Spirit has a fighting chance of surviving another
winter on Mars, if the weather and environment cooperate.

Plans for sol 1471 (Feb. 22, 2008) called for a test of the stability of
Spirit's new perch prior to using the rock abrasion tool by having the
rover touch the Martian surface with the Moessbauer spectrometer and
apply 10 newtons of pressure (called a pre-load).

Sol-by-sol summary:

In addition to measurements of atmospheric dust levels with the
panoramic camera and daily communications activities, which include
morning direct-from-Earth uplinks over the rover's high-gain antenna and
evening relays to Earth via the UHF antenna on the Mars Odyssey orbiter,
Spirit completed the following activities:

Sol 1464 (Feb. 14, 2008): Spirit edged downslope another 4 centimeters
(about 1.5 inches). The rover took thumbnail images of the sky for
calibration purposes with the panoramic camera.

Sol 1465: Spirit took mid-field images and spot images of the sky for
calibration purposes with the panoramic camera.

Sol 1466: Spirit acquired images for updating the rover's precise
attitude relative to the Sun, surveyed the horizon and took spot images
of the sky with the panoramic camera, and surveyed the external
calibration target with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Sol 1467: Spirit acquired images of the "El Dorado" dune field with the
panoramic camera and snapped movie frames in search of dust devils with
the navigation camera. The rover took thumbnail images of the sky with
the panoramic camera.

Sol 1468: Spirit surveyed the sky at high Sun using the panoramic camera.

Sol 1469: Spirit surveyed the sky and ground with the miniature thermal
emission spectrometer and took before-and-after stereo images with the
navigation camera to enable the on-board visual odometry software to
determine the rover's position. Spirit acquired a 5-by-1 mosaic of
forward-looking images and a 5-by-1 mosaic of rearward-looking images
with the navigation camera. Also with the navigation camera, the rover
assessed atmospheric opacity caused by dust and scanned the sky for clouds.

Sol 1470 (Feb. 21, 2008): Spirit unstowed the robotic arm and moved it
to test the rover's stability. Spirit measured atmospheric opacity
caused by dust using both the panoramic and navigation cameras. The
rover took spot images of the sky with the panoramic camera and surveyed
the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Odometry:

As of sol 1470 (Feb. 21, 2008), Spirit's total odometry was 7,528.07
meters (4.68 miles).
Received on Mon 03 Mar 2008 06:08:00 PM PST