Mars Exploration Rover Mission:
Spirit and Opportunity

Opnamen van Mars door Opportunity

Meer opnamen bij JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

February 1, 2004

Mars Rover Spirit Restored to Health

"We have confirmed that Spirit is booting up normally. Tomorrow we'll be doing some preventive maintenance," Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said Sunday morning.

Spirit's twin, Opportunity, which drove off its lander platform early Saturday, will be commanded tonight to reach out with its robot arm early Monday, said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. Opportunity will examine the soil in front of it over the next few days with a microscope and with a pair of spectrometer instruments for determining what elements and minerals are present.

For Spirit, part of the cure has been deleting thousands of files from the rover's flash memory -- a type of rewritable electronic memory that retains information even when power is off. Many of the deleted files were left over from the seven- month flight from Florida to Mars. Onboard software was having difficulty managing the flash memory, triggering Spirit's computer to reset itself about once an hour.

Two days after the problem arose, engineers began using a temporary workaround of sending commands every day to put Spirit into an operations mode that avoided use of flash memory. Now, however, the computer is stable even when operating in the normal mode, which uses the flash memory.

"To be safe, we want to reformat the flash and start again with a clean slate," Adler said. That reformatting is planned for Monday. It will erase everything stored in the flash file system and install a clean version of the flight software.

Today, Spirit is being told to transmit priority data remaining in the flash memory. The information includes data from atmospheric observations made Jan. 16 in coordination with downward-looking observations by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Also today, Spirit will make new observations coordinated with another Mars Express overflight and will run a check of the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Spirit will resume examination of a rock nicknamed Adirondack later this week and possibly move on to a lighter-colored rock by week's end.

Each martian day, or "sol" lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 30th sol on Mars at 12:44 a.m. Monday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 10th sol on Mars at 1:05 p.m. Monday, PST. The two rovers are halfway around Mars from each other.

The main task for both Spirit and Opportunity in coming weeks and months is to find geological clues about past environmental conditions at their landing sites, particularly about whether the areas were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 31, 2004

Opportunity Rolls Onto Martian Ground

Also, new science results from the rover indicate that the site does indeed have a type of mineral, crystalline hematite, that was the principal reason the site was selected for exploration.

Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation of the successful drive at 3:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time via a relay from the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth reception by the Deep Space Network. Cheers erupted a minute later when Opportunity sent a picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the martian soil.

For the first time in history, two mobile robots are exploring the surface of another planet at the same time. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, started making wheel tracks halfway around Mars from Meridiani on Jan. 15.

"We're two for two! One dozen wheels on the soil." JPL's Chris Lewicki, flight director, announced to the control room.

Matt Wallace, mission manager at JPL, told a subsequent news briefing, "We knew it was going to be a good day. The rover woke up fit and healthy to Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run,' and it turned out to be a good choice."

The flight team needed only seven days since Opportunity's landing to get the rover off its lander, compared with 12 days for Spirit earlier this month. "We're getting practice at it," said JPL's Joel Krajewski, activity lead for the procedure. Also, the configuration of the deflated airbags and lander presented no trouble for Opportunity, while some of the extra time needed for Spirit was due to airbags at the front of the lander presenting a potential obstacle.

Looking at a photo from Opportunity showing wheel tracks between the empty lander and the rear of the rover about one meter or three feet away, JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for getting the rover off the lander, said "We're glad to be seeing soil behind our rover."

JPL's Chris Salvo, flight director, reported that Opportunity will be preparing over the next couple days to reach out with it robotic arm for a close inspection of the soil.

Gray granules covering most of the crater floor surrounding Opportunity contain hematite, said Dr. Phil Christensen, lead scientist for both rovers' miniature thermal emission spectrometers, which are infrared-sensing instruments used for identifying rock types from a distance. Crystalline hematite is of special interest because, on Earth, it usually forms under wet environmental conditions. The main task for both Mars Exploration Rovers in coming weeks and months is to read clues in the rocks and soil to learn about past environmental conditions at their landing sites, particularly about whether the areas were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

The concentration of hematite appears strongest in a layer of dark material above a light-covered outcrop in the wall of the crater where Opportunity sits, Christensen said. "As we get out of the bowl we're in, I think we'll get onto a surface that is rich in hematite," he said.

Ket Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 27, 2004

Scientist Thrilled to See Layers in Mars Rocks Near Opportunity

Geologists said that the layers -- some no thicker than a finger -- indicate the rocks likely originated either from sediments carried by water or wind, or from falling volcanic ash. "We should be able to distinguish between those two hypotheses," said Dr. Andrew Knoll of Harvard University, Cambridge, a member of the science team for Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. If the rocks are sedimentary, water is a more likely source than wind, he said.

The prime goal for both rovers is to explore their landing areas for clues in the rocks and soil about whether those areas ever had watery environments that could possibly have sustained life.

Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to tell Opportunity tonight to start standing up from the crouched and folded posture in which it traveled to Mars.

"We're going to lift the entire rover, then the front wheels will be turned out," said Mission Manager Jim Erickson of JPL. Several more days of activities are still ahead before the rover will be ready to drive off the lander.

"We're about to embark on what could be the coolest geological field trip in history," said Dr. Steve Sqyures of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science payload.

The layered rocks are in a bedrock outcrop about 30 to 45 centimeters (12 to 18 inches) tall, and only about eight meters (26 feet) away from where Opportunity came to rest after bouncing to a landing three days ago. Examination of their texture and composition with the cameras and spectrometers on the rover may soon reveal whether they are sedimentary, Knoll predicted.

Scientists also hope to determine the relationship between those light-colored rocks and the dark soil that covers most of the surrounding terrain. The soil may contain the mineral hematite, which was identified from orbit and motivated the choice of Opportunity's landing area, Squyres said.

Opportunity successfully used its high-gain antenna for the first time yesterday. The rover is losing some if its battery charge each night, apparently due to an electric heater at the shoulder joint of the rover's robotic arm. A thermostat turns on the heater whenever the air temperature falls to levels that Opportunity is experiencing every night. The heater is not really needed when the arm is not in use, but ground control has not been able to activate a switch designed to override the thermostat, Erickson said. Mission engineers are working to confirm the diagnosis, determine the ramifications of the power drain, and propose workarounds or fixes.

Meanwhile, engineers working on Spirit have determined that the high-gain antenna on that rover is likely in working order despite earlier indications of a possible problem. They are continuing to take information out of Spirit's flash memory. Results from a testbed simulator of the rover's electronics supported the diagnosis of a problem with management of the flash memory, reported JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager.

Stichting Mars Society Nederland

25 januari 2004

"Mars: If we want to know, we have to go”
Dr. Robert Zubrin

Spirit en Opportunity: All is well on Mars

Opportunity rolde langere tijd uit dan Spirit, omdat het Meridianum Planum veel vlakker is dan de Gusev Krater. Wel dacht men dat men langer rolde, dan uiteindelijk juist bleek te zijn. Toen de landingspanelen zich opende en het signaal nog steeds leek te duiden op ‘rollen’, begreep men dat er een andere verklaring moest worden gezocht voor het telkens onderbroken signaal. De Opportunity kwam tot stilstand op een zijpaneel, waardoor haar antenne naar de bodem van Mars wees en de uitgezonden signalen afketste op de Marskorst. Dit gaf de indruk dat zij nog steeds rolde, hoewel zij al enige tijd stilstond.

We hebben nu drie geslaagde Marsmissies, waarvan we verwachten dat we van de Europese satelliet Mars Express zeker enige jaren plezier gaan hebben. De eerste Europese metingen van een waterijs Poolkap op de zuidpool van Mars, die afgelopen vrijdag bekend gemaakt werden, leverden het bewijs dat Mars stromend water aan haar oppervlak heeft gekend.

Opportunity zoekt net als haar broertje Spirit naar bewijzen dat er Mars een nat verleden heeft gekend. Het Meridianum Planum is een gebied met een grote hoeveelheid hematiet, een mineraal dat ijzeroxide bevat. Dit mineraal wordt op aarde meestal gevormd door de interactie met water. Het kan ook gevormd worden door de interactie met hete lava. Uitsluitsel over wat er in dit gebied op Mars geleid heeft tot de vorming van Hematiet kan gegeven worden door het aantreffen van andere mineralen. Indien er magnetiet wordt gevonden naast de gemeten hematiet duidt dit op stromend water. Echter de vondst van andere ijzermineralen zou ons vertellen, dat het hematiet in Meridianum Planum door lava is veroorzaakt. Hoofdopdracht voor Opportunity is daarom te meten wat er naast het hematiet verder aan ijzermineralen zit in de rotsen van haar landingsgebied.

De Mars Exploration Rovers hebben naast de panoramische camera vijf instrumenten voor hun geologisch onderzoek en een schraper, die de bovenste laag van een rots kan schrapen om het onderliggende gesteente vrij te maken voor onderzoek. Dit is wat een menselijke geoloog zou doen met zijn hamer.

• De panoramische camera moet de geologische context zichtbaar maken van de onderzochte stenen en zal worden gebruikt om de te onderzoeken stenen uit te zoeken.
• De miniatuur thermische emissie spectrometer zal de aangetroffen mineralen identificeren met het doel om vooral die mineralen te vinden die ontstaan onder invloed van stromend water.
• De Mössbauer spectrometer identificeert de ijzerhoudende mineralen.
• De Alfa Deeltjes Röntgen spectrometer stelt de samenstelling van de rotsen vast en hoe deze is veranderd door de tijd onder invloed van klimaat en water.
• Als laatste zal de Microscopische Imager alles op zeer kleine schaal bekijken wat ook weer informatie oplevert over hoe de rotsen en de bodem werden gevormd.

Om hun weg te vinden maken de rovers gebruik van een aantal camera’s, die laag zowel voor als achterop de rover zijn geplaatst. Daarnaast hebben de rovers ook nog een tweetal camera’s die bovenop zijn geplaatst voor de navigatie van de rover.

Instrumenten:

• PanCam (panoramic camera)
  Zoekt naar bewijzen van stromend water (ronde, afgeslepen zandkorrels, groter dan wat de wind kan meenemen en afslijpen op Mars). Resolutie is 3X beter dan de Pathfinder camera. Overigens is die resolutie maar 1 megapixel. Door veel foto’s te nemen van het zelfde stukje Mars (tot 30 keer) kan men de computers op aarde deze resolutie door rekenen en samenvoegen van beeldgegevens verhogen tot een feitelijke resolutie van 30 Megapixels. Vandaar de haarscherpe foto’s van de omgeving die Spirit ons reeds gezonden heeft.
  
• miniThes (miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer)
  Mineralen in de bodem benoemen; is vooral op zoek naar mineralen die gevormd worden onder invloed van stromend water.
  
• Mössbauer spectrometer IJzerhoudende mineralen vinden. Zit op roverarm en kan dus dicht bij grond worden gebracht. Welke rol speelde water bij het ontstaan van ijzerhoudende mineralen in de bodem? Ook bekijken hoeveel slijtage aan de rotsen is veroorzaakt door verwering. Cobalt-57 wordt gebruikt (een stukje ongeveer zo groot als een puntenslijper). Deze spectrometer is een miniatuur versie van de spectrometer zoals veldgeologen die op aarde bij zich dragen.
  
• Alpha deeltjes Röntgen spectrometer
  Net als in geologische laboratoria op Aarde, betere versie dan op Pathfinder zat Curium-244 om de concentratie van de meeste elementen in de rotsen en grond te meten en te bepalen hoe die deeltjes zijn veranderd in de geschiedenis van Mars
  
• Microscopic imager
  Om de rotsen en grond van heel dichtbij te kunnen bekijken, zodat je hieruit kunt leren hoe die grond / rotsen zijn gevormd of verplaatst zijn over Mars en hier zijn terecht gekomen
  
• RAT (Rock Abrasian Tool)
  Deze schraper kan de bovenste laag van een rots afschrapen zodat je de werkelijke rots kunt meten ipv het laagje Marsstof dat erop ligt en eraan kleeft
  
• Magneten om Marszand mee aan te trekken (Marszand is geladen), zodat je ze daarna kan bestuderen via spectrometers en microscoop

De Rover en lander hebben samen 40 motoren, waarvan er 39 geleverd zijn door Maxom motoren (oa in Enschede). Alleen de motor om de rover omhoog te tillen en op zijn pootjes te zetten leverden zij niet. Zij leverden ook de motor voor de Sojourner.

"Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars."
Sir Arthur C. Clarke

De Mars Society is een internationale publieke ruimtevaartorganisatie met afdelingen over de hele wereld en zo’n 7.000 leden. Zij werd in augustus 1998 opgericht met het hoofdkwartier in Boulder, Colorado in de VS. De Stichting Mars Society Nederland is een van de afdelingen. Doel is bemand onderzoek van Mars, en uiteindelijk bewoning van Mars.

De vermetele plannen van president Bush zijn mede te danken aan intensief lobbywerk van The Mars Society en andere "pro-space" organisaties. Die lobbygroepen hebben pas een deel van de winst binnen. De komende jaren zullen zij moeten blijven lobbyen om een bemande missie naar Mars ook daadwerkelijk te laten plaatsvinden.

De Mars Society houdt zich intensief bezig met de voorbereidingen voor het stationeren van mensen op Mars. Zij heeft hiervoor ondermeer 2 Mars Research Stations of Habitats in bedrijf in Mars-analoge gebieden hier op Aarde. Het Flashline-Mars Arctic Research Station (F-MARS) sinds 2000 in de Haughton Krater, een inslagkrater, in het Canadese poolgebied. Het Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in de woestijn van Utah, in een sedimentsgebied vergelijkbaar met de Gusev Krater op Mars waar de rover Spirit net geland is. Het European Mars Analogue Research Station (Euro-MARS) zal dit jaar in Europa in gebruik worden genomen in samenwerking met de andere Europese vestigingen van de Mars Society.

Per ruimtemissie zal er ander half jaar onderzoek op de Rode Planeet worden verricht. In deze habitats wordt het wonen en werken van de Marsonauten op Mars gedurende die 1 ½ jaar gesimuleerd door telkens wisselende groepen van test-astronauten. Zowel NASA als ESA (European Space Agency) zien veel nut in de ideeën van de Mars Society en leveren hun steun aan projecten van de Mars Society. In de Habitats worden instrumenten voor hen getest. Zo is een prototype van de marsrover Spirit in F-MARS getest enkele jaren geleden, maar ook camera’s die op de Marssatelliet Mars Odyssey zitten zijn getest in habitats van de Mars Society.

Voor de inrichting van de Euro-MARS leverde de Nederlandse architect Frans Blok een belangrijke bijdrage. Samen met Europese collega architecten en andere deskundigen verfijnt hij de inrichting van de Hab. Zomer 2004 wordt de Euro-MARS hab in gebruik genomen op een marsanaloge jonge lavastroom op IJsland. De buitenkant van de Hab is in de VS gebouwd. De Hab heeft in 2002 een aantal maanden tentoongesteld gestaan bij het Adler Planetarium te Chicago, waar een half miljoen mensen hem bezochten. Ook het MDRS werd voor zijn in gebruik name in Utah maandenlang tentoongesteld op Cape Canaveral en trok daar drommen belangstellenden.

De Europese Hab richt zich op een zo realistisch mogelijke inrichting van een optimale woon- en werkruimte. De vele aspecten van het reizen naar en het leven op Mars worden zo natuurgetrouw mogelijk gesimuleerd. Zo wordt in de Euro-MARS habitat de impact gemeten op de mens van het voor lange tijd afgesneden zijn van de thuiswereld. Uitrustingen worden getest en EVA’s (Extra Vehicular Activities) worden gesimuleerd om de performance van de Marsonauten op Mars te verbeteren. De realistische woon/werk indeling over 3 verdiepingen is het verschil van deze Hab met de twee reeds operationele Mars Society habitats.

Omdat de beslissing voor een bemande missie een politieke keuze is, wordt momenteel door de Mars Society in de VS een felle, en ook succesvolle, campagne gevoerd om senaatskandidaten en presidentskandidaten te overtuigen van het nut van een bemande missie. Dr. Robert Zubrin sprak onlangs op hun uitnodiging voor Science Commissie van de US Senate tijdens de ‘Senate Hearing on the Future of NASA’. De Senaatsleden waren zeer geïnteresseerd en reageerden met enthousiasme op de toekomst die Dr. Zubrin schetste voor NASA.

In antwoord op de plannen van president Bush om mensen naar de maan en naar Mars te zenden hebben de Europese Mars Society afdelingen van 8 landen gezamenlijk aan de Europese Unie gevraagd niet te wachten op de plannen en daden van de Verenigde Staten, maar de reeds geplande bemande Marsmissie van de ESA voor 2030 naar voren te halen. Onderzoek in de Ruimte en vooral missies naar Mars inspireren de jeugd in de richting van technische studies en beroepen. Een stimulans die de EU kan bestendigen door Europa een gemeenschappelijk doel te geven in een bemande missie naar Mars.

Een bemande missie naar Mars zou een enorme stimulans betekenen voor de Europese economie. Iedere Euro die wordt uitgegeven aan het project, wordt betaald aan een Europees bedrijf om onderdelen of diensten te leveren. De uitvoering van een bemande missie zal heel wat banen voor Europeanen opleveren. Het multiplier effect voor de economie is heel moeilijk van te voren te berekenen. Ongetwijfeld zullen de bakker, groenteboer, en slager ook profiteren van de Euros die al die werknemers uit te geven hebben. En zo zal een missie naar Mars hoogstwaarschijnlijk een economisch voordeliger zet zijn, dan vele andere plannen en maatregelen van de Europese Unie.

Ruimtevaart is bovendien zonder twijfel het middel bij uitstek om Europa te verenigen.

Mars heeft wellicht leven gedragen en het kan in ieder geval leven dragen van ons mensen. De Mars Society is van mening, dat wij, mensen, op dit moment letterlijk op de drempel van de ruimte staan. Om uit onze aardse wieg te stappen is er niet meer nodig dan de wil en de moed om als mens de ruimte in te gaan. Mars is daarbij de logische eerste stap.

NASA Science News for January 26, 2004

Opportunity lands on Mars Spirit's twin rover Opportunity landed safely on Mars Saturday night, Jan. 24th at 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, and it soon began beaming images back to Earth.

FULL STORY

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 25, 2004

Opportunity Sits in a Small Crater, Near a Bigger One

Encouraging developments continued for Opportunity's twin, Spirit, too. Engineers have determined that Spirit's flash memory hardware is functional, strengthening a theory that Spirit's main problem is in software that controls file management of the memory. "I think we've got a patient that's well on the way to recovery," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Opportunity returned the first pictures of its landing site early today, about four hours after reaching Mars. The pictures indicate that the spacecraft sits in a shallow crater about 20 meters (66 feet) across.

"We have scored a 300-million mile interplanetary hole in one," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on both rovers.

NASA selected Opportunity's general landing area within a region called Meridiani Planum because of extensive deposits of a mineral called crystalline hematite, which usually forms in the presence of liquid water. Scientists had hoped for a specific landing site where they could examine both the surface layer that's rich in hematite and an underlying geological feature of light-colored layered rock. The small crater appears to have exposures of both, with soil that could be the hematite unit and an exposed outcropping of the lighter rock layer.

"If it got any better, I couldn't stand it," said Dr. Doug Ming, rover science team member from NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston. With the instruments on the rover and just the rocks and soil within the small crater, Opportunity should be allow scientists to determine which of several theories about the region's past environment is right, he said. Those theories include that the hematite may have formed in a long-lasting lake or in a volcanic environment.

An even bigger crater, which could provide access to deeper layers for more clues to the past, lies nearby. Images taken by a camera on the bottom of the lander during Opportunity's final descent show a crater about 150 meters (about 500 feet) across likely to be within about one kilometer or half mile of the landing site, said Dr. Andrew Johnson of JPL. He is an engineer for the descent imaging system that calculated the spacecraft's horizontal motion during its final seconds of flight. The system determined that sideways motion was small, so Opportunity's computer decided not to fire the lateral rockets carried specifically for slowing that motion.

Squyres presented an outline for Opportunity's potential activities in coming weeks and months. After driving off the lander, the rover will first examine the soil right next to the lander, then drive to the outcrop of layered-looking rocks and spend considerable time examining it. Then the rover may climb out of the small crater, take a look around, and head for the bigger crater.

But first, Opportunity will spend more than a week -- perhaps two -- getting ready to drive off the lander, if all goes well. Engineering data from Opportunity returned in relays via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter early this morning and at midday indicate the spacecraft is in excellent health, said JPL's Arthur Amador, mission manager. The rover will try its first direct-to-Earth communications this evening.

The main task for both rovers in coming months is to explore the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 25, 2004

NASA Hears From Opportunity Rover on Mars

Mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received the first signal from Opportunity on the ground at 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Saturday via the NASA Deep Space Network, which was listening with antennas in California and Australia.

"We're on Mars, everybody!" JPL's Rob Manning, manager for development of the landing system, announced to the cheering flight team.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said at a subsequent press briefing, "This was a tremendous testament to how NASA, when really focused on an objective, can put every ounce of effort, energy, emotion and talent to an important task. This team is the best in the world, no doubt about it."

Opportunity landed in a region called Meridiani Planum, halfway around the planet from the Gusev Crater site where its twin rover, Spirit, landed three weeks ago. Earlier today, mission managers reported progress in understanding and dealing with communications and computer problems on Spirit.

"In the last 48 hours, we've been on a roller coaster," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator for space science. "We resurrected one rover and saw the birth of another."

JPL's Pete Theisinger, project manager for the rovers, said, "We are two for two. Here we are tonight with Spirit on a path to recovery and with Opportunity on Mars."

By initial estimates, Opportunity landed about 24 kilometers (15 miles) down range from the center of the target landing area. That is well within an outcropping of a mineral called gray hematite, which usually forms in the presence of water. "We're going to have a good place to do science," said JPL's Richard Cook, deputy project manager for the rovers.

Once it pushed itself upright by opening the petals of the lander, Opportunity was expected to be facing east.

The main task for both rovers in coming months is to explore the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

Space.com

25 January 2004 posted: 12:21 am ET

Opportunity Lands on Mars

PASADENA, Calif. -- Mars has received a one-two exploration punch as the second Rover - Opportunity - achieved a successful landing tonight on the red planet.

Engineers and scientists broke out in cheers and tears here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), mission control for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) program.

Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. The spacecraft's exact whereabouts are not precisely known, but appears to have touched down within a pre-determined ellipse within Meridiani Planum.

Full story

Spaceflight Now

January 25, 2004

0508 GMT (12:08 a.m. EST)
Complete joy and relief in Mission Control as Opportunity has landed at Meridiani Planum.

0508 GMT (12:08 a.m. EST)
A good signal is still being received! Unlike the Spirit landing where signal was lost immediately after touchdown, Opportunity continues to talk to Earth.

0506 GMT (12:06 a.m. EST)
After a short loss of signal from the rover, a strong signal is now being received as Opportunity arrives on Mars!

0505 GMT (12:05 a.m. EST)
BOUNCING ON MARS! Mission Control has received a signal of Opportunity bouncing on the surface of Mars.

For continuous updates follow Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center

ZONDAG 25 JANUARI 06.05 u: OPPORTUNITY LANDT OP MARS

Op de laatste website is ook telkens het laatste nieuws te vinden over de onfortuinlijke rover Spirit, die zo succesvol op Mars landde, maar nu hoogstwaarschijnlijk als verloren moet worden beschouwd.

Carl Koppeschaar

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 23, 2004

Rover Team Readies For Second Landing While Trying to Mend Spirit

Some members of the flight team for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are preparing for this weekend's landing of the second rover, Opportunity, while others are focused on trying to restore the first rover, Spirit, to working order.

"We should expect we will not be restoring functionality to Spirit for a significant amount of time -- many days, perhaps two weeks -- even in the best of circumstances," said Peter Theisinger, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Spirit transmitted data to Earth today for the first time since early Wednesday. The information about the rover's status arrived during three sessions lasting 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 15 minutes. Engineers will be examining it overnight and developing a plan for obtaining more on Saturday morning.

Spirit's flight software is not functioning normally. It appears to have rebooted the rover's computer more than 60 times in the past three days. A motor that moves a mirror for the rover's infrared spectrometer was partway through an operation when the problem arose, so the possibility of a mechanical problem with that hardware will be one theory investigated.

"We believe, based on everything we know now, we can sustain the current state of the spacecraft from a health standpoint for an indefinite amount of time," Theisinger said. That will give the team time to work on the problem.

Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars at 05:05 Universal Time on Jan. 25 (12:05 a.m. Sunday EST or 9:05 p.m. Saturday PST) at a landing site on the opposite side of the planet from Spirit. Opportunity's landing site is on plains called Meridiani Planum within an Oklahoma-sized outcropping of gray hematite, a mineral that usually forms in the presence of water. Scientists plan to use the research instruments on Opportunity to determine whether the gray hematite layer comes from sediments of a long-gone ocean, from volcanic deposits altered by hot water, or from other ancient environmental conditions.

Analysis of Spirit's descent through Mars' atmosphere for its landing at Gusev has contributed to a decision by flight controllers to program Opportunity to open its parachute higher than had been planned earlier, said JPL's Dr. Wayne Lee, chief engineer for development of the rover's descent and landing systems.

The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter has taken an image of Spirit's landing region that shows the spacecraft's lander platform on the ground. The jettisoned parachute, backshell and heat shield are also visible, noted Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, lead investigator for the orbiter's camera and a member of the rover science team.

NASA Headquarters, Washington
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

January 24, 2004

SPIRIT CONDITION UPGRADED AS TWIN ROVER NEARS MARS

Engineers are working to get Spirit's computer out of a cycle of rebooting many times a day. Spirit's responses to commands sent Saturday morning confirmed a theory the problem is related to the rover's two "flash" memories or software controlling those memories.

"The rover has been upgraded from critical to serious," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Peter Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He predicted significant work is still ahead for restoring Spirit.

Opportunity is on course for landing in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. That point was selected months ago. Mission managers chose not to use an option for making a final adjustment to the flight path. " We managed to target Opportunity to the desired atmospheric entry point, which will bring us to the target landing site, in only three maneuvers," said JPL's Dr. Louis D'Amario, navigation team chief for the rovers.

Opportunity will reach Mars at 12:05 a.m. Sunday EST. From the time Opportunity hits the top of Mars' atmosphere at about 5.4 kilometers per second (12,000 miles per hour) to the time it hits the surface six minutes later, then bounces, the rover will be going through the riskiest part of its mission. Based on analysis of Spirit's descent and on weather reports about the atmosphere above Meridiani Planum, mission controllers have decided to program Opportunity to open its parachute slightly earlier than Spirit did.

Mars is more than 10 percent farther from Earth than it was when Spirit landed. That means radio signals from Opportunity, during its descent and after rolling to a stop, have a lower chance of being detected on Earth. About four hours after the landing, news from the spacecraft may arrive by relay from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. However, that will depend on Opportunity finishing critical activities, such as opening the lander petals and unfolding the rover's solar panels, before Odyssey flies overhead.

Spirit has 256 megabytes of flash memory, a type commonly used on gear such as digital cameras for holding data even when the power is off. Engineers confirmed Spirit's recent symptoms are related to the flash memory, when they commanded the rover to boot up and use random-access memory instead of flash memory. The rover obeyed commands about communicating and going into sleep mode. Spirit communicated successfully at 120 bits per second for nearly an hour.

"We have a vehicle that is stable in power and thermal, and we have a working hypothesis we have confirmed," Theisinger said. By commanding Spirit into a mode that avoids using flash memory, engineers plan to get it to communicate at a higher data rate, diagnose the cause of the problem and develop ways to restore as much function as possible.

The work on restoring Spirit is not expected to slow the steps in getting Opportunity ready to roll off its lander platform. For Spirit, those steps took 12 days. The rovers' main task is to explore landing sites for evidence in the rocks and soil to determine if past environments were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 23, 2004 5 p.m. PST

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

Shortly before noon, controllers were surprised to receive a relay of data from Spirit via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. Spirit sent 73 megabits at a rate of 128 kilobits per second. The transmission included power subsystem engineering data, no science data, and several frames of "fill data." Fill data are sets of intentionally random numbers that do not provide information.

Spirit had not communicated successfully through Odyssey since the rover's communications difficulties began on Wednesday.

Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars at 05:05 Universal Time on Jan. 25 (12:05 a.m. Sunday EST or 9:05 p.m. Saturday PST) at a landing site on the opposite side of the planet from Spirit.

* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - January 23, 2004 * * *

SPIRIT OUT INDEFINITELY

"We should expect that we will not be restoring functionality to Spirit for a significant period of time, many days, perhaps a couple of weeks, even in the best of circumstances," said project manager Pete Theisinger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) at a January 23rd press conference....

Full story

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 23, 2004

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

The transmissions came during a communication window about 90 minutes after Spirit woke up for the morning on Mars. The signal lasted for 10 minutes at a data rate of 10 bits per second.

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to send commands to Spirit seeking additional data from the spacecraft during the subsequent few hours.

Spaceflight Now

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2004 @ 0545 GMT (12:45 a.m. EST)

Mars Global Surveyor did not detect a signal from the Spirit rover during an orbit over the landing site earlier tonight. However, controllers didn't expect Spirit would communicate with the orbiting spacecraft if the rover is truly in its "safe-mode" as engineers suspect.

Mission Control is gearing up to make direct Earth-to-Mars contact with the rover after the Sun rises at the Gusev Crater. Efforts are expected to begin around 3 a.m. Pacific time (6 a.m. EST; 1100 GMT) this morning. Using a communications channel that successfully received a beeping reply from the rover on Thursday, engineers hope they can get Spirit to transmit some data about its health.

Full story

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 22, 2004

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

However, the team is still trying to diagnose the cause of earlier communications difficulties that have prevented any data being returned from Spirit since early Wednesday.

"We have a very serious situation," said Pete Theisinger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.

Spirit did send a radio signal via NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter Wednesday evening, but the transmission did not carry any data. Spirit did not make radio contact with NASA's Mars Odyssey during a scheduled session two hours later or during another one Thursday morning. It also did not respond to the first two attempts Thursday to elicit an acknowledgment signal with direct communications between Earth and the rover, and it did not send a signal at a time pre-set for doing so when its computer recognizes certain communication problems. The successful attempt to get a response signal came shortly before 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

No single explanation considered so far fits all of the events observed, Theisinger said. When the team tried to replicate the situation in its testing facility at JPL, the testbed rover did not have any trouble communicating. Two of the possibilities under consideration are a corruption of flight software or corruption of computer memory, either of which could leave Spirit's power supply healthy and allow adequate time for recovering control of the rover.

Engineers will continue efforts to understand the situation in preparation for scheduled communication relay sessions using Mars Global Surveyor at 7:10 p.m. PST and Mars Odyssey at 10:35 PST. Efforts to resume direct communications between Spirit and antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network will resume after the rover's expected wake-up at about 3 a.m. PST Friday.

Meanwhile, mission leaders decided to skip an optional trajectory correction maneuver today for Opportunity, the other Mars Exploration Rover. Opportunity is on course to land halfway around Mars from Spirit, in a region called Meridiani Planum, on Jan. 25 (Universal Time and EST; Jan. 24 at 9:05 p.m. PST).

Spaceflight Now

January 22, 2004, 2100 GMT (4:00 p.m. EST)

As project officials reported at the end of today's news conference, Mission Control received a radio signal from Spirit just before 12 noon EST. This simple message from the rover confirms it had received a transmission from Earth, and encourages engineers since it proves that Spirit is still alive and functioning.

Mission Status Center

NEWSALERT: Thursday, January 22, 2004 @ 1711 GMT

The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now

SPIRIT HIT BY 'VERY SERIOUS ANAMOLY'

Full story

NASA News

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 21, 2004

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

Project managers have not yet determined the cause, but similar events occurred several times during the Mars Pathfinder mission. The team is examining a number of different scenarios, some of which would be resolved when the rover wakes up after powering down at the end of the martian day (around midday Pacific time Wednesday).

The next opportunity to hear from the vehicle is when the rover may attempt to communicate with the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter at about 8:30 p.m. Pacific time tonight. A second communication opportunity may occur about two hours later during a relay pass via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. If necessary, the flight team will take additional recovery steps early Thursday morning (the morning of sol 19 on Mars) when the rover wakes up and can communicate directly with Earth.

Full details on the rover's status will be described in the next daily news conference Thursday at 9 a.m. Pacific time at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 20, 2004

NASA Mars Rover's First Soil Analysis Yields Surprises

Today and overnight tonight, Spirit is using its microscope and two up-close spectrometers on a football-sized rock called Adirondack, said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"We're really happy with the way the spacecraft continues to work for us," Trosper said. The large amount of data -- nearly 100 megabits -- transmitted from Spirit in a single relay session through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft today "is like getting an upgrade to our Internet connection."

Scientists today reported initial impressions from using Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, Moessbauer spectrometer and microscopic imager on a patch of soil that was directly in front of the rover after Spirit drove off its lander Jan. 15.

"We're starting to put together a picture of what the soil at this particular place in Gusev Crater is like. There are some puzzles and there are surprises," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the suite of instruments on Spirit and on Spirit's twin, Opportunity.

One unexpected finding was the Moessbauer spectrometer's detection of a mineral called olivine, which does not survive weathering well. This spectrometer identifies different types of iron-containing minerals; scientists believe many of the minerals on Mars contain iron. "This soil contains a mixture of minerals, and each mineral has its own distinctive Moessbauer pattern, like a fingerprint," said Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, lead scientist for this instrument.

The lack of weathering suggested by the presence of olivine might be evidence that the soil particles are finely ground volcanic material, Squyres said. Another possible explanation is that the soil layer where the measurements were taken is extremely thin, and the olivine is actually in a rock under the soil.

Scientists were also surprised by how little the soil was disturbed when Spirit's robotic arm pressed the Moessbauer spectrometer's contact plate directly onto the patch being examined. Microscopic images from before and after that pressing showed almost no change. "I thought it would scrunch down the soil particles," Squyres said. "Nothing collapsed. What is holding these grains together?"

Information from another instrument on the arm, an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, may point to an answer. This instrument "measures X-ray radiation emitted by Mars samples, and from this data we can derive the elemental composition of martian soils and rocks," said Dr. Johannes Brueckner, rover science team member from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. The instrument found the most prevalent elements in the soil patch were silicon and iron. It also found significant levels of chlorine and sulfur, characteristic of soils at previous martian landing sites but unlike soil composition on Earth.

Squyres said, "There may be sulfates and chlorides binding the little particles together." Those types of salts could be left behind by evaporating water, or could come from volcanic eruptions, he said. The soil may not have even originated anywhere near Spirit's landing site, because Mars has dust storms that redistribute fine particles around the planet. The next target for use of the rover's full set of instruments is a rock, which is more likely to have originated nearby.

Spirit landed in the Connecticut-sized Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time). In coming weeks and months, according to plans, it will examine rocks and soil for clues about whether the past environment there was ever watery and possibly suitable to sustaining life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 19, 2004

Spirit Drives to a Rock Called 'Adirondack' for Close Inspection

The Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plans to send commands to Spirit early Tuesday to examine Adirondack with a microscope and two instruments that reveal the composition of rocks, said JPL's Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager. The instruments are the Mössbauer spectrometer and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

Spirit successfully rolled off the lander and onto the martian surface last Thursday. To make the drive to Adirondack, the rover turned 40 degrees in short arcs totaling 95 centimeters (3.1 feet). It then turned in place to face the target rock and drove four short moves straightforward totaling 1.9 meters (6.2 feet). The moves covered a span of 30 minutes on Sunday, though most of that was sitting still and taking pictures between moves. The total amount of time when Spirit was actually moving was about two minutes.

"These are the sorts of baby steps we're taking," said JPL's Dr. Eddie Tunstel, rover mobility engineer.

"The drive was designed for two purposes, one of which was to get to the rock," Tunstel said. "From the mobility engineers' standpoint, this drive was geared to testing out how we do drives on this new surface." Gathering new information such as how much the wheels slip in the martian soil will give the team confidence for more ambitious drives in future weeks and months.

"Adirondack is now about one foot (30 centimeters) in front of the front wheels," he said.

Scientists chose Adirondack to be Spirit's first target rock rather than another rock, called Sashimi, that would have been a shorter, straight-ahead drive. Rocks are time capsules containing evidence of the environmental conditions of the past, said Dr. Dave Des Marais, a rover science-team member from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We needed to decide which of these time capsules to open."

Sashimi appears dustier than Adirondack. The dust layer could obscure good observations of the rock's surface, which may give information about chemical changes and other weathering from environmental conditions affecting the rock since its surface was fresh. Also, Sashimi is more pitted than Adirondack. That makes it a poorer candidate for the rover's rock abrasion tool, which scrapes away a rock's surface for a view of the interior evidence about environmental conditions when the rock first formed. Adirondack has a "nice, flat surface" well suited to trying out the rover's tools on their first martian rock, Des Marais said.

"The hypothesis is that this is a volcanic rock, but we'll test that hypothesis," he said. Spirit arrived at Mars Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time) after a seven-month journey. In coming weeks and months, according to plans, it will be exploring for clues in rocks and soil to decipher whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and possibly suitable to sustain life.

Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 15, 2004

Spirit Rolls All Six Wheels Onto Martian Soil

This 3D image from Spirit shows the empty lander.
Photo: NASA/JPL

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early today.

The robot's first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and discovery. We have six wheels in the dirt," said JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi.

Since Spirit landed inside Mars' Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (PST and EST; Jan. 4 Universal Time), JPL engineers have put it through a careful sequence of unfolding, standing up, checking its surroundings and other steps leading up to today's drive-off.

"It has taken an incredible effort by an incredible group of people," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Peter Theisinger of JPL.

The drive moved Spirit 3 meters (10 feet) in 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) away from the foot of the egress ramp, said JPL's Joel Krajewski, leader of the team that developed the sequence of events from landing to drive- off. The flight time sent the command for the drive-off at 12:21 a.m. PST today and received data confirming the event at 1:53 a.m. PST. The data showed that the rover completed the drive-off at 08:41 Universal Time (12:41 a.m. PST).

"There was a great sigh of relief from me," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the drive-off. "We are now on the surface of Mars."

With the rover on the ground, an international team of scientists assembled at JPL will be making daily decisions about how to use the rover for examining rocks, soils and atmosphere with a suite of scientific instruments onboard.

"Now, we are the mission that we all envisioned three-and-a-half years ago, and that's tremendously exciting," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager.

JPL engineer Chris Lewicki, flight director, said "It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team." Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on June 10, 2003. Now that it is on Mars, its task is to spend the rest of its mission exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.

Space Daily

Spirit robot rolls out for short drive on Mars

The US spirit robot successfully rolled off its landing platform onto Martian soil for a brief, three meter (10-foot) excursion early Thursday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

Full story

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 14, 2004

Spirit Ready to Drive Onto Mars Surface

"We are very excited about where we are today. We've just completed the exploration of our lander and we're ready to explore Mars," said Kevin Burke of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., leader of the engineering team that planned the rover's egress from the lander. "We are headed in a north-northwest direction. That is our exit path, and we're sitting just where we want to be."

Late tonight, mission managers at JPL plan to send the command for Spirit to drive forward 3 meters (10 feet), enough to get all six wheels onto the soil.

After the move, one of the rover's first jobs will be to locate the Sun with its panoramic camera and calculate from the Sun's position how to point its main antenna at Earth, JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager, explained.

On Friday, Spirit's science team will take advantage of special possibilities presented by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter flying almost directly overhead, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) high. Mars Express successfully entered orbit around Mars last month. Spirit will be looking up while Mars Express uses three instruments to look down.

"This is an historic opportunity," said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the science instruments on Spirit and on its twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity. "The intent is to get observations from above and to get observations from below at the same time to do the best possible job of determining the dynamics of the atmosphere." The Mars Express observations are also expected to supplement earlier information from two NASA Mars orbiters about the surface minerals and landforms in Spirit's neighborhood within Gusev Crater.

Mars Express will be looking down with a high-resolution stereo camera, a spectrometer for identifying minerals in infrared and visible wavelengths, and another spectrometer for studying atmospheric circulation and composition. Spirit will be looking up with its panoramic camera and its infrared spectrometer.

Dr. Michael Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., reported how Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer can be used to assess the temperatures in Mars' atmosphere from near the planet's surface to several kilometers or miles high. Spirit's measurements are most sensitive for the lower portion of the atmosphere, while Mars Express' measurements will be most sensitive for the upper atmosphere, he said.

Spirit arrived at Mars Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time) after a seven-month journey. In coming weeks and months, according to plans, it will be exploring for clues in rocks and soil to decipher whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and possibly suitable to sustain life.

NASA Headquarters
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jan 12, 2004

SPIRIT'S SURROUNDINGS BECKON IN COLOR PANORAMA

Mars in full view. This is a medium-resolution version of the first 360-degree panoramic view of the martian surface, taken on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera. Part of the spacecraft can be seen in the lower corner regions. Click the image for a 300 Kn version, or click here for full resolution (13 Mb).

The first 360-degree color view from NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover presents a range of tempting targets from nearby rocks to hills on the horizon.

"The whole panorama is there before us," said rover science- team member Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "It's a great opening to the next stage of our mission."

Spirit's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., continues making progress toward getting the rover off its lander platform, but expected no sooner than early Thursday morning. "We're about to kick the baby bird out of its nest," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the rover's egress off the lander.

The color panorama is a mosaic stitched from 225 frames taken by Spirit's panoramic camera, or Pancam. It spans 75 frames across, three frames tall, with color information from shots through three different filters. The images were calibrated at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., home institution for Dr. Jim Bell, Pancam team leader.

Malin said, "Seeing the panorama totally assembled instead of in individual pieces gives a much greater appreciation for the position of things and helps in developing a sense of direction. I find it easier to visualize where I am on Mars when I can look at different directions in one view. For a field geologist, it's exactly the kind of thing you want to look at to understand where you are."

Another new image product from Spirit shows a patch of intriguing soil near the lander in greater detail than an earlier view of the same area. Scientists have dubbed the patch "Magic Carpet" for how some soil behaved when scraped by a retracting airbag.

"It has been detached and folded like a piece of carpet sliding across the floor," said science-team member Dr. John Grotzinger of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Spirit's next step in preparing to drive onto the surface of Mars is to sever its final connection with the lander platform by firing a cable cutter, which Burke described as "an explosive guillotine." The planned sequence after that is a turn in place of 115 degrees clockwise, completed in three steps over the next two days. If no obstacles are seen from images taken partway through that turn, drive-off is planned toward the northwestern compass point of 286 degrees. Spirit landed on Mars Jan. 3 (EST) after a seven-month journey. Its task is to spend the next three months exploring rocks and soil for clues about whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars Jan. 25 (EST) to begin a similar examination of a site on a broad plain called Meridiani Planum, on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater.

NEWSALERT: Monday, January 12, 2004 @ 1810 GMT

The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now

January 12, 2004

ROVER TO DRIVE OFF LANDER BASE IN DIFFERENT DIRECTION

Engineers now think they'll be ready to roll the Spirit rover off its lander and onto the martian surface early Thursday, a day later than had been hoped, to accommodate rehearsals and a two-day procedure to rotate the rover into position for its long-awaited egress.

Full story

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 11, 2004

Spirit Rover Nearly Ready to Roll

NASA's Spirit rover now has its arm and all six of its wheels free, and only a single cable must be cut before it can turn and roll off its lander onto the soil of Mars. As that milestone is completed, scientists are taking opportunities to take extra pictures and other data.

During the past 24 hours -- the rover's 8th martian day on the planet, or "sol 8" -- pyro devices were fired slicing cables to free the rover's middle wheels and releasing pins that held in place its instrumented arm. The arm was then locked onto a hook where it will be stowed when the rover is driving.

Because one airbag remains adjacent to the lander's forward ramp, the rover will turn about 120 degrees to its right and exit the lander from the side facing west-northwest on the planet -- also the direction of an intriguing depression that scientists have dubbed Sleepy Hollow.

Current plans call for the rover to complete that turn in three steps, said Arthur Amador, one of the mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. As currently envisioned, during the coming martian day engineers will complete ground tests and execute dress rehearsals of the drive-off, or "egress."

On sol 10 -- the night of Monday-Tuesday, Jan. 12-13, California time -- engineers expect to sever the umbilical cord that connects the rover to its lander by firing a pyro device, the last of 126 pyro firings since Spirit separated from its cruise stage shortly before landing on Jan. 4 (Jan. 3 in U. S. time zones). Also on that day, the rover will execute the first of three parts of its turn when it moves clockwise (as viewed from above) about 45 degrees.

After taking and analyzing pictures to verify the first part of the turn, engineers anticipate completing it on sol 11 (night of Tuesday-Wednesday, Jan. 13-14). First, the rover will turn an additional 50 degrees and stop to take pictures. Then, if all is well, it will turn a final 20 to 25 degrees to position it precisely in front of one of its three exit ramps.

If no issues crop up as those steps are completed, the rover could drive off onto the martian soil no earlier than sol 12 (night of Wednesday-Thursday, Jan. 14-15). "But we adjust our schedule every day, based on flight events, so this remains an estimate," said Amador.

The rover's status overall is "pretty darn perfect," said Amador. He described the communication link from Mars to Earth as excellent, allowing the team to receive 170 megabits of data during the past day. All science data stored on the rover has been sent to Earth. The rover is generating 900 watt-hours of power per day and using 750 watt-hours, and its thermal condition is good, he added.

While engineers are completing and testing commands to execute the rover's turn and egress, the science team is enjoying an "unexpected dividend" of time to collect data, said Dr. John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover science manager at JPL.

Until now, all science observations have been planned far in advance, but the unfolding schedule of rover activities gave the team the opportunity to do their first on-the-fly planning for observations driven by previous results, Callas explained. In doing so they segued to a working style that they will practice on a day to day basis as the rover rolls across the surface of its landing site in Gusev Crater, named the Columbia Memorial Station.

In the next 24 hours, the team will collect 270 megabits of science data, considerably more than on any previous martian day. This will include a high-quality, 14-color mosaic taken by the panoramic camera of a third of the horizon toward Sleepy Hollow, the direction in which the rover will leave its lander.

In addition, they plan to complete two remaining "octants" (each a pie slice showing an eighth of the horizon) with the rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer. These areas will also be rephotographed with the rover's panoramic camera in order to allow the camera and spectrometer data to be co-registered. Plans also call for the spectrometer to "stare" at three selected sites to collect very low-noise data, as well as calibration of another science instrument, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

January 9, 2004

Spirit Lowers Front Wheels, Looks Around in Infrared

NASA's Spirit, the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers on the martian surface, has stood up and extended its front wheels while continuing to delight its human partners with new information about its neighborhood within Mars' Gusev Crater.

Traces of carbonate minerals showed up in the rover's first survey of the site with its infrared sensing instrument, called the miniature thermal emission spectrometer or Mini-TES. Carbonates form in the presence of water, but it's too early to tell whether the amounts detected come from interaction with water vapor in Mars' atmosphere or are evidence of a watery local environment in the past, scientists emphasized.

"We came looking for carbonates. We have them. We're going to chase them," said Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, leader of the Mini-TES team. Previous infrared readings from Mars orbit have revealed a low concentration of carbonates distributed globally. Christensen has interpreted that as the result of dust interaction with atmospheric water. First indications are that the carbonate concentration near Spirit may be higher than the Mars global average.

After the rover drives off its lander platform, infrared measurements it takes as it explores the area may allow scientists to judge whether the water indicated by the nearby carbonates was in the air or in a suspected ancient lake.

"The beauty is we know how to find out," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the mission. "Is the carbonate concentrated in fluffy dust? That might favor the atmospheric hypothesis. Is it concentrated in coarser material? That might favor the water hypothesis."

Spirit accomplished a key step late Thursday in preparing for rolling off the lander. In anticipation, the flight team at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., played Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" as wake-up music for the sixth morning on Mars, said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. In the following hours, the rover was raised by a lift mechanism under its belly, and its front wheels were fully extended. Then the rover was set back down, raised again and set down again to check whether suspension mechanisms had latched properly.

Pictures returned from the rover's navigation camera and front hazard-identification camera, plus other data, confirmed success.

"We are very, very, very pleased to see the rover complete the most critical part of the stand-up process," Wallace said. Next steps include retracting the lift mechanism and extending the rear wheels.

A tug on airbag tendons by the airbag retraction motor Thursday evening did not lower puffed up portions of airbag material that are a potential obstacle to driving the rover straight forward to exit the lander. The most likely path for driving off will be to turn 120 degrees to the right before rolling off. "This is something we have practiced many times. We are very comfortable doing it," Wallace said.

The earliest scenario for getting the rover off the lander, if all goes smoothly, is Spirit's 13th or 14th day on Mars, Jan. 16 or 17.

"We're proceeding in a measured, temperate way," said JPL's Peter Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project. "This is a priceless asset. It is fully functioning. It is sitting in a beautiful scientific target. We're not going to take any inappropriate risks."

While preparing to learn more about what Mars rocks are made of, Christensen announced an educational project to involve school children and other people in getting rocks from all over Earth for comparison. "Send me your rocks and we'll see if there are rocks in your back yard that are similar to what we're seeing on Mars," he said. Information about how to send rocks to Arizona State University is on the rovers' Web site at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

Planet Internet

8 januari 2003

Spirit later op pad

Wegens kleine technische problemen zal de Marsverkenner ‘Spirit’ zijn landingsplek niet maandag, maar pas over een week verlaten, zo maakte de NASA bekend.

Lees hier meer

CNN Friday, January 9, 2004 Posted: 3:02 AM EST (0802 GMT)

NASA trying again to clear Mars rover's path

Full story

Eerste kleurenfoto van Mars gemaakt door Spirit. Klik voor hoge resolutie (8 Mb)

Panoramafoto van Mars rondom de lander

Nederlands:

Mars Society Nederland

6 januari 2004

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Er zijn sinds 1960 in totaal 40 landers en satellieten naar de Rode Planeet gestuurd. Van een daarvan, de Europese Beagle 2, is het lot nog onbekend. Een andere, de Amerikaanse Opportunity, komt pas eind januari bij Mars aan. Van de overige 38 projecten zijn er 21 mislukt en 14 geslaagd. Drie Russische sondes gaven de geest tijdens het uitvoeren van hun taak, maar leverden niettemin foto’s of andere zinnige gegevens op. 21 mislukkingen op 40 Marsmissies; het gaat dus om net iets meer dan de helft in plaats van tweederde.

De sombere statistiek kan nog verder bijgesteld worden als we de mislukkingen nader bekijken. Veel van de onfortuinlijke projecten vonden plaats in de prille beginjaren van de ruimtevaart. De Sovjet Unie lanceerde bijvoorbeeld in 1960 en 1962 vijf ruimtevaartuigen naar Mars. Twee kwamen er nauwelijks van de grond, twee andere haalden net een baan om de Aarde, en slechts een kwam halverwege de planeet van bestemming. Maar nog geen vijf jaar eerder was Sputnik, de eerste kunstmaan, gelanceerd. Het is bijna onvoorstelbaar dat de pioniers van die tijd meteen wilden doorstoten naar Mars en het is begrijpelijk dat dat niet meteen lukte.

Rusland had door de jaren heen erg veel pech met zijn Marsprogramma. Van de 18 lanceringen mislukten er 14; 11 daarvan vonden plaats in de jaren zestig en de vroege jaren zeventig. Inmiddels hebben de Russen, door stug door te gaan met hun no-nonsense benadering van de ruimtevaart, een uitstekende reputatie opgebouwd. Daarvan getuigt onder andere de succesvolle lancering, eerder dit jaar, van de Europese Mars Express, vanaf de basis Baikonur. Maar helaas heeft Moskou momenteel geen geld voor eigen Marsmissies.

Ook Japan heeft tot nu toe geen geluk. Na een heroïsche tocht van zes jaar moest de Nozomi onlangs opgeven in het zicht van de haven. Van de twee Europese missies lijkt de Mars Express zeer succesvol te gaan worden.

Van de Amerikaanse missies loopt gemiddeld tweederde goed af: 12 van de 18, met een 19de sonde nog onderweg. Bij de geslaagde missies waren onder andere Mariner 9, de eerste satelliet die Mars uitgebreid fotografeerde, Viking 1 en 2, de eerste uiterst succesvolle landingen op de Rode planeet, Pathfinder, met als noviteit een voorloper van de huidige rover Spirit, Mars Global Surveyor, die al zes jaar gegevens overzend vanuit zijn omloopbaan en Mars Odyssey, die grote hoeveelheden waterijs aantoonde onder het oppervlak van Mars.

Desondanks blijft het sturen van onbemande sondes naar Mars, of welke andere planeet dan ook, een uiterst ingewikkelde zaak. Om een beeld te krijgen van de schaal van het zonnestelsel is het aan te raden een eurocent en een munt van twee euro uit de portemonnee te pakken. De Aarde is de twee euro-munt, Mars is de cent; op het meest gunstige moment staan de twee munten 150 meter uit elkaar. Een ieder die wel eens geprobeerd heeft op 150 meter afstand een bewegende eurocent te raken, kan zich enigszins voorstellen hoe moeilijk het is een ruimtevaartuig in de juiste baan om Mars te krijgen.

Om het nog moeilijker te maken doen radiogolven er, net als het licht, tien minuten over om van de Aarde naar Mars te reizen. Op afstand besturen is dus niet mogelijk, alles moet van te voren geprogrammeerd worden. In feite is het simpeler een bemand ruimteschip te laten landen op een andere planeet dan een onbemande lander. Een goede piloot kan zijn landingsvaartuig neerzetten op het topje van een berg of aan de rand van een diepe afgrond, terwijl voor een onbemande sonde een vlak gebied ter grootte van Nederland uitgezocht moet worden, om de risico’s te minimaliseren.

Een doos met instrumenten parkeren op Mars is dus niet eenvoudig. Maar, zoals John F. Kennedy al in 1961, dit soort dingen doen we niet omdat ze makkelijk zijn maar juist omdat ze moeilijk zijn. En dat dit op den duur resultaten oplevert, bewijzen de statistieken. Er is veel geleerd sinds begin jaren zestig de eerste pogingen mislukten. Dat tonen de drie succesvolle satellieten bij Mars en die ene lander op de planeet wel aan. Iedere nieuwe aankomst blijft spannend, maar Mars is zeker niet de kosmische Bermuda-driehoek die sommigen er van maken.

Overzicht van de Marsmissies

Missie	Land	Lanceerdatum	Missiedoel	Resultaten

[zonder naam]	USSR	10/10/60 	flyby		bereikte geen baan rond Aarde
[zonder naam]	USSR	14/10/60	flyby		bereikte geen baan rond Aarde
[zonder naam]	USSR	24/10/62	flyby		bereikte slechts een baan rond Aarde
Mars 1		USSR	01/11/62	flyby		radio viel uit op 106 miljoen km 
							(65.9 miljoen mijlen)
[zonder naam]	USSR	04/11/62	flyby		bereikte slechts een baan rond de Aarde
Mariner 3	U.S.	05/11/64	flyby		de beschermende verpakking werd niet 
							afgeworpen
* Mariner 4	U.S. 	28/11/64	flyby		eerste succesvolle Mars flyby 14/7/65,
							leverde 21 foto’s op
Zond 2		USSR	30/11/64	flyby		passeerde Mars, maar de radio viel uit,
							leverde geen gegevens op over de planeet
* Mariner 6	U.S.	24/02/69	flyby		Mars flyby 31/7/69, leverde 75 foto’s op
* Mariner 7	U.S.	27/03/69	flyby	 	Mars flyby 5/8/69, leverde 126 foto’s op
Mariner 8	U.S.	08/05/71	satelliet	lancering mislukte
Kosmos 419	USSR	10/05/71	lander		bereikte slechts een baan rond Aarde
Mars 2		USSR	19/05/71	satell.+lander 	arriveerde op 27/11/71, geen nuttige 
							gegevens, lander verbrandde tijdens 
							binnenkomst in dampkring Mars omdat 
							de landing te steil was
Mars 3		USSR	28/05/71	satell.+lander	arriveerde op 3/12/71, lander werkte 
							op het oppervlak slechts 20 seconden 
* Mariner 9	U.S.	30/05/71	satelliet	in baan rond Mars van 13/11/71 tot 
							27/10/72, leverde 7,329 foto’s op
Mars 4		USSR	21/07/73	satelliet	falende Mars satelliet, vloog langs 
							Mars 10/2/74
Mars 5		USSR	25/07/73	satelliet	arriveerde 12/2/74, werkte slechts 
							enkele dagen
Mars 6		USSR	05/08/73	flyby+lander	arriveerde 12/3/74, lander sloeg te 
							pletter
Mars 7		USSR	09/08/73	flyby+lander	arriveerde 9/3/74, lander miste Mars
* * Viking 1	U.S.	20/08/75	satell.+lander 	orbit 19/6/76-1980,lander 20/7/76-1982
* * Viking 2	U.S.	09/09/75	satell.+lander	orbit 7/8/76-1987, lander 3/9/76-1980; 
							samen leverden de Viking-satellieten en
							-landers meer dan 50,000 foto’s op
Phobos 1	USSR	07/07/88	satell.+lander	verloren op 8/88 op weg naar Mars
Phobos 2	USSR	12/7/88		satell.+lander	verloren op 3/89 bij Phobos
Mars Observer	U.S.	25/9/92		satelliet	verloren vlak voor aankomst 21/08/93
* Mars Global	U.S.	07/11/96	satelliet	arriveerde 12/9/97, zeer gedetailleerd 
Surveyor						in kaart brengen van Mars (resolutie 
							van 1 pixel = 100 meter), voert nu 2e 
							verlengde missie uit tot herfst 2004
Mars 96		Rusland 16/11/96	satell.+lander	lanceerraket faalde
* Mars 		U.S. 	04/12/96	lander+rover	landde op 4/7/97, laatste transmissie 
Pathfinder						op 27/9/97
Nozomi		Japan	04/07/98	satelliet	aankomst bij Mars uitgesteld tot 
							13/12/03 ten gevolge van problemen met 
							de aandrijving. Opgegeven op 10/12/03, 
							te veel apparatuur kapot t.g.v. lange 
							reis door heelal. Bovendien risico van 
							inlag op Mars onacceptabel, want dat 
							kan Mars met Aardse bacteriën vervuilen
Mars Climate	U.S.	11/12/98	satelliet	contact verloren op 23/09/99. In atmosfeer
Orbiter							verbrand door stomme rekenfout
Mars Polar	U.S.	03/01/99	lander+grond-	contact verloren bij aankomst op 3/12/99
Lander/Deep				sondes
Space 2					
* Mars Odyssey	U.S.	07/03/01	satelliet	arriveerde 24/10/01, is ook communicatie-
							satelliet, nu operationeel,  
							bestuderen van de samenstelling van 
							marsbodem, bodemijs en in kaart brengen 
							van Mars door thermische metingen
* Mars Express	ESA	02/06/03	satell.+lander	Aankomst 25/12/03, Mars Express werkt 
/Beagle 2						geheel volgens plan en bereikte zijn 
							poolbaan rond Mars, staat gepland voor 
							1 Marsjaar onderzoek
							Beagle 2 geland op 25/12/03, geen signaal 
							sindsdien, wordt nog 14 dagen geprobeerd 
							door Mars Express.
* MER Spirit	U.S.	11/06/03	rover		landde 04/01/04, hoopt bewijzen van 
							stromend water en daarmee wellicht van 
							leven te vinden,leverde onmiddellijk 
							foto’s op na landing en wordt momenteel 
							klaar gemaakt 90 Sols (= Marsetmalen), 
							of 3 aardse maanden. Onderzoek op Mars.
MER Opportunity	U.S.	07/07/03	rover		landing op 25/01/04, zie verder bij 
							Spirit

Stichting Mars Society Nederland

Voorwaarts Mars! extra

4 januari 2004

SPIRIT VEILIG GELAND IN DE GUSEV KRATER

De landing kende een benauwde tien minuten, nadat de Spirit het oppervlak van Mars al had bereikt. Tijdens het stuiteren op de planeet bereikten gedurende die tijd de signalen van de Spirit de Aarde niet meer. Hier bracht de satelliet Mars Global Surveyor uitkomst. Deze kunstmaan, die al zes jaar om Mars draait, ving de signalen wel op.

Het doel van missie van de Spirit, en van zijn broertje Opportunity, die over drie weken aankomt, is de geschiedenis van klimaat en water te bepalen op de gekozen landingsplaatsen. Ondersteund door de satellieten Mars Global Surveyor en Mars Odyssey gaat de Spirit de komende drie maanden geologisch veldonderzoek verrichten op de bodem van het drooggevallen meer in de Gusev Krater. Via deze satellieten zullen de gegevens van het onderzoek naar Aarde worden gestuurd. De eerste foto's genomen door de navigatie camera van de rover zijn inmiddels binnen.

Met de landing van deze NASA-sonde is het ook duidelijk, dat meer geld voor een missie ook meer zekerheid oplevert. De Spirit en de Opportunity hebben samen 820 miljoen dollar gekost; de Europese Mars Express-satelliet en de Beagle2-lander te samen slechts 150 miljoen euro.

Dit aanzienlijk grotere budget leverde remraketten en ook een constante ontvangst van gegevens tijdens de binnenkomst, daling en landing van de Spirit. Niet alleen gaf dit, al voor het stuiteren en uitrollen van het landingsvoertuig, een direct antwoord op de vraag of de Spirit geland was. Maar ook leverde het gegevens op waar de NASA van had kunnen leren, zelfs als de landing niet succesvol was geweest.

De Mars Express zal de komende woensdag voor het eerst dicht boven de landingsplaats van de Beagle2 komen en gedurende 80 minuten proberen een signaal van de Europese lander op te vangen. Er is nog altijd een goede kans, dat de Beagle2 veilig geland is, maar zijn signaal niet kwijt kon aan de Mars Odyssey.

Over drie weken zal de tweede marsrover Opportunity landen aan de andere kant van Mars in de Meridiani Planum. Ook dit gebied heeft waarschijnlijk ooit stromend water gekend en is daarom interessant voor de vraag of Mars ooit leven droeg.

De Mars Exploration Rovers hebben naast de panoramische camera vijf instrumenten voor geologisch onderzoek: