January 31, 2004
Opportunity
Rolls Off Lander, Both Rovers Now Mobile
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity
drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander
platform and onto the soil of Mars' Meridiani Planum early this
morning.
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.
Opportunity on Surface Looking
Back at Lander
Click
for larger image
Courtesy NASA/JPL
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," 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," Joel Krajewski, activity lead for
the procedure, said. 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.
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, according to
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.
JPL, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover
project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
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Gets Back to Work While Opportunity Gears Up
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