January 17, 2004
Opportunity
a Week Away from Mars
NASA's Opportunity spacecraft adjusted
its flight path Friday for the first time in four months in order
to fine tune its entry into Mars' atmosphere next week.
The spacecraft carries a twin to the Spirit
rover, which is now exploring Mars' Gusev Crater. It will land
halfway around Mars, in a region called Meridiani Planum, on
Jan. 25 (Universal Time and EST; Jan. 24 at 9:05 p.m., PST).
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., commanded Opportunity to fire thrusters in
a sequence carefully calculated by the mission's navigators.
The spacecraft is spinning at two rotations per minute. The maneuver
began with a 20-second burn in the direction of the axis of rotation,
then included two 5-second pulses perpendicular to that axis.
"Looks like we got a nice burn out
of Opportunity," mission manager Jim Erickson said. "We're
on target for our date on the plains of Meridiani next Saturday
with a healthy spacecraft."
Before the thruster firings, Opportunity
was headed for a landing about 384 kilometers (239 miles) west
and south of the intended landing site, said JPL's Christopher
Potts, deputy navigation team chief for the Mars Exploration
Rover Project. The maneuver was designed to put it on course
for the target.
Opportunity's schedule still includes two
more possible trajectory correction maneuvers on Jan. 22 and
Jan. 24, but they will only be used if needed.
As of 5 a.m. Sunday, PST, Opportunity will
have traveled 444 million kilometers (276 million miles) since
its July 7 launch, and will have 12.5 million kilometers (7.8
million miles) left to go.
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