Jen10122
03-18-2004, 08:47 PM
LOS ANGELES (March 18) - With their primary goal of finding signs of water on Mars achieved, NASA's twin robot-geologists soon will make tracks across the Red Planet's barren surface until their batteries run out, NASA officials said Thursday.
The rovers, each carrying a suite of scientific tools, were finishing tests in and around two craters on opposite sides of the planet where scientists have found hoped-for clues that liquid water played a part in forming rocks and soil.
Earlier this month, the rover Opportunity uncovered geologic evidence that its landing site on the flat, featureless Meridiani Planum once was covered with water.
Three days later, scientists announced that Opportunity's twin, Spirit, discovered signs that small amounts of water once welled up in the soil of Gusev Crater, the Connecticut-sized depression where the rover landed on Jan. 3, and left behind small holes, or vugs, in rocks.
Both rovers are nearing the end of their planned 90-day missions with enough life left in their solar-powered batteries to attempt long drives across the planet's surface in search of more geologic information.
Spirit continued a tour of the edge of a small impact crater dubbed Bonneville, stopping periodically to sample the soil and to take photos.
The Spirit team was particularly intrigued by a high resolution image that seemed to show the lip of Gusev Crater which once may have held a lake, deputy project scientist Albert Haldemann said.
The rim appears to be about 50 miles away, and is visible for the first time since a dust storm clouded the martian sky in since December, Haldemann said.
THE OPEN ROAD
Spirit, now in the 74th martian day -- or sol -- of its mission, will complete its study of Bonneville in a few sols and turn southeast toward a range of low hills that may hold further clues about the planet's geologic composition.
At Meridiani Planum, Opportunity spent its 53rd sol scuffing the dirt in the floor of its landing site in Eagle Crater, and measuring the disturbed soil with the spectrometers and microscopic imager on its robotic arm.
Opportunity has spent its life on Mars examining an outcrop of finely layered bedrock that scientists believe gave clear evidence that salt water once flowed or pooled in the area.
The rover spent the last few sols examining a shallow bowl formation where spherical rocks nicknamed ''blueberries'' have accumulated. Test results showed that the blueberries contained large amounts of the mineral hematite, which on Earth commonly forms in water, scientist Andrew Knoll said on Thursday.
''The story of hematite at this outcrop is the story of an interaction between water and rock,'' Knoll said. ''We think we are going to find that those plains (outside the crater) are just littered with blueberries.''
Opportunity is slated to climb out of the Eagle crater for the first time in about three sols and begin driving across the plains.
Mission manager Mark Adler said an upgrade in software planned for both rovers at the end of March will conserve the vehicles' dwindling energy and make them faster drivers by turning off their hazard avoidance systems.
The new software will enable Spirit to travel about 164 feet a day at rocky Gusev Crater, and Opportunity to go 328 feet daily on the smooth Planum, Adler said.
20:02 03-18-04
The rovers, each carrying a suite of scientific tools, were finishing tests in and around two craters on opposite sides of the planet where scientists have found hoped-for clues that liquid water played a part in forming rocks and soil.
Earlier this month, the rover Opportunity uncovered geologic evidence that its landing site on the flat, featureless Meridiani Planum once was covered with water.
Three days later, scientists announced that Opportunity's twin, Spirit, discovered signs that small amounts of water once welled up in the soil of Gusev Crater, the Connecticut-sized depression where the rover landed on Jan. 3, and left behind small holes, or vugs, in rocks.
Both rovers are nearing the end of their planned 90-day missions with enough life left in their solar-powered batteries to attempt long drives across the planet's surface in search of more geologic information.
Spirit continued a tour of the edge of a small impact crater dubbed Bonneville, stopping periodically to sample the soil and to take photos.
The Spirit team was particularly intrigued by a high resolution image that seemed to show the lip of Gusev Crater which once may have held a lake, deputy project scientist Albert Haldemann said.
The rim appears to be about 50 miles away, and is visible for the first time since a dust storm clouded the martian sky in since December, Haldemann said.
THE OPEN ROAD
Spirit, now in the 74th martian day -- or sol -- of its mission, will complete its study of Bonneville in a few sols and turn southeast toward a range of low hills that may hold further clues about the planet's geologic composition.
At Meridiani Planum, Opportunity spent its 53rd sol scuffing the dirt in the floor of its landing site in Eagle Crater, and measuring the disturbed soil with the spectrometers and microscopic imager on its robotic arm.
Opportunity has spent its life on Mars examining an outcrop of finely layered bedrock that scientists believe gave clear evidence that salt water once flowed or pooled in the area.
The rover spent the last few sols examining a shallow bowl formation where spherical rocks nicknamed ''blueberries'' have accumulated. Test results showed that the blueberries contained large amounts of the mineral hematite, which on Earth commonly forms in water, scientist Andrew Knoll said on Thursday.
''The story of hematite at this outcrop is the story of an interaction between water and rock,'' Knoll said. ''We think we are going to find that those plains (outside the crater) are just littered with blueberries.''
Opportunity is slated to climb out of the Eagle crater for the first time in about three sols and begin driving across the plains.
Mission manager Mark Adler said an upgrade in software planned for both rovers at the end of March will conserve the vehicles' dwindling energy and make them faster drivers by turning off their hazard avoidance systems.
The new software will enable Spirit to travel about 164 feet a day at rocky Gusev Crater, and Opportunity to go 328 feet daily on the smooth Planum, Adler said.
20:02 03-18-04