Mars Exploration Rovers Update - April 2, 2004

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SPIRIT UPDATE: Bye-Bye 'Bonneville' - sol 87, Apr 02, 2004

Spirit began sol 87, which ended at 3:00 p.m. PST on April 1, with some morning atmospheric science, and then took a last look at the rock "Mazatzal" with the panoramic and navigation cameras. Then the rover was off, traveling 36.5 meters (119.8 feet) down the side of "Bonneville" Crater headed south toward the "Columbia Hills."

The drive was a combination of "blind" and autonomous navigation roving. The blind segments of the drive are used when rover planners can see all possible hazards and command the rover to just "go." The autonomous navigation portion allows the rover to make decisions based on the terrain presented. While the blind segments of the sol 87 drive were successful, the second to the last autonomous navigation sequence did not complete in the allotted time, causing a drive "goal" error. As a result, Spirit was not able to execute the complete commanded drive, and roved 36.5 meters (119.8 feet) of the 65-meter (213.3 feet) planned drive.

Following the drive, Spirit took navigation and panoramic camera pictures in her drive direction and performed atmospheric and soil science with the panoramic camera and mini thermal emission spectrometer.

Spirit will spend most of sol 88, which ends at

3:39 p.m. PST on April 2, driving toward the Columbia Hills.

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: 'Bounce' Barraged by Instruments - sol 67, Apr 02, 2004

In recognition of changing the instruments on its arm nine times, David Bowie's "Changes" woke Opportunity on its 67th sol on Mars, which ended at 3:21 a.m. PST on April 2.

The rover continued to examine "Bounce" with the microscopic imager and the Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers.

During the martian morning, the Moessbauer spectrometer was turned off before atmospheric science was conducted with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and the panoramic camera.

The afternoon hours were dedicated to intensive study of a handful of targets on Bounce, including the impression ground by the rock abrasion tool on sol 66.

Opportunity will continue to investigate Bounce for the next two sols and then begin its journey toward "Endurance Crater."

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Ron
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