Mars Exploration Rovers Update - May 6, 2004

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SPIRIT UPDATE: 'Columbia Hills' on the Horizon - sol 118-120, May 06, 2004

Spirit is now approximately 1.7 kilometers (1 mile) away from the base of the "Columbia Hills" after three long sols of driving. Its odometer currently reads 1,566 meters (.97 miles) and counting.

Sol 118 was a record-breaking driving sol for Spirit. The Gusev Crater rover moved 92.4 meters (303 feet) across the surface in one sol, breaking its previous record of around

90 meters (295 feet). The Opportunity rover still has Spirit beat with a one-sol driving record of 140 meters (459.3 feet).

Sol 119 proved to be a more difficult sol for Spirit. An uplink configuration error prevented the sequence load from successfully getting on board the rover. Rover controllers took advantage of the down day by deleting afternoon communication sessions and enabling the rover to charge its battery during a long afternoon nap.

It was back to business as usual on sol 120. Before embarking on its drive, Spirit imaged a rock called "Tulula" with the panoramic camera. The rover then successfully executed a blind drive before using the autonomous navigation system to continue into uncharted territory. After reaching the time-of-day driving limit, Spirit turned and performed penultimate (next to last stop) imaging. The next move would have taken the rover 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) to its ultimate stopping point, but did not execute because Spirit was facing a small sand ridge that was perceived as a hazard. Without a penultimate/ultimate image pair, rover controllers could not be sure that the area underneath the rover was clear of hazards for instrument arm deployment. As a result, Sol 121 will be another driving sol that controllers hope will place Spirit in a suitable location to use the instruments on its instrument deployment device.

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: An Eyeful at 'Endurance' - sol 98-99, May 06, 2004

Opportunity continues to gaze at the incredible "Endurance Crater" from its vantage point on the western rim. Remote sensing, including gathering of imagery of two potential traverse targets just inside the northern edge and southwestern edge of the crater, will continue on the rover's

100th sol.
Reply to
Ron
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Hey Ron- can you get them to take a few pictures of the Spirit blueberries as well? I want to compare them to the Opportunity ones. The panoramic images are okay but color would be nice too. Some microscopic images would be even better.

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Cheers!

Chip Shults

Reply to
Sir Charles W. Shults III

I don't think they take requests. Nice try, though.

Reply to
George

Not to mention that there aren't a hematite spherules at the Spirit site. But of course that an easy leap for someone who imagines trilobite fossils in every rock...

Reply to
Greg Crinklaw

Hehehe.

Reply to
George

Well, Greg, perhaps you should look at this:

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Spirit has spherules of the exact same size and color. The close up shots show the same sorts of details. But I wouldn't want to rock the boat.

Cheers!

Chip Shults

Reply to
Sir Charles W. Shults III

No sir, it does not any more than those "angel" stains in the soil reported by that other nut were real flying angels. Irrational nuts like you don't come close to even making the boat sway a tiny little bit.

Your delusions don't count for anything.

*PLONK*
Reply to
Greg Crinklaw

Then I guess you don't want to see the trilobite.

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Oh well.

Cheers!

Sir Charles W. Shults III

Reply to
Sir Charles W. Shults III

I think you see what you want to see.

Reply to
George

How true. Kind of reminds me of the old joke about the guy taking an ink blot test from a psychiatrist ? For every image, he saw something related to sex. The doctor said ?It's obvious that you are obsessed with sex.? The man replied, ?Me? But Doc, you're the one showing me the dirty pictures?.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Petrey

"Jerry Petrey @raytheon.com>"

Reply to
Terry Lynn Sadler

Reply to
George

Reply to
Terry Lynn Sadler

Reply to
George

Reply to
Seventh Book

On a sunny day (Thu, 13 May 2004 21:38:47 GMT) it happened "Seventh Book" wrote in :

It is because of politics. NASA has orders NOT to find life it seems. Because if it found life, or even admitted it was looking for life (as opposed to looking for water), that guy who is in charge now and put there by Creationist Religionist GW Bush the lesser will lose his job. And IF NASA was to cry wolf (or life in this case), that Bushman would loose all the ultra right religious voters who believe God created NASA in 5 days (or something like that, can't remember). So go easy on the poor guys, already all engineers left after Apollo, you would not want the rest to leave too. A good upcoming event is the X price, maybe private enterprise will make it to space, and then we can have Martian Mushrooms on our plates (recommended), and go on holiday (tourism is big business) to a moon of Jupiter, take close up pics of Venus for the ones at home, and play tennis on the moon. JP

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Reply to
George

Jesus H. Christ. When one idiot pops up, an entire symphonic orchestra of idiots join in the fray.

Reply to
George

Reply to
Seventh Book

Reply to
George

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