A NASA safety organization formed in October as a response to the space shuttle Colombia’s accident released initial assessments this week relating to four agency projects, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s pair of Mars rovers.
May 12th, 2004
Spirit Keeps on Trekking
This cylindrical-projection mosaic was created from navigation camera images that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired on sol 121 (May 6, 2004). Continuing its trek toward the “Columbia Hills,” Spirit drove 96.8 meters (318 feet) – half of which was performed in auto-navigation mode – and broke its record for the longest distance traveled in one sol. That drive brought the mission total to 1,669 meters (1.04 miles), flipping the rover’s odometer over the one-mile mark.
May 6th, 2004
Mars Rover Arrival at Deeper Crater Provides a Tempting Eyeful
Scientists and engineers celebrated when they saw the first pictures NASA’s Opportunity sent from the rim of a stadium- sized crater that the rover reached after a six-week trek across martian flatlands. Multiple layers of exposed bedrock line much of the inner slope of the impact crater informally called “Endurance.” Such layers and their thicknesses may reveal what the environment on Mars was like before the salty standing body of water evaporated to produce the telltale rocks that were explored in the tiny “Eagle” Crater. That
May 6th, 2004
At Endurance Crater, Opportunity Rover Treads Carefully
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity will have to watch its step around its Endurance Crater destination to avoid a potentially mission-ending fall, while its twin Spirit continues its approach to the Columbia Hills. Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission scientists are particularly wary about sending Opportunity into Endurance crater, which bears tempting rock outcrops for study but could be catastrophic if the rover slips. With a depth of more than 66 feet (20 meters), Endurance is 10 times deeper than Opportunity’s previous Eagle crater home.
May 6th, 2004
Mars Rovers in Autumn: A Life-and-Death Drama on the Red Planet
NASA gave the go-ahead for both Mars Exploration Rovers — Spirit and Opportunity — to keep on rolling. Each robot has been handed up to five months of overtime assignments after completing their individual three-month prime mission. “Even though the extended mission is approved to September, and the rovers could last even longer, they also might stop in their tracks next week or next month,” said Firouz Naderi, Manager of Mars Exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where the rovers were built and are controlled.
May 5th, 2004
Spirit Encounters New Communication Problem
According to a daily briefing note made available to SpaceDaily.com NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover A – Spirit – is having communication problems. The current information available suggests the problems are not overly critical and can probably be fixed. However the root cause of the problem remains unknown.
May 4th, 2004
Mars rover on the brink of crater New Scientist
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is now perched on the brink of a 130-metre-wide crater and is surveying the site for a possible descent – from which it might never return. The prospect of exploring Endurance crater is exciting mission scientists, who hope there will be even more bedrock exposed than in the much smaller crater in which Opportunity landed. In that crater, dubbed Eagle, the rover found clear evidence that large quantities of liquid water once existed on Mars.
May 4th, 2004
NASA Releases New View of Mars ‘Endurance Crater’
NASA released Monday a sweeping 180-degree view of a broad crater punched in the surface of Mars that was photographed by the space agency’s Opportunity rover as it perched on the rim of the 430-foot-wide depression. “I don’t think it’s disappointed anybody,” mission manager Matt Wallace said of the first peek into Endurance crater. Members of the $830 million mission immediately began making plans to circumnavigate the 1,350-foot perimeter of the crater and, if feasible, send the rover rolling down into it.
May 4th, 2004
Crater looms large for Mars rover
The US space agency’s robotic Mars explorer Opportunity has arrived at Endurance Crater, where it has been travelling to for about three weeks.
The rover has now sent back a spectacular image from the western rim of the 130m-wide depression. Patches of thick rocky outcrop can be seen exposed all over the interior of the impact crater.
May 3rd, 2004
Almost There!
This cylindrical projection was constructed from a sequence of three images taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The images were acquired on sol 94 (April 29, 2004) of Opportunity’s mission to Meridiani Planum. The camera acquired the images at approximately 12:40 local solar time, or around 9:15 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The images were taken from the rover’s new location about 20 meters (65 feet) away from the rim of Opportunity’s next target, “Endurance Crater.”