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Opportunity rover a true Marsmobile BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: January 31, 2004 Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers and applause one more time early today as the Opportunity rover crawled off its lander and onto the dark, dusty floor of a martian crater.
"Two for two," agreed flight director Chris Lewicki. "One dozen wheels on soil." Seconds later, a photograph looking back toward the Challenger Memorial Station lander appeared on control room monitors, prompting a now familiar round of excited cheers, applause and hugs. A view from the rover's forward-facing camera showed low-lying slabs of martian bedrock straight ahead, a high-priority target for initial science observations. "And it looks like astrobot survived the trip," Lewicki said. Opportunity thus joined the identical Spirit rover on the martian surface, completing two roll offs in less than a month. It took engineers 12 workdays to get Spirit off its lander, but just seven for Opportunity. "We knew it was going to be a good day," said mission manager Matt Wallace. "The rover woke up fit and healthy to Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run.' Really, from the time Opportunity was first born, only about two years ago, this vehicle has been a blue-collar, hard-working machine. She's got the scars to prove it. But like the team that designed her, she would not quit and she's where she should be on Meriadani Planum."
"In my wildest dreams, I never thought they'd let a mechanical engineer touch a computer in Mission Control," Burke laughed. "It was pretty darn neat, I must say. We've done it a billion times in the test bed. ... But it's a little different to hit that button and send that command millions of miles away. That's true commitment. On the science front, data from Opportunity's Thermal Emission Spectrometer confirm the presence of hematite in the soil near the lander. Hematite forms in the presence of water on Earth and it may provide clues about the role of water in Mars' past.
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Status quicklook
NASA has approved an extended mission for the Mars Exploration Rovers, handing them up to five months of overtime assignments as they finish their three-month prime mission. Check the status center for complete coverage.  Viking patch  Available now from the Astronomy Now Store: the embroidered mission patch for NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Mars Rover mission patch  A mission patch featuring NASA's Mars Exploration Rover is now available from the Astronomy Now Store.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Soviet Space  For the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Viking patch This embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Apollo 7 DVD  For 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Gemini 12  Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Soviet Space For the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Viking patch This embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Apollo 7 DVD For 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Gemini 12 Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Final Shuttle Mission Patch Free shipping to U.S. addresses!  The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is now available in our store. Get this piece of history!U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORESTS-134 Patch Free shipping to U.S. addresses!  The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. Available in our store!U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREAres 1-X Patch  The official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREApollo Collage  This beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREProject Orion  The Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.U.S. STOREFallen Heroes Patch Collection  The official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREGet e-mail updates Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed direct to your desktop (privacy note: your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose).
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