 |
 |
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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.  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 Exploring Mars  Astronomy Now is pleased to announce the publication of Exploring Mars. The very best images of Mars taken by orbiting spacecraft and NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers fill up the 98 glossy pages of this special edition!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 Expedition 20  The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 20 crew is now available from our stores.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORECurrent Shuttle Mission Patch  The official embroidered patch for shuttle Atlantis' flight to deliver critical spare equipment to the space station.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORE Ares Patch  The Ares Project will develop two new rockets to launch astronauts back to the Moon under NASA's Vision for Exploration. The Ares 1 will employ a single space shuttle solid rocket booster to loft the Orion crew capsule. The gigantic Ares 5 will haul the equipment and cargo needed for such lunar voyages. This is the Ares emblem.U.S. STOREOne Giant Leap 
Hosted by Corbin Bernsen, this award winning documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency and features exclusive interviews with veteran astronauts.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREExpedition 21  The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.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).
|
||
|
MISSION STATUS CENTER INDEX | PLUS | NEWS ARCHIVE | LAUNCH SCHEDULE ASTRONOMY NOW | STORE ADVERTISE © 2009 Spaceflight Now Inc. |
||||||
