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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.  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 Columbia Report  A reproduction of the official accident investigation report into the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Mars Panorama  DISCOUNTED! This 360 degree image was taken by the Mars Pathfinder, which landed on the Red Planet in July 1997. The Sojourner Rover is visible in the image. Choose your store:U.S. Apollo 11 Mission Report  Apollo 11 - The NASA Mission Reports Vol. 3 is the first comprehensive study of man's first mission to another world is revealed in all of its startling complexity. Includes DVD!Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Rocket DVD  If you've ever watched a launch from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg Air Force Base or even Kodiak Island Alaska, there's no better way to describe what you witnessed than with this DVD.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Apollo 12 tribute DVD set  New! Featuring the jovial crew of Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean, the Apollo 12 mission was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff but proceeded on the second successful exploration voyage to the lunar surface. This three-disc DVD brings the mission to life with extraordinary detail. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Fallen Heroes special patch  This special 12-inch embroidered patch commemorates the U.S. astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice, honoring the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Women in Space  Women of Space: Cool Careers on the Final Frontier is for girls, young women, and anyone else interested in learning about exciting careers in space exploration. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Mars rover poster  This new poster features some of the best pictures from NASA's amazing Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.Choose your store:U.S. Current Shuttle Mission Patch  The official embroidered patch for shuttle Atlantis' flight to deliver critical spare equipment to the space station.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 STORE Project 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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