NASA Opportunity Rover Rolls Off Lander

NASA’s Opportunity successfully rolled off its lander and onto the rusty soil of Mars early Saturday, a week after the six-wheeled robot arrived on the Red Planet.

The risky roll-off apparently went without a hitch, as indicated by a single black-and-white image transmitted via satellite to Earth.

“Two for two, one dozen wheels on soil,” flight director Chris Lewicki said after Opportunity joined its twin, Spirit, on the planet’s surface.

The picture taken by Opportunity’s rear hazard camera showed the rover’s now empty lander and a parallel set of tracks leading away from it, traced in the pebbly martian dirt 128 million miles from Earth.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers as the photograph appeared on a screen in mission control. More pictures flooded in minutes later to continued cheers and applause.

NASA said Opportunity probably took less than two minutes to roll the 10 feet off the flat platform of its lander and onto the dark soil of the crater in which it landed seven days ago.

The step was likely the riskiest Opportunity would ever take. Once the rover rolls up and over the gentle slopes of the 10-foot deep crater, it will be on the smoothest, flattest terrain known on Mars.

Spirit sat atop its lander for 12 days following its Jan. 3 touchdown before it moved onto the martian surface.

The rover had to turn in place and use a secondary ramp to leave its lander after engineers failed to clear the path that lay straight ahead of it.

Since then, Spirit has rolled a short distance across the rockier surface at its landing site. Software problems drew its mission to a temporary halt on Jan. 21.

On Friday, NASA erased 1,700 files from Spirit’s flash memory, making it more manageable for the rover’s random-access memory. Engineers then rebooted Spirit.

“I am pleased to report it appears to be working just fine,” said Glenn Reeves, chief engineer for the rover’s flight software. He said NASA by Sunday should be able to declare Spirit “fully recovered.”

Opportunity has faced no such obstacles. NASA also accelerated the rover’s schedule to allow it to begin its field work more quickly.

While parked, the rover already spied tantalizing hints of a mineral that typically forms in water, a finding that could mean the dry and dusty Red Planet was once wetter and more hospitable to life.

NASA launched the $820 million rovers to find that kind of geologic evidence.

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On the Net:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov