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NASA Sends Rover Across Patch of Mars

Posted on: Friday, 6 February 2004, 06:00 CST

NASA has sent Opportunity on a roll across a pebbly patch of Mars, moving the rover closer to a rock outcrop that scientists want it to spend several days studying in detail.

The 11-foot drive put the wheeled rover within striking distance of the rocky portion of the rim of the 72-foot wide crater in which it landed late last month. The move was Opportunity's first since it rolled off its lander Saturday.

Opportunity needed to roll at least five more feet to put the slabs of bedrock within reach of its robotic arm, and a final "scoot" might be necessary to move the rover even closer, said scientist Larry Soderblom, of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists skipped plans for the rover to dig into and analyze the martian soil on the way, opting instead to reach as quickly as possible a feature on the outcrop they have nicknamed "Snout."

"Once we get there, we are going to do some pretty heavy remote sensing. It will be our first really good look at the outcrop," said the mission's main scientist, Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres.

Scientists planned for Opportunity to spend several days at "Snout" and several more cruising alongside the band of rocks, Soderblom said.

Opportunity's keen-eyed cameras have already revealed fine-scaled layering in the rock formation, which could have been laid down in water. Its instruments should shed further light on the origin of the layers. NASA sent Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, on the $820 million mission to find geologic evidence of past water activity on Mars.

NASA also has pinpointed where Opportunity landed late last month, said project manager Pete Theisinger. The rover sits inside a shallow depression about 2,300 feet west of a larger crater, he said.

Meanwhile, engineers reformatted the computer memory of Spirit, stalled by problems for two weeks, and rebooted it successfully, Theisinger said. Spirit "appeared fine" and resumed its science work on Thursday, halfway around the planet from its twin.

Spirit could begin rolling again by the weekend, moving toward a crater 800 feet away that could take a month to reach.

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On the Net: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

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