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2nd rover gets to work Mars photos show 'bizarre landscape'

Posted on: Monday, 26 January 2004, 06:00 CST

Hours after its arrival on Mars, NASA's second rover, Opportunity, began sending back stunning photographs of an alien landscape unlike any other, on Earth or on Mars.

Each new image from Opportunity brought more oohs and aahs on Earth. Steve Squyres, the principal scientist, said, I will attempt no science analysis, because it looks like nothing I've ever seen before. I've got no words for this.

Another new, indescribable vista brought more amazement.

Holy smokes, Squyres said. I'm just blown away by this.

The grayish-brown soils seem to have a pebbly texture, but in areas scraped by the air bags that cushioned the rover's landing, the surface is a vivid reddish color and smooth, almost like talcum powder. In one place, Squyres spotted the impression of a seam of one of the air bags.

The photographs also show ripples, perhaps windblown. Not far in the distance, some large rock slabs jut out, the first exposed bedrock seen on Mars. From the images, Squyres guessed that Opportunity might have ended up in a shallow crater.

I am flabbergasted, Squyres said. Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre alien landscape.

One of the project scientists, Larry Soderblum of the U.S. Geological Survey, called the site Martian pay dirt.

Peter Theisinger, the project manager for the rovers, summed up the long night simply: We done good.

For 2004, NASA is now two for two in putting six-wheeled rovers on Mars.

Mission managers on Saturday reported significant progress in fixing the first rover, Spirit, which has been malfunctioning since Wednesday.

At about 9:05 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, the rover Opportunity, encased in air bags, bounced onto the Martian surface. The rover continued to send radio signals to Earth as it bounced and rolled along the planet's surface for several minutes before coming to a stop.

We're on Mars, everybody, said Rob Manning, manager for entry, descent and landing, as people in the control room cheered and clapped. The rover beeped that it was in working condition.

Over the next couple of hours, the spacecraft deflated and stowed the air bags and unfolded the petals around the rover into a platform. When the Mars Odyssey spacecraft orbited overhead at 1 a.m. on Sunday, Opportunity sent back the first set of photographs that awed the scientists.

As Opportunity sped toward its landing, mission managers said Saturday afternoon that they had homed in on the problems that had waylaid its twin, Spirit, which landed three weeks earlier on the opposite side of Mars, and that they were hopeful they would be able to repair it.

The $820 million mission is searching for vestiges of a watery past on Mars.

Opportunity's landing site is in a region known as Meridiani Planum, which contains a large deposit of iron oxide. What particularly interests scientists is that this type of iron oxide, gray hematite, usually forms in the presence of water, at least on Earth.

Initial estimates put Opportunity about 15 miles, or 24 kilometers, east of the spot controllers were aiming at, well within expectations and in an area of higher concentrations of hematite.

Only a few days ago, the malfunctioning of Spirit cast a worrisome mood over NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the rover missions.

Edward Weiler, the associate administrator for space science at NASA headquarters, said that when he arrived at the laboratory on Thursday, a day after Spirit began malfunctioning, the mood was glum.

I came here prepared for a funeral, basically, he said. In the last 48 hours, we've been on a roller coaster. We resurrected one rover and saw the birth of another today.

The post-landing news conference, resembled, in part, a locker room celebration. Members of the landing team whooped, cheered and exchanged high-fives. Richard Cook, the deputy project manager, thanked everyone, from the landing team members to Lockheed Martin, which built the Mars Odyssey Orbiter that is relaying some of the information from the rovers, to the friends and families of everyone involved. Anybody I left out, I apologize, he said.

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