Spirit Rover Takes Temperature of Mars for First Time
Posted on: Saturday, 10 January 2004, 06:00 CST
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The six-wheeled Spirit rover has taken Mars's temperature for the first time, as it readies for its first roll across the red planet next weekend, NASA said Friday.
During daytime, martian rocks were colder than objects made up of fine particles, said Phil Christensen, the scientist tasked with the temperature readings.
"On the ground, the warmest temperature is around five degrees CelsiusFahrenheit) and the coldest is -15 degrees Celsius (5 Fahrenheit)," he said.
The temperatures taken by Mini-Tess, the nickname for the mini-thermal emission spectrometer, were combined with the panoramic pictures taken earlier of Mars's surface to create an image of chilly blue objects and warmer red ones, changing as the martian day warmed up.
Meanwhile, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided to rotate its robotic rover 120 degrees to the right, to avoid getting it tangled in the remains of an airbag that cushioned its landing, said mission manager Matt Wallace from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Problems deflating the airbag have forced NASA to postpone Spirit's first trip off its landing platform, where it currently sits in the middle of the Gusev crater.
The Mars Exploration Rover mission eventually will search for traces of water, a possible sign of past life on Mars.
A second probe named Opportunity is expected to arrive on Mars during the night of January 24 to join in the mission.
-----
Follow every step of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission with RedNova. Click here to learn more...
-----
On the Net:
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
More science, space, and technology from RedNova
All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
Related Articles
- NASA Assigns Astronaut Crews For Future Space Shuttle Missions
- NASA Assigns Astronaut Crews for Future Space Shuttle Missions
- Proposed NASA Mission Could Explore Twisted Space Around Black Holes
- Aerojet Propulsion Launches NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Mission
- NASA Official: Stennis Vital Link to U.S. Space Missions
- NASA's Opportunity Rover Lands on Mars Tonight
- Trouble hits NASA Mars mission, rover stops sending data AP Photos
- Science Fiction Becomes Science as NASA's Spirit Rovers Land on Mars
- NASA Awaits Rover's Color Photos of Mars
- NASA awaits color images from Mars as rover begins exploration of
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds