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Mars Rovers Takes Close Look at Martian Soil

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 February 2004, 06:00 CST

By ANDREW BRIDGES

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA's Opportunity took the first microscopic photographs on Mars of soil that scientists believe could contain evidence the now-dry planet once was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.

The pictures, released Tuesday, show a coin-sized patch of grainy soil, peppered with tiny pebbles. Opportunity captured the images with its microscopic imager, one of four instruments at the end of its robotic arm.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, began this week conducting what NASA hoped would be sustained science operations. The rovers, 6,600 miles apart, both reached out with their mechanical arms to study firsthand the soils and rocks on the ground beneath their wheels.

Opportunity rolled onto the ground Saturday, a week after it landed. Spirit arrived Jan. 3 but a couple of weeks later it was sidelined with software problems.

Mission manager Jennifer Trosper said Spirit returned to work, even as engineers worked out the final kinks in the software.

Opportunity has transmitted its first 360-degree color panoramic image of its landing site. The rover touched down in one of the flattest, smoothest regions on Mars but ultimately came to rest inside a crater just 72 feet across.

"It provides us with a real sense of 'you are there,'" said scientist Jeff Johnson of the U.S. Geological Survey office in Flagstaff, Ariz. Johnson likened the mosaic image to the overlapping snapshots tourists often take of the Grand Canyon to capture its full sweep.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration next planned for Opportunity to put its Mossbauer spectrometer to the ground. The German-built instrument measures the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals.

Spirit resumed its own scientific observations, and NASA planned for it to brush off the surface of a volcanic rock called Adirondack, removing any dust and allowing the rover's microscopic imager to photograph it.

NASA launched the pair of roaming robots to find geological evidence of past water activity on Mars. That could show the planet was hospitable to life perhaps billions of years ago.

Opportunity hasn't had to venture far to gather evidence.

Halfway around Mars from its twin, the robot already has discovered an iron-rich mineral called gray hematite. Preliminary measurements suggest the mineral is of a variety that forms in liquid water, providing the first hint that the now dry site once was wetter.

NASA announced it would name seven hills east of Spirit's landing site in memory of the astronauts killed a year ago aboard the space shuttle Columbia. The agency must submit the names to the International Astronomical Union for official designation.

NASA previously said it would name another group of hills at the site to memorialize the three Apollo 1 astronauts killed in a launch pad fire in 1967.

About the Mars Exploration Rover Mission

NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. Spirit landed on January 3, and Opportunity is scheduled to land on January 24, 2004.

The Mars Exploration Rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet.

Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft are targeted to sites on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past.

The landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in a giant impact crater, and Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits (hematite) suggest Mars had a wet past.

After the airbag-protected landing craft settle onto the surface and open, the rovers will roll out to take panoramic images.

These will give scientists the information they need to select promising geological targets that will tell part of the story of water in Mars' past. Then, the rovers will drive to those locations to perform on-site scientific investigations over the course of their 90-day mission.

These are the primary science instruments to be carried by the rovers:

-- Panoramic Camera (Pancam): for determining the mineralogy, texture, and structure of the local terrain.

Closeup of the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the rovers. Credit: NASA

Opportunity extends its robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Spirit reaches its robotic arm to analyze a rock named Adirondack. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

-- Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES): for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. The instrument will also look skyward to provide temperature profiles of the Martian atmosphere.

-- Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB): for close-up investigations of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.

-- Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): for close-up analysis of the abundances of elements that make up rocks and soils.

-- Magnets: for collecting magnetic dust particles. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer will analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. They will also analyze the composition of magnetic minerals in airborne dust and rocks that have been ground by the Rock Abrasion Tool.

-- Microscopic Imager (MI): for obtaining close-up, high-resolution images of rocks and soils.

-- Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT): for removing dusty and weathered rock surfaces and exposing fresh material for examination by instruments onboard.

A goal for the rover is to drive up to 40 meters (about 44 yards) in a single day, for a total of up to one 1 kilometer (about three-quarters of a mile).

Moving from place to place, the rovers will perform on-site geological investigations. Each rover is sort of the mechanical equivalent of a geologist walking the surface of Mars. The mast-mounted cameras are mounted 1.5 meters(5 feet) high and will provide 360-degree, stereoscopic, humanlike views of the terrain.

The robotic arm will be capable of movement in much the same way as a human arm with an elbow and wrist, and will place instruments directly up against rock and soil targets of interest.

In the mechanical "fist" of the arm is a microscopic camera that will serve the same purpose as a geologist's handheld magnifying lens. The Rock Abrasion Tool serves the purpose of a geologist's rock hammer to expose the insides of rocks.

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