Spirit Rover Sets Mars One-Day Distance Record
Posted on: Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 06:00 CST
By ANDREW BRIDGES
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Not content to allow the Spirit rover to rest on its laurels, NASA wants to send the six-wheeled spacecraft on what should be longer drives on Mars.
Spirit already has broken the one-day distance record on Mars by rolling nearly 70 feet across the planet's rocky surface. No other robot, including Spirit's twin, Opportunity, has ever rolled as far on Mars in a day.
NASA, emboldened by the feat, plans to gradually increase that distance for both identical rovers. Eventually, it could command the pair to make daily trips of 140 feet and more.
Spirit's longest drive so far took it three times the distance that NASA's tiny Sojourner rover ever traveled in a day during its own 1997 mission to Mars.
"Probably it just will continue to climb from here," said mission manager Jim Erickson.
NASA planned nothing but driving for Spirit for the immediate future, other than brief stops to do some science work.
The record-breaking drive covered more than three times the greatest distance that NASA's tiny Sojourner rover ever traveled in a day on its own 1997 mission to Mars, mission manager Jim Erickson said.
"The basic goal was to drive as far as they could and see how things went in the time that they had," Erickson said of the drive, which ended late Monday without any problems.
Spirit drove "blind" about half the distance, following a planned route to a stopping point. For the second half of the short trip, the rover drove to a second stopping point, autonomously executed a turn, and then rolled onward before stopping, Erickson said.
"Everything seemed to go fine there. Tomorrow's plan is further driving. The day after that is driving even further," Erickson told reporters by telephone.
NASA has sent Spirit toward a crater nicknamed "Bonneville" that sits about 800 feet from where the spacecraft landed. NASA hopes the six-wheeled rover eventually will cover as much as 140 feet a day, Erickson said.
Spirit's twin, Opportunity, also was on the move at its landing site, halfway around the planet.
Opportunity continued to "scoot and shoot" along an outcrop, driving along the rock formation while taking detailed pictures of the finely layered rocks. Initial results suggest the rocks formed from volcanic ash or compacted, windblown dust.
NASA sent the pair of rovers on an $820 million mission to look for geologic evidence that Mars was once a wetter place that might have been hospitable to life.
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