News about Spirit and Opportunity on Mars...

[Rick]

Opportunity takes a look at its heat shield...

NASA's Opportunity rover has trundled over to where a piece of its heat shield is lying on the Martian surface. There's also a small new crater made by the heat-shield's impact.

Press release here: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20050103a.html

[Mike]

The US space agency (Nasa) robot rover Spirit has been studying what could be its most important rock to date on the surface of the Red Planet.

The rock, dubbed Pearce, was found in exposed bedrock at Columbia Hills, an area of elevated land at Spirit's Gusev Crater landing site.

The rock shows clear signs of having been altered by water in the past.

"This may be what the bones of this mountain are really made of," said rover chief scientist, Steve Squyres.

"It gives us even more compelling evidence for water playing a major role for altering the rocks here," the Cornell University researcher added.

Peace contains more sulphate salt than any other rock Spirit has examined, and the rover's abrasion tool, which cut a centimetre into Pearce, shows the salt's presence goes deep inside.

Rover scientist Dr Ralf Gellert, of Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, Mainz, Germany, said: "Usually when we have seen high levels of sulphur in rocks at Gusev, it has been at the very surface.

"The unusual thing about this rock is that deep inside, the sulphur is still very high. The sulphur enrichment at the surface is correlated with the amount of magnesium, which points to magnesium sulphate."

Spirit's investigations reveal the rock contains significant amounts of the minerals olivine, pyroxene and magnetite, all of which are common in some types of volcanic rock.

The Pearce's texture appears to be sand-size grains coated with a material loosely binding the rock together.

"It looks as if you took volcanic rocks that were ground into little grains, and then formed a layered rock with them cemented together by a substantial quantity of magnesium-sulphate salt," Dr Squyres said.

"Where did the salt come from? We have two working hypotheses we want to check by examining more rocks. It could come from liquid water with magnesium sulphate salt dissolved in it, percolating through the rock, then evaporating and leaving the salt behind.

"Or it could come from weathering by dilute sulphuric acid reacting with magnesium-rich minerals that were already in the rock. Either case involves water," he said.

Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, which is sited on the opposite side of Mars, has been examining the heat shield that protected the spacecraft as it slammed into Mars' atmosphere a year ago.

This is the first time experts have been able to examine a heat shield after it entered another planet's atmosphere. Engineers expect the findings to aid design for future missions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4275179.stm

Source - BBC News

[Rick]

NASA has approved another 18-months of crawling around on the Red planet for the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The rovers, which were originally designed to explore the surface of Mars for just three months, are holding up so well after their fourteen month stay on the red planet, that mission scientists say they are having to make long term plans for them.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/06/nasa_approves_extension/

[Mike]

The US space agency's (Nasa) Mars rover Opportunity has finally broken free of the sand trap that has prevented it from rolling over the Red Planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4612649.stm

[Rick]

Opportunity, the Mars rover, is edging ever closer to the edge of the Victoria crater, which has been its goal for more than half its time on the red planet.

NASA says the view from the edge of the crater will be the "grandest" yet, and that exploring the crater will yield a rich scientific trove.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/07/mars_rover_victoria/

[Rick]

Nasa's robotic Mars rover Opportunity is closing in on what could be the richest scientific "treasure trove" of its mission so far.

Within the next two weeks, Opportunity should reach the rim of a crater wider and deeper than any it has visited in more than two-and-a-half years on Mars.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5322962.stm

[Rick]

Take a look at the image taken by MRO which shows Opportunity at Victoria Crater.

More here

[Whitters]

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet's massive Victoria Crater. This carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science.


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/28jun_descent.htm?list983005

[Rick]

Huge dust storms raging on Mars pose the worst threat yet to Nasa's robot rovers, the US space agency has said.

Dust is starving the rovers of power by blocking out the sunlight needed to charge their batteries.

The six-wheeled, solar-powered rovers - Opportunity and Spirit - are operating at two distant sites just south of the Martian equator.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6909656.stm

And: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20070720a.html

[Rick]

Giant dust storms that have pinned the Mars rovers down for the last six weeks are beginning to lift, allowing the two explorers to restart their slow crawl over the red planet's surface.

The storms have blotted out the light from the sun, leaving the craft virtually powerless as their solar panels lay in shadow. When the severity of the storms became clear, mission managers elected to have the craft hibernate to ride it out. Then, earlier this week, NASA said the craft could resume their exploration.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/31/rovers_moving/

[Rick]

Clearing dust storms on Mars have allowed the US space agency's robotic rovers to increase their workload.

The vehicles - Opportunity and Spirit - had been kept nearly inactive for six weeks to preserve the limited power being generated by their solar panels.

But Nasa says the skies have cleared sufficiently for the rovers to resume some limited driving.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6970561.stm

[Rick]

After weathering the dust storms of the past two months, the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have had their solar panels swept free off dust by kinder, gentler winds. With full power restored, the two explorers are now ready to renew their slow crawl over the surface of the red planet.

Opportunity now stands on the crest of Victoria crater (pictured below), and is set to begin its descent as early as September 11 (Tuesday).

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/10/rovers_ready_roving/

[Rick]

The Mars Rover Opportunity has started its exploration of the Victoria crater. The images it is sending back suggest any previous (or current, but hidden) inhabitants of the red planet had a bit of a thing for crazy paving.

NASA says it has checked to make sure the rover can climb back out of the crater once it is done exploring, by running it backwards over the sandy ridge at the crater's rim. That test completed, the rover roved its way down the side of the crater. NASA says that it started with just two wheels in Victoria, but finished the day 20 metres further down the crater's inner slope.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/mars_oportunity_victoria/

[Rick]

The Mars rover Opportunity has sent back yet another gobsmacking image from the red planet. This picture is close to true colour, the space agency says, and was captured from a spot known as Duck Bay.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/victoria_snaps/

[Rick]

Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been given the green light to keep on roving, possibly through to the end of 2009. The rovers' continued good health is the only limit mentioned in NASA's announcement of the mission extension.

The twin rovers landed on Mars in 2004. The original mission called for the pair to spend three months trundling across the Martian surface. They have now been exploring the planet for more than three years.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/16/nasa_rovers/