Thu, Feb 12, 2004
Rover Sets Mars One-Day Distance Record
The Spirit rover
shattered a one-day distance record on Mars, rolling nearly 70 feet
across the planet's rocky surface, NASA said Tuesday. The 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. "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.
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.
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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