NASA's Amazing "Martian Rovers" Continue Extraordinary
Exploration
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off its
lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early Thursday. The
robot's first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and
showing wheel tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's
flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif.
"Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and
discovery. We have six wheels in the dirt," said JPL Director Dr.
Charles Elachi.
Since Spirit landed inside Mars' Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 (PST and
EST; Jan. 4 Universal Time), JPL engineers have put it through a
careful sequence of unfolding, standing up, checking its
surroundings and other steps leading up to today's drive-off.
"It has taken an incredible effort by an incredible group of
people," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Peter
Theisinger of JPL.
The drive moved Spirit 3 meters (10 feet) in 78 seconds, ending
with the back of the rover about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) away
from the foot of the egress ramp, said JPL's Joel Krajewski, leader
of the team that developed the sequence of events from landing to
drive- off. The flight time sent the command for the drive-off at
12:21 a.m. PST today and received data confirming the event at 1:53
a.m. PST. The data showed that the rover completed the drive-off at
08:41 Universal Time (12:41 a.m. PST).
"There was a great sigh of relief from me," said JPL's Kevin
Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the drive-off. "We are now on
the surface of Mars."
With the rover on the ground, an international team of
scientists assembled at JPL will be making daily decisions about
how to use the rover for examining rocks, soils and atmosphere with
a suite of scientific instruments onboard.
"Now, we are the
mission that we all envisioned three-and-a-half years ago, and
that's tremendously exciting," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission
manager.
JPL engineer Chris Lewicki, flight director, said "It's as if we
get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the
valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the
science team."
Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.,
on June 10, 2003. Now that it is on Mars, its task is to spend the
rest of its mission exploring for clues in rocks and soil about
whether the past environment in Gusev Crater was ever watery and
suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover,
Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time;
9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site
on the opposite side of the planet.
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