Fri, Sep 29, 2006
21-Month Journey Marked By Several Stops On The Way
Send a rover over... just don't hold your breath. NASA reported
Thursday the Mars rover Opportunity has finally arrived at the rim
of Victoria Crater... after a 21-month journey.
Let's see.. that's 21 months to travel a little under six miles.
That's about 15,000 hours... divided by six... well, never mind,
it's slow! But slow and steady in this case paid off because
Victoria Crater may hold the keys to many questions about Mars...
especially about evidence of water discovered at Opportunity's
original landing site.
"This is a geologist's dream come true," said Dr. Steve Squyres
of Cornell University, principal investigator for NASA's twin
rovers Opportunity and Spirit. "Those layers of rock, if we can get
to them, will tell us new stories about the environmental
conditions long ago. We especially want to learn whether the wet
era that we found recorded in the rocks closer to the landing site
extended farther back in time. The way to find that out is to go
deeper, and Victoria may let us do that."
Opportunity has been exploring Mars since January 2004... that's
10 times longer than its planned mission length of three
months.
"We're so proud of Opportunity, the rover that 'takes a lickin'
but keeps on tickin','" said Cindy Oda, a Mars rover mission
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "It
continues to overcome all challenges despite its aging parts and
difficult terrain. We are looking forward to exciting new
discoveries as Opportunity begins its new adventure exploring
Victoria Crater."
To be fair, we may have exaggerated a little about how slow
Opportunity is. The trek to Victoria Crater included lots of stops
along the way for the rover to inspect interesting rocks and
objects... and let's not forget the five weeks it spent stuck in a sand
drift last year.
That should bring its average speed up to... well, it's still
slow. But we doubt NASA minds.
More News
Also: Vertical Flight Society, NBAA Maintenance Conference, GA Honored, AMT Scholarship For the first time, students from Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Florida, campus took t>[...]
Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]
"The need for innovation at speed and scale is greater than ever. The X-62A VISTA is a crucial platform in our efforts to develop, test and integrate AI, as well as to establish AI>[...]
(FAA) Inspector Observed That Both Fuel Tanks Were Intact And That Only A Minimal Amount Of Fuel Remained In Each Analysis: According to the pilot, approximately 8 miles from the d>[...]
“Pyka’s Pelican Cargo is unlike any other UAS solution on the market for contested logistics. We assessed a number of leading capabilities and concluded that the Pelica>[...]