>From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>Reply-To: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>To: ljk4@msn.com
>Subject: Mars Rover Pictures Raise "Blueberry Muffin" Questions
>Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 17:31:34 -0600
>
>MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
>JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
>CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=s8m6QSxz2W1O-3BCLCXxIg.. http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=ak5KkmzXILJO-3BCLCXxIg..
>
>Guy Webster (818) 354-5011
>Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
>Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
>NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
>
>NEWS RELEASE: 2004-054 February 9, 2004
>
>Mars Rover Pictures Raise "Blueberry Muffin" Questions
>
>NASA's Spirit rover has begun making some of its own driving decisions
>while its twin, Opportunity, is presenting scientists with decisions
>to make about studying small spheres embedded in bedrock, like berries
>in a muffin.
>
>Both rovers are on the move. Late Sunday, Spirit drove about 6.4
>meters (21 feet), passing right over the rock called "Adirondack,"
>where it had finished examining the rock's interior revealed by
>successfully grinding away the surface. The drive tested the rover's
>autonomous navigation ability for the first time on Mars.
>
>"We've entered a new phase of the mission," said Dr. Mark Maimone,
>rover mobility software engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
>Pasadena, Calif. When the rover is navigating itself, it gets a
>command telling it where to end up, and it evaluates the terrain with
>stereo imaging to choose the best way to get there. It must avoid any
>obstacles it identifies. This capability is expected to enable
>longer daily drives than depending on step-by-step navigation commands
>from Earth. Tonight, Spirit will be commanded to drive farther on a
>northeastward course toward a crater nicknamed "Bonneville."
>
>Over the weekend, Spirit drilled the first artificial hole in a rock
>on Mars. Its rock abrasion tool ground the surface off Adirondack in
>a patch 45.5 millimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter and 2.65 millimeters
>(0.1 inch) deep. Examination of the freshly exposed interior with the
>rover's microscopic imager and other instruments confirmed that the
>rock is volcanic basalt.
>
>Opportunity drove about 4 meters (13 feet) today. It moved to a second
>point in a counterclockwise survey of a rock outcrop called
>"Opportunity Ledge" along the inner wall of the rover's landing-site
>crater. Pictures taken at the first point in that survey reveal gray
>spherules, or small spheres, within the layered rocks and also loose
>on the ground nearby.
>
>NASA now knows the location of Opportunity's landing site crater,
>which is 22 meters (72 feet) in diameter. Radio signals gave a
>preliminary location less than an hour after landing, and additional
>information from communications with NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter soon
>narrowed the estimate, said JPL's Tim McElrath, deputy chief of the
>navigation team.
>
>As Opportunity neared the ground, winds changed its course from
>eastbound to northbound, according to analysis of data recorded during
>the landing. "It's as if the crater were attracting us somehow," said
>JPL's Dr. Andrew Johnson, engineer for a system that estimated the
>spacecraft's horizontal motion during the landing. The spacecraft
>bounced 26 times and rolled about 200 meters (about 220 yards) before
>coming to rest inside the crater, whose outcrop represents a bonanza
>for geologists on the mission.
>
>JPL geologist Dr. Tim Parker was able to correlate a few features on
>the horizon above the crater rim with features identified by Mars
>orbiters, and JPL imaging scientist Dr. Justin Maki identified the
>spacecraft's jettisoned backshell and parachute in another Opportunity
>image showing the outlying plains.
>
>As a clincher, a new image from Mars Global Surveyor's camera shows
>the Opportunity lander as a bright feature in the crater. A dark
>feature near the lander may be the rover. "I won't know if it's really
>the rover until I take another picture after the rover moves," said
>Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. He is a
>member of the rovers' science team and principal investigator for the
>camera on Mars Global Surveyor.
>
>Opportunity's crater is at 1.95 degrees south latitude and 354.47
>degrees east longitude, the opposite side of the planet from Spirit's
>landing site at 14.57 degrees south latitude and 175.47 degrees east
>longitude.
>
>The first outcrop rock Opportunity examined up close is
>finely-layered, buff-colored and in the process of being eroded by
>windblown sand. "Embedded in it like blueberries in a muffin are these
>little spherical grains," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell
>University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers'
>scientific instruments. Microscopic images show the gray spheres in
>various stages of being released from the rock.
>
>"This is wild looking stuff," Squyres said. "The rock is being eroded
>away and these spherical grains are dropping out." The spheres may
>have formed when molten rock was sprayed into the air by a volcano or
>a meteor impact. Or, they may be concretions, or accumulated
>material, formed by minerals coming out of solution as water diffused
>through rock, he said.
>
>The main task for both rovers in coming weeks and months is to explore
>the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils
>about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and
>possibly suitable for sustaining life.
>
>JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
>manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space
>Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the
>project are available from JPL at http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=EaYvkQmJwSFO-3BCLCXxIg..
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=fbViVDdMu3RO-3BCLCXxIg.. and from Cornell University at
>http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=xgYJapQ0AgZO-3BCLCXxIg.. http://jpl.convio.net/site/R?i=3HcsduO6qkVO-3BCLCXxIg.. .
>
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