Mars Rover Moves, NASA Plots Course

[ConcernedCanuk]

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Mars Rover Moves, NASA Plots Course

Wednesday, January 14, 2004


PASADENA, Calif. — NASA's (search) Spirit rover has rolled for the first time since reaching Mars (search), backing up 10 inches atop its platform as it began to reposition itself in preparation for exploring the Red Planet's (search) surface later this week.

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Spirit's first major destination is an unnamed crater an estimated 825 feet away. The asteroid or meteor that punched out the crater could have exposed ancient rocks that may reveal to Spirit and its half-dozen instruments the evidence that the robot was sent to find, Squyres said.

After that, NASA may dispatch Spirit on a rambling journey toward a cluster of hills to the southeast. But the hills are nearly two miles away, or about five times farther than Spirit is expected to be able to travel.

/snip/

Spirit probably will conk out before reaching the hills, however. Martian temperatures of minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit and colder wreak havoc with spacecraft electronics and other components, stressing and, ultimately, breaking them. The last rover NASA sent to Mars, 1997's Sojourner, lasted nearly 90 days before it succumbed to the cold.

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[Tripper11]

1. And the search for interplanetary oil begins!!!!

:evilgrin:

[Ripley]

2. Has this place made me paranoid or what?

I think it's very strange that when EU sent their Martian lander out a few weeks before NASA's was to land, it mysteriously disappeared. I know, I know, lot's of spacecraft have "disappeared," but it just struck me as odd that every time I read an article about what the EU scientists had planned...using sonar I believe to search 15 KM underground or look for methane...I read a counterpoint from NASA dismissing them and even laughing at them. Then "poof" it was gone and all the news is about the Red, White and Blue lander!!!

:tinfoilhat: