Here's a quick update on the Mars rovers.
Opportunity, which has spent the last 6 months examining the interior of "Endurance Crater" has finally left the crater and has her sights set on the heat shield that sits about 700 feet away. The engineering team is interested in what kind of shape that shield is in. On her way, she'll take a look at some tracks laid down before the entrance into Endurance to compare with fresh tracks and see what kind of weathering has taken place. Now that she's sitting on the flat plains of Meridiani, Opportunity's angle to the sun is less ideal than it was when she was tilted north on the interior of the crater. With the slight southerly tilt, daily solar charging has fallen by about 15% and so activities will have to be planned accordingly. Overall, Opportunity is in great shape as she begins this 4th chapter of exploration.
Spirit, on the other side of Mars from Opportunity and with nearly 2.5 miles on the odometer, has been climbing the "Columbia Hills". The engineering team has notices that with fewer driving days that Spirit's right front wheel, which was drawing near double current during the long trek from the landing site to the Columbia Hills, has returned to the nominal range. They suspect that more rest has allowed the lubricant to redistribute and they'll be taking that into consideration as they plan future drives.
One year ago, I was blogging NASA's landing sequence animation and wondering about the fate of the Beagle 2 lander. Well, the ESA's Mars Express mission, with the exception of the Beagle's unfortunate demise, has been a phenomenal success, beaming back some of the most amazing stereo color images of the Martian surface that we've ever seen and just yesterday revealed evidence suggesting there may be current volcanic activity on Mars and pointing to active glaciers on Olympus Mons! The twin rovers are still going strong nearly one year after their landing and they've delivered a convincing case for large bodies of standing water in the Martian past.
What a year it's been for planetary exploration. Just wait 'till January when things are going to heat up with Cassini and Huygens at Saturn :-)
Posted by asa at December 22, 2004 10:47 PM
