[meteorite-list] Rover Eyes Mangled Hardware on Mars

[Ron Baalke]

http://space.com/missionlaunches/rover_shield_041223.html

Rover Eyes Mangled Hardware on Mars
By Leonard David 
space.com
23 December 2004

An unprecedented look at broken and busted hardware on Mars is exciting
spacecraft engineers.

NASA's Opportunity rover is edging closer to the very heat shield that
protected the Mars machinery as it plowed through the red planet's
atmosphere last January.

After six months of rolling about inside Endurance Crater, the
Opportunity robot is now traveling across the flatland of its landing
area, Meridiani Planum.

Driving out of Endurance Crater, the rover examined some of its own
tracks that it had laid down prior to entering the crater. It compared
them side-by-side with fresh tracks in order to observe any weathering
effects in the intervening 200 sols, or Mars days.

Opportunity is now trekking toward an engineering exam of its heat
shield, which is located about 220 yards (200 meters) from the edge of
Endurance Crater.

Charring challenged

Checking out the trashed heat shield is of particular interest to Rob
Manning, former Entry, Descent and Landing Mission Manager for the Mars
Exploration Rover project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena, California.

"Based on arc-jet testing and mathematical models, we expect a certain
amount of charring of the heat shield material," Manning told SPACE.com.

But Manning said that even the best testing facilities on Earth can only
test small samples of the heat shield in approximate Mars-like conditions.

"Ironically, we have never been able to absolutely prove that our models
that predict how much charring occurs during a Mars entry are correct.
An observation of the cross-section of Opportunity's heat shield
material would help us confirm our models," Manning explained.

Close-up pictures

Manning said that by using the Opportunity's microscopic imager on the
end of the robotic arm, an attempt will be made to take close-up
pictures of broken places on the heat shield where a cross section of
the heat shield is visible.

"We will also take pictures of the overall burn patterns on the heat
shield. However we will not know until Opportunity gets there if any of
these observations are possible," Manning added.

"But if we are successful, this will be the first time we have ever
directly seen how well heat shields have worked at Mars," Manning said.
"This information might help us design better and more efficient heat
shields in the future."