[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update - May 12, 2004

[Ron Baalke]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Speeds to 'Lead Foot' - sol 124-126, 
May 12, 2004

Spirit drove 80 meters (262.5 feet) on sol 124, bringing its 
total odometry to 1,909.52 meters (1.2 miles).  Spirit has 
less than 1.2 kilometers (.75 mile) to go before reaching 
the base of the"Columbia Hills," and will reach them by sol 
160. Later in the martian day, after completing the sol 124 
drive, Spirit took a 360-degree afternoon panorama of its 
surroundings with the navigation camera.

On sol 125, Spirit continued driving and set a new one-sol 
driving record of 123.7 meters (405.8 feet).  Science on Sol 
125 included morning atmospheric sky and ground remote 
sensing, mini thermal emission spectrometer observation of 
the sol 126 instrument deployment device work volume, 
imaging with the panoramic camera, and cloud observations.

After the long sol 125 drive, Spirit was in perfect 
position to work with the instrument deployment device on
sol 126. This included alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, 
Mössbauer and microscopic imager work on a target 
called "Lead Foot" (in honor of the big drive on sol 125). 
The Mössbauer was used as the feeler for all these 
activities but touched down on rocks rather than soil at 
the "Lead Foot" location, compromising the Mössbauer and 
microscopic imager data (images out of focus). Spirit also 
did some driving on this sol, and added 55.6 meters (182.4 
feet) to the odometer, bringing Spirit's new drive total to 
2,089 meters (1.3 miles).  At the end of the sol, Spirit 
successfully executed a sequence that used the panoramic 
camera to find the Sun and correct for accumulated rover 
attitude errors.