[meteorite-list] MER Mission Update - June 15, 2005

[Ron Baalke]

http://athena1.cornell.edu/news/mubss/

MER Mission Update by Steve Squyres
June 15, 2005

Spirit's on the move. We've finished up our work in the whole Larry's
Lookout/Jibsheet/Methuselah region and begun the long climb up and
around to the south side of Husband Hill.

Our last big activity before we left was to check out the rock we named
Backstay. This turned out really well, and it was a great example of how
this machine works. First we used Pancam to survey the whole scene
around the rover and figure out what was where. That showed us where
Backstay was and what it looked like. Next we used Mini-TES to check out
a lot of the interesting-looking rocks in the Pancam scene, to get a
handle on what they might be made of. That gave us a hint that Backstay
might be something new, and made us decide to go after it. Then we used
the rover's mobility system to drive over to Backstay and put it within
reach of the arm. After that we used the RAT to clean off the rock's
surface, followed by MI, APXS and Moessbauer on it to see what it was
really like. And the answer, to everyone's delight (particularly the
Mini-TES guys, who had been the advocates for going to Backstay in the
first place) was that it is indeed a martian rock type that we'd never
seen before. It's a basalt, as you might guess just from looking at the
pictures, but one with more titanium, more aluminum, less iron and more
potassium in it than the basalts we saw out on the plains. We can't tell
where it came from, of course, since it's probably a piece of impact
ejecta, and maybe one that's pretty far from home. But it's definitely
something new and interesting for the geochemists to puzzle over.

And with that, we're off into unknown territory once more. It really
does feel good to be on the road again. (In fact, somebody put up a
picture of Willie Nelson at today's Spirit SOWG meeting just for that
reason!) The current plan is pretty much just drive-drive-drive for
awhile unless something interesting and unexpected pops up in the
images. So look for nice new vistas to the south as we work our way
around the hill.

Good progress too at Meridiani, though we're being slowed down a bit
right now by being in the period we call "restricted sols". This is what
happens when Earth time and Mars time line up inconveniently, so that we
have to plan each sol on the basis of what happened on Mars not
yestersol, but the sol before. Despite being in restricted sols, we've
gotten Opportunity through most of the three-point turn we're using to
get her facing back toward Purgatory Dune. The next step will be to get
into a safe position on the dune to try some arm work on it before we
move on.

And dust is down a little at both sites, and Mini-TES on Opportunty
seems happy and healthy. So life is good.