[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Driving Leaves Distinctive Tracks

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-148  

Mars Rover Driving Leaves Distinctive Tracks
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 18, 2011

When NASA's Opportunity Mars rover uses an onboard navigation capability
during backward drives, it leaves a distinctive pattern in the wheel
tracks visible on the Martian ground.

The pattern appears in an image posted at
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA14129.

The rover team routinely commands Opportunity to drive backward as a
precaution for extending the life of the rover's right-front wheel,
which has been drawing more electrical current than the other five
wheels. Rover drivers can command the rover to check for potential
hazards in the drive direction, whether the rover is driving backward or
forward. In that autonomous navigation mode, the rover pauses
frequently, views the ground with the navigation camera on its mast,
analyzes the stereo images, and makes a decision about proceeding.

When the drive is backward, the drive-direction view from the navigation
camera is partially blocked by an antenna in the middle of the rover.
Therefore, at each pause to check for hazards, the rover pivots slightly
to the side to get a clear view. If it sees no hazard, it turns back to
the direction it was going and continues the drive for about another 4
feet (1.2 meters) before checking again. This set of activities leaves
tracks showing the slight turnout on a rhythmically repeated basis, like
a dance step.

Opportunity has driven more than 1.6 miles (about 2.6 kilometers) since
leaving "Santa Maria" crater in late March and resuming a long-term trek
toward the much larger Endeavour crater. Opportunity has now driven more
than 18 miles (29 kilometers) on Mars.

Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, completed their three-month
prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued in years of
bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet
environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting
microbial life. Spirit has not communicated with Earth since March 2010.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project
for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

More information about the rovers is online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers. You can follow the rovers on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers and on Twitter @MarsRovers
<http://twitter.com/#!/MarsRovers>. A full list of JPL's social media
accounts is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/social/.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2011-148