Opportunity Visits Twin Craters Viking And Voyager

MARSDAILY

Sol 442 for Spirit, looking back. Desktop available 1024x768

Scientists Contemplate Tilting of Rock Layers on Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 13, 2005 - Gazing across the landscape of the "Columbia Hills" in Gusev Crater on Mars, scientists working with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit think they have been seeing hints of tilted rock layers across the area traversed by the rover.

At "Larry's Lookout," pictured here, ridges of rock are stacked atop each other and tilted. Similar rock ridges are visible in the distance across the "Tennessee Valley." One possible explanation for these ridges is that they were formed by tilted layers of sediment that were more resistant to erosion and now stand in relief above the surrounding surface.

Scientists hope to better understand the structure of the hills and perhaps determine how they were formed by observing how the orientation of layers in these outcrops changes throughout the region. Hypotheses include that the Columbia Hills are the remains of an ancient volcano, a remnant of an old impact crater formed by an asteroid or comet, or delta deposits formed where water flowed into Gusev Crater early in its history. Each of these hypotheses leads to a different prediction regarding bedding orientation and structure.

Hills on the distant horizon may be the rim of a large impact crater many miles to the east of the Columbia Hills. Spirit took this image with its navigation camera on martian day, or sol, 438 (March 27, 2005).

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 13, 2005
Over the past two weeks Opportunity reached Viking Crater, before conntinuing to Voyager Crater, taking panoramas of each crater and conducting detailed surface inspections. During this period the Mars Odyssey orbiter went into safe mode causing a suspension of data relay to Earth.

With no post-drive imaging from the weekend, and very little data volume available in flash, Opportunity executed a few sols of low-volume remote sensing.

Driving resumed on sol 428 with data downlinked via the direct-to-Earth link. With the exception of the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (analysis is still in progress), Opportunity is in excellent health.

Sol-by-sol summaries
Sol 421 (March 31, 2005): Opportunity stowed its robotic arm (instrument deployment device) and drove 71.2 meters (234 feet) to Viking Crater.

Sol 422: On this restricted sol, only remote sensing was conducted. A panoramic camera mosaic of Viking Crater was acquired.

Sol 423: Opportunity drove 109.2 meters (358 feet) to Voyager Crater.

Sol 424: The rover used autonomous navigation to drive south 2.6 meters (about 9 feet). The drive ended early because the tilt limit of 12 degrees was reached, with Opportunity perched on the rim of Voyager Crater.

Sol 425: Before this remote-sensing-only plan kicked off, the rover team learned that its main communication link, Mars Odyssey, had gone into safe mode and the latest data available was from the afternoon of sol 422.

On April 2, Odyssey entered "safe mode," which is a protective state a spacecraft automatically enters when onboard fault protection software instructs the spacecraft to disregard its onboard sequence of commands and wait for instructions from the ground.

As a result, relay communication with the rovers was suspended. The rover team was able to add a direct-to-Earth session to the plan, which confirmed that Opportunity was healthy.

Sol 426: After a 90-minute direct-to-Earth pass, Opportunity performed a small amount of remote sensing. Operations were restricted because post-drive imaging had not yet been transmitted to Earth, and the team wanted to save the small amount of volume in flash memory for an eventual drive.

Sol 427: Still operating in restricted mode, Opportunity again collected a small amount of remote-sensing data. It used the panoramic camera to assess the clarity of the atmosphere, tested the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and took a reading of air with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

A 90-minute direct-to-Earth pass during the day returned data for future planning. The Odyssey team brought the orbiter back on-line, and the Opportunity team received 50 megabits of data.

The Odyssey team is investigating the cause behind the fault protection software sending the orbiter into safe mode.

Sol 428: The sol 427 direct-to-Earth pass returned enough data to plan a long drive. Opportunity drove 48.4 meters (159 feet), which put it over the 5-kilometer mark. The odometry total after this drive is 5,044 meters (3.13 miles).

Sol 429 (April 8, 2005): Restricted sol; remote science only.

MARSDAILY

Spirit Switchbacking Uphill

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 11, 2005
Spirit continues slipping in sandy terrain but forges ahead using crafty techniques such as switchbacking and creating a zigzag course. On sol 442 (March 31, 2005) Spirit drove successfully uphill for 12.6 meters (41.3 feet). At the start of the drive, Spirit averaged a 42.7 percent slip, but this quickly improved.

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