While we're awaiting more discoveries from the rovers, here's an aside astronomy topic. This pic was just released by NASA:

Image below: An estimated 10,000 galaxies are revealed in humankind's deepest portrait of the visible universe ever. Photo credit: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith(STScI) and The HUDF Team.

Astronomers today unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever taken. A one-million-second long exposure taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) may reveal the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages" shortly after the big bang.

The new image, called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), should offer new insights into what types of objects reheated the cold, dark universe about one billion years after the big bang, when stars first started to shine, about 13 billion years ago. The image reveals some galaxies at distances until now too faint to be seen even in Hubble's previous faraway looks, called the Hubble Deep Fields (HDFs), taken in 1995 and 1998.

"Hubble takes us to within a stone's throw of the big bang itself," said Massimo Stiavelli of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, and the HUDF project lead. A key question for HUDF astronomers is whether the universe appears the same at this very early time as it does when the cosmos was between one and two billion years old.

The HUDF field contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. In ground-based images, the patch of sky in which the galaxies reside is largely empty, just one-tenth the diameter of the full moon. Located in the constellation Fornax, the region is below the constellation Orion.

This new view is actually two separate images taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The combination of ACS and NICMOS images will be used to search for galaxies that existed between 800 and 400 million years after the big bang.

The ACS field is studded with a wide range of galaxies of various sizes, shapes, and colors. In vibrant contrast to the image's rich harvest of classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, there is a zoo of oddball galaxies littering the field. Some look like toothpicks, others like links on a bracelet. A few galaxies appear to be interacting. These oddball galaxies, that existed 800 million years after the big bang, chronicle a period when the universe was chaotic, when order and structure were just beginning to emerge.

The NICMOS reveals the farthest galaxies ever seen, perhaps just some 400 million years after the birth of the cosmos. That's because the expanding universe has stretched their light into the near-infrared portion of the spectrum, where NICMOS observes.

The ACS picture required a series of exposures taken over the course of 400 HST orbits around Earth from Sept. 24, 2003, to Jan. 16, 2004. The size of a phone booth, ACS captured ancient photons of light that began traversing the universe even before Earth existed. Photons of light from the very faintest objects arrived at a trickle of one photon per minute, as opposed to millions of photons per minute from nearer galaxies.

The STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The HST is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.

For information about NASA and agency projects on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/formedia

My! What a universe this is! Ever wonder what it is all about? Surely there is a grand design for it......or anything there is...just for being there.

Is space [empty room] a positive or negative?

I often wonder about it Wayne, it's quite a wonderous thing the Universe. In fact if the String Theory is correct then this is but one of countless Universes, all seemingly infinite (or might as well be).
Looking at this most recent photo above I have to also wonder how confident the astronomers are that this is the outer far reaches? It's most likely that looking any deeper is beyond the Hubble's limits of resolution but if they could focus on a "blank" spot in this frame for 10x the exposure one has to wonder what would show up there? If there is nothing beyond these most distant blobby galaxies then it must be 100% vaccuum reaching out to infinity? There shouldn't really be an "end point" otherwise that would indicate a barrier and a barrier would indicate a wall, and there's always something on the other side of a wall, right?
Anywho, yes, quite wonderous indeed and it'll keep humans guessing until there's no one left to keep guessing. That's my guess ;o) vgkg

Vgkg,

I've been a fan of the Hubble telescope project which seems to me to be producing amazing information for the public and truly advancing science. I'm really concerned at NASA's plan to forego further telescope maintenance trips (out of concerns for safety of the shuttle), and allow the Hubble to shut down and eventually basically fall to earth. I understand the concerns for safety, but it seems shortsided to me to let such an investment in science with great potential for future discoveries to fall to the wayside. Lately, I'm hearing a rumor that Hubble and other un-manned missions such as the Mars rover and other probes are also being phased out to funnel money to the lunar and Mars manned missions and that our space program priorities are slowly being shifted from science to space defense (military) priorities. What chatter are you hearing from your trolling of the space exploration websites?

Hi KT,
I share the same concerns about Hubble. Here's the Latest Chatter about it's fate. It seems that O'Keefe, NASA Administrator, is sticking by his (Bush's) guns at keeping Hubble off the table, but will allow "further study" to look at the situation. This usually means more time will pass while people forget and move on. I'm sure you are correct about other projects being phased out also since funds are scarce. There is a growing concern too that Bush's Moon Base/Manned Mars Landing are just grandstanding and no money will be there when it's needed (sound familiar).
Call me suspicious but why in the heck would this administration (of all administrations) be the least bit interested in space exploration unless it's just some sorted smoke screen to pretend to be curious or interested in discovery and enlightenment? Doesn't seem fit the mold at all. On the other hand, perhaps the Rovers detected oil on Mars, that would explain a lot. ;o) vgkg

Here's a NYT editorial:

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Advancing Both Science and Safety
By SEAN O'KEEFE

Published: March 14, 2004

WASHINGTON

Not a day goes by that the men and women of NASA are not mindful of the lessons of the Columbia accident. As we prepare to return the space shuttles to flight, we are determined to do everything necessary to reduce risk.

Because we are committed to complying with the safety recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, I decided two months ago to cancel the final mission to maintain and repair the Hubble space telescope. In making my decision I had to balance the world-class science that the Hubble has produced, and will continue to produce, against the risks to the shuttle and its crew.

The safety considerations tipped the scales. I welcome the decision of the National Academy of Sciences, announced last week, to review my conclusion.

In its report, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board called for the development of on-orbit inspection, repair and contingency rescue requirements for every shuttle flight. Those requirements bear on any decision to proceed with shuttle operations especially on requirements for a maintenance mission to the Hubble.

A mission to the Hubble would be the sole remaining shuttle flight not directed to the International Space Station. It would also require us to develop a unique set of procedures, technologies and tools in the few years before the Hubble's batteries and other critical systems give out. We are making steady progress in our efforts to meet the safety requirements for the shuttle's return to flight next year. But it is unlikely that we will be able to develop in time the safety and return-to-flight elements for a mission to the Hubble before it stops working in about 2007.

Accordingly, it may not make sense to devote time and energy to a mission to the Hubble only to find that the safety actions and procedures required by the board could not be followed. This would place NASA in the untenable position of having to decide whether to undertake the Hubble mission without the required safety elements in place. This is precisely the type of "schedule pressure" that the board quite correctly cited as undermining the future safe operation of the shuttle.

What has been lost in all the discussion about the Hubble is some very good news about this remarkable scientific instrument. First, even without a servicing mission, we expect the Hubble will continue to be scientifically useful for two to three more years, exceeding its planned 15-year life span by more than a year.

In addition, NASA has asked for ideas on how to extend the Hubble's service even more. There may be ways to keep the Hubble operating even if some of its batteries and gyroscopes fail. The International Ultraviolet Explorer, for example, a spacecraft intended to last three to five years when it was launched in 1978, kept operating for nearly 18 years. It may also be possible to maintain the Hubble robotically.

With the focus of our talented Hubble team, I am confident we will keep this magnificent telescope working for several years to come. We are also encouraged by preliminary assessments of alternative options for the instruments that would have flown on a Hubble mission. In addition, NASA is proceeding as planned with three astronomy projects (the Kepler space telescope, the Space Interferometry Mission and the James Webb space telescope) that will help us peer ever farther into space.

America's space program is at a crossroads. Prompted by the tragic loss of Columbia and its crew last year, we are making important changes in the way we operate our missions. But we are also looking forward to new challenges. As we develop new capacities, we must always work to improve the safety of our missions and our spacecraft. We are resolved that the legacy of Columbia will be with us not just today, but through all our journeys.

Sean O'Keefe is administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

60 Minutes did a story on the Hubble last nite and repeated a lot of the NYT article. Only concern seems to be the Shuttle crew safety (a Good concern no doubt) but the Science Mission director said he'd still like to make it a go mission to the Hubble and would go himself to keep the "world's most amazing instrument" (paraphrasing) up & running for as long as possible, and with new improvements to be added.
As we all should know by now it was the foam insulation that caused the Shuttle wing damage but NASA wants to have "repair kits" developed before sending astronauts up (except for to the international space station where there are other options of getting back home). There may be hope yet for the Hubble as some in congress are fighting to save it.

In the meantime:
*snip*
Scientists Find Another Huge Mini-World in Outer Solar System
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press
posted: 09:00 am ET
15 March 2004

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It is a frozen world more than 8 billion miles from Earth and believed to be the farthest known object within our solar system.

NASA planned a Monday press conference to offer more details about Sedna, a planetoid between 800 miles and 1,100 miles in diameter, or about three-quarters the size of Pluto.

NASA PARTNERS WITH DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

LOL, when I read that headline I thought that maybe the Rovers did find oil on Mars....

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington March 17, 2004

Bryan Wilkes
Department of Energy-National Nuclear Security Administration,
Washington

RELEASE: 04-096

NASA PARTNERS WITH DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

NASA has a new partner in its mission to explore the
universe and search for life.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Naval Reactors (NR) Program
joins NASA in its effort to investigate and develop space
nuclear power and propulsion technologies for civilian
applications. These activities could enable unprecedented space
exploration missions and scientific return unachievable with
current technology.

NR brings 50-plus years of practical experience in developing
safe, rugged, reliable, compact and long-lived reactor systems
designed to operate in unforgiving environments. NR is a joint
DOE and Department of the Navy organization responsible for all
aspects of naval nuclear propulsion.

The partnership is responsible for developing the first NASA
spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), that will
take advantage of a nuclear-reactor energy source for exploring
our solar system. JIMO will visit Jupiter's three icy moons,
Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. These icy worlds, in particular
Europa, are believed to have liquid-water oceans, under a thick
layer of ice on their surfaces, which could potentially harbor
life.

The reactor system will provide substantially more electrical
power. This will greatly enhance the capability of ion-drive
propulsion, the number and variety of scientific instruments on
the spacecraft, the rate of data transmission, and orbital
maneuvering around Jupiter's moons.

NASA sought this partnership because NR has an enduring
commitment to safety and environmental stewardship that is a
requirement for an undertaking of this magnitude, " said NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe.

"This partnership will help ensure the safe development and use
of a space-fission reactor to enable unparalleled science and
discovery as we explore the solar system and beyond. This work
is an integral piece of the President's exploration agenda,"
Administrator O'Keefe said.

NASA, through its newly created Office of Exploration Systems,
expects that several reactor modules of the same or similar
design as that required for JIMO would be developed for use on
future exploration missions. NR will direct and oversee the
development, design and delivery of, and operational support
for these civilian reactor modules.

The Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, another
DOE organization with extensive nuclear-reactor development
experience, will retain responsibility for supporting NASA's
other space nuclear technology efforts, including long-term
space-reactor science and technology development not associated
with NR's responsibilities.

All activities in support of NASA will be conducted as part of
NR's civilian responsibilities for the National Nuclear
Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency of DOE.
Activities in support of NASA are not part of NR's Navy
responsibilities or any Department of Defense activities. This
partnership with NASA is consistent with NR's history of
supporting fission-reactor work for civilian applications,
including the first U.S. commercial production of electricity
from nuclear power at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station.

NASA will fund all work under the partnership. Specific roles
and responsibilities will be defined in Memoranda of
Understanding and Agreements currently being drafted by NASA
and NR. NR and the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy will also
review capabilities and facilities at DOE laboratories outside
NR for consideration in support of JIMO and other Project
Prometheus activities.

Established in 2003, Project Prometheus is developing
radioisotope electric power sources for use in space and on
planets or moons, as well as new fission-reactor power sources
for advanced missions into deep space requiring higher power
levels for science observations, propulsion, communications and
life support systems.

More information on Project Prometheus is available at: http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/prometheus.htm

More information on the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter is available
at:
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/JIMO.pdf

-end-
* * *
As in the past there will be objections to placing a nuclear reactor and/or fissionable materials on the top of a rocket. Hopefully all the hardening bugs will be worked out for those launches that don't make it. vgkg

Now Back to the Martian Rovers....

Mystery Spheres on Mars Finally Identified
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06:46 pm ET
17 March 2004

{{gwi:1370543}}

Scientists have learned the composition of the mysterious sphere-shaped objects scattered across the crater floor at Meridiani Planum, the landing site of the Opportunity Mars rover.

By using a Mössbauer Spectrometer mounted on Opportunity's robot arm, a patch of the tiny spherules -- also called "blueberries," although they aren't blue -- received close examination and have now been identified as hematite.

The spectrometer is designed to study minerals that contain iron, which are common on the Martian surface. Also used to pin down the makeup of the spherules was the rover's Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer, a science instrument that can recognize minerals formed in water.

Meridiani: shallow lake?

This new evidence further supports the hypothesis that the hematite mineral was likely formed in a past standing body of water. The Meridiani area, it is thought, was once a shallow lake.

Once Opportunity wheels itself out of its current shallow crater site, scientists expect the hematite-rich spherules to litter the landscape at Meridiani Planum....

Perhaps the BBs were formed by molten iron being spewed into the air from volcanoes. When molten metal like lead lands in water, it forms BBs.

Volcanism was one of the possibilities but the scientists seem fairly convinced now that the spheres are the results of water/sediments:
"This finding further supports the hypothesis that these interesting 'Mars balls' are actually sedimentary concretions, rather than any of the other working hypotheses," said James Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration and the Moon at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C."
But who knows what twists they may yet find. vgkg

You probably heard this news already but may be of interest to our resident forum geologists...

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington
March 23, 2004

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

RELEASE: 04-100

STANDING BODY OF WATER LEFT ITS MARK IN MARS ROCKS

NASA's Opportunity rover has demonstrated some rocks on
Mars probably formed as deposits at the bottom of a body of
gently flowing saltwater.

"We think Opportunity is parked on what was once the
shoreline of a salty sea on Mars," said Dr. Steve Squyres of
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for
the science payload on Opportunity and its twin Mars
Exploration Rover, Spirit.

Clues gathered so far do not tell how long or how long ago
liquid water covered the area. To gather more evidence, the
rover's controllers plan to send Opportunity out across a
plain toward a thicker exposure of rocks in the wall of a
crater.

NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science Dr. Ed
Weiler said, "This dramatic confirmation of standing water in
Mars' history builds on a progression of discoveries about
that most Earthlike of alien planets. This result gives us
impetus to expand our ambitious program of exploring Mars to
learn whether microbes have ever lived there and, ultimately,
whether we can."

"Bedding patterns in some finely layered rocks indicate the
sand-sized grains of sediment that eventually bonded together
were shaped into ripples by water at least five centimeters
(two inches) deep, possibly much deeper, and flowing at a
speed of 10 to 50 centimeters (four to 20 inches) per
second," said Dr. John Grotzinger, rover science-team member
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
Mass.

In telltale patterns, called crossbedding and festooning,
some layers within a rock lie at angles to the main layers.
Festooned layers have smile-shaped curves produced by
shifting of the loose sediments' rippled shapes under a
current of water.

"Ripples that formed in wind look different than ripples
formed in water," Grotzinger said. "Some patterns seen in
the outcrop that Opportunity has been examining might have
resulted from wind, but others are reliable evidence of water
flow," he said.

According to Grotzinger, the environment at the time the
rocks were forming could have been a salt flat, or playa,
sometimes covered by shallow water and sometimes dry. Such
environments on Earth, either at the edge of oceans or in
desert basins, can have currents of water that produce the
type of ripples seen in the Mars rocks.

A second line of evidence, findings of chlorine and bromine
in the rocks, also suggests this type of environment. Rover
scientists presented some of that news three weeks ago as
evidence the rocks had at least soaked in mineral-rich water,
possibly underground water, after they formed. Increased
assurance of the bromine findings strengthens the case rock- forming particles precipitated from surface water as salt
concentrations climbed past saturation while water was
evaporating.

Dr. James Garvin, lead scientist for Mars and lunar
exploration at NASA Headquarters, Washington, said, "Many
features on the surface of Mars that orbiting spacecraft have
revealed to us in the past three decades look like signs of
liquid water, but we have never before had this definitive
class of evidence from the martian rocks themselves. We
planned the Mars Exploration Rover Project to look for
evidence like this, and it is succeeding better than we had
any right to hope. Someday we must collect these rocks and
bring them back to terrestrial laboratories to read their
records for clues to the biological potential of Mars."

Squyres said, "The particular type of rock Opportunity is
finding, with evaporite sediments from standing water, offers
excellent capability for preserving evidence of any
biochemical or biological material that may have been in the
water."

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, Calif., expect Opportunity and Spirit to operate
several months longer than the initial rover's three-month
prime missions on Mars. To analyze hints of crossbedding,
mission controllers programmed Opportunity to move its
robotic arm more than 200 times in one day, taking 152
microscope pictures of layering in a rock called "Last
Chance."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. For images and
information about the project on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

http://athena.cornell.edu
-end-

* * *

Speaking of Melting Ice
{{gwi:1370545}}

Mars Mystery: Strange Spirals in Ice Caps Explained
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 03:15 pm ET
25 March 2004

Odd spiraling gorges etched deep into the polar ice caps of Mars have stumped scientists for decades. The huge arcing troughs radiate outward like arms of a pinwheel, creating an overall shape that visually and mathematically resembles hurricanes, spiral galaxies and even some seashells.

Now there is an apparent solution to the mystery, put forth by Jon Pelletier of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The north polar region of Mars is gouged by deep canyons that radiate out in what's called logarithmic spiral fashion, seen in this NASA computer rendering based on actual data.
The tilted planet causes ice on one side of a crack to heat and vaporize, deepening and widening the crack. Then the water vapor hits the shady, colder side of the growing canyon and refreezes.

Eventually, chasms more than a half-mile (1 kilometer) deep developed, and they cover hundreds of miles of the polar regions. But only on Mars, it seems.....
full article below...

Another angle on Mars North Pole :
{{gwi:1370547}}

Weirder and weirder...

Thanks for keeping us posted. The Govt better hurry up and send that manned exploration off before most of the big secrets are robotically given up.

That pinwheel effect is interesting. I wonder if the rotational pull in a thin atmosphere has anything to do with that shape. Our atmosphere is thick and modifies many of the effects that would reach us otherwise.

Here's one that should raise some composters eyebrows...

Scientists Unsure if Methane at Mars Points to Biology or Geology
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 04:30 pm ET
29 March 2004

A trio of research teams independently probing the Martian atmosphere for signs of methane have found it, a combined discovery that opens the door for a host of theories as to how the gas got there.
Among the most tantalizing, if not very likely, of scenarios, scientists say, is the possibility that the Mars methane could be the byproduct of some form of microbial life. But a safer bet, they say, centers on the geology of Mars, including anything from volcanic activity to long-ago impacts of methane-carrying comets.

"It's of course very exciting and quite a surprise," said Augustin Chicarro, project scientist for the European Mars Express mission, which detected Mars methane while orbiting the planet. "Mars seems to be a planet that is always surprising us, one week it's an oceannow this."

The methane findings comes just weeks after NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity found conclusive evidence that water once flowed on the surface of the red planet, providing firm evidence for a location on Mars that could have supported life.

Water does not mean life, however, and neither does methane.

While not a rover itself, the Mars Express orbiter pieced together its methane picture after successive turns around the planet, detecting a small amount of the gas in the atmosphere. Two other projects, one led by NASA scientist Michael Mumma of Goddard Space Flight Center and the other by Vladimir Krasnopolosky, a researcher with the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., used ground-based telescopes to detect Mars methane as well.

"I would say that they confirm our results," Krasnopolosky told SPACE.com, adding that his study predicted almost the exact concentration of methane, about 10.5 parts per billion, seen by Mars Express.

Since methane has a relatively short lifetime on Mars for atmospheric gases, about 300 years or so, scientists believe there must be some process at work to keep replenishing its concentration in the atmosphere.

On Earth, methane is belched into the air during volcanic eruptions. It seeps out from fissures in the crust. And it is expelled by methanogenic bacteria as a waste product. While the idea of subterranean microbes living just under the Martian surface is attractive, Mars researchers are hesitant to put the full weight of their belief behind it.

"I think the first possibility, volcanism, is probably best," Chicarro said. "Volcanism has not been ruled out as a modern phenomena on Mars."

Nothing so explosive as an eruption is needed to expel the gas. It could possibly seep out through gentle, consistent hydrothermal activity, Chicarro said.

Krasnopolosky, on the other hand, said while he believes that Martian microbes are the most likely methane culprits, he cannot definitely rule out other factors. It is just as possible, he said, that methane formed in Martian volcanoes and outgassed through primordial surface vents, or even crashed down onto the planet during comet and meteorite impacts.

Locating the source of Mars methane could pare down at least some of those scenarios if researchers are able to determine local concentrations. Both Mars Express and Krasnopolosky's study measured Mars methane on a global scale. However, it may be possible for Mars Express researchers to use their spacecraft's mineralogical mapping instrument to scan the surface for signs of volcanic activity, then compare the results with methane observations.

In the meantime, researchers plan to continue their Mars studies.

"It seems like with every set of missions to Mars, instead of a gradual increase in our understanding we have a quantum leap," Chicarro said. "It's really a complicated place."

90 Days and Counting: Mars Spirit Rover Ends Primary Mission
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press
posted: 07:00 am ET
06 April 2004

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA's Spirit rover has finished its primary mission to Mars yet continues to roll along, moving toward a cluster of hills that could yield evidence of the planet's wet past.

By Monday, Spirit's 90th full day on Mars, the unmanned robot and its twin, Opportunity, had accomplished nearly all of the tasks before NASA would consider their joint mission a full success.
"Spirit has completed its part of the bargain and Opportunity doesn't have much left to do,'' said Mark Adler, manager of the $820 million double mission.

The tasks included a requirement that one of the rovers travel at least 1,980 feet -- a mark Spirit surpassed on Saturday.

Between the two of them, the rovers also had to take stereo and color panoramas of their surroundings, drive to at least eight different locations and operate simultaneously for a minimum of 30 days.

NASA assumed technical and other problems would ground the rovers fully one-third of the time they operated on Mars.

Despite computer memory problems that left Spirit sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks, it's still spent more days at work than expected, Adler said.

For Opportunity, it still must function for another 20 martian days -- which are nearly 40 minutes longer than Earth days -- before it meets all of its targets, Adler said.

"It's better than we could have possibly imagined," he said.

Spirit landed Jan. 3 in Gusev Crater, a 90-mile-diameter depression scientists believed once contained a lake. Spirit has found traces of limited past water activity in rocks it has examined, but none of the lake deposits scientists hoped it would uncover.

Spirit is now several days into a trek toward a cluster of hills that may contain geologic evidence of a more substantially wet environment, including perhaps layered rocks formed in standing water.

Opportunity has found such rocks at its landing site, halfway around the now frozen and dry planet, since it landed Jan. 24. Scientists believe a salty sea or swamp once covered that site, called Meridiani Planum.

NASA has extended the joint mission through September. If the rovers continue to function, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will apply for money to further extend the project, Adler said.

This looks familar...?

Opportunity Finds Mars Rock Similar to Meteorite on Earth
By Chris Kridler
FLORIDA TODAY
posted: 10:30 am ET
16 April 2004

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A rock in Mars' Meridiani Planum shares a mineral "fingerprint" not with other Mars rocks that probes have seen, but with a meteorite that smashed into Antarctica millennia ago.

NASA's Opportunity rover has been roaming a plain where a salty sea once flowed. Bounce Rock, named because the rover bounced by it during its airbag-softened landing, is exotic partly because there are hardly any rocks in the vicinity.

The rover did some grinding on the rock and found it was even more strange, scientists said Wednesday, and not at all like the outcrop Opportunity studied for weeks.

"Looking at the interior, we confirmed this is a very different rock than we have seen thus far at Meridiani," said Jason Soderblom of Cornell University, who is working with the science team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Mineral analysis showed that Bounce Rock closely resembled the meteorite EETA79001, which fell in Antarctica probably 10,000 or more years ago, said rover scientist Benton Clark of Lockheed Martin.

In the past, this meteorite convinced some scientists that it held organic compounds, indicative of life on Mars. Other scientists say the evidence has earthly origins. The space rock also held pockets of gases that resembled the Martian atmosphere.

On Mars, it's possible that Bounce Rock blew out of a crater-causing impact about 30 miles away from its current location. The 79001 meteorite might have come from a similar area on Mars, scientists say.

The $820 million twin rovers just successfully completed a software update that will help them drive, conserve power and manage glitches better.

Latest Roving Reporter news:

April 22

Mars Rovers Face Radio Silence

"The data link between Earth and the two Mars rovers -- Spirit and Opportunity -- is to be severed for about a week in September. The culprit is not technological but a fact of celestial mechanics. The reason is due to the positions of Earth and Mars during that month that place the planets on opposite sides of the Sun.

"We can't communicate with the spacecraft at all," said Jennifer Trosper, Spirit Mission Manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. She spoke Tuesday at the Air and Space Symposium being held this week in Washington D.C., organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Trosper told SPACE.com that the lengthy radio silence will not impact the rovers. The robots will continue their duties once Earth-Mars communications are regained.

Despite the computer glitch that once crippled the Spirit rover early in its mission, it is "more than a 100 percent of what it was on landing day," Trosper said.

The Opportunity rover is also healthy at Meridiani Planum and is now rolling across flatlands. "We joke that we have to drive to a place where we can find a hazardjust so we can use our hazard avoidance software."

At Gusev Crater, Spirit is heading for the hills in extended mission overdrive, wheeling itself toward those features that are now about 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) away.

In mid-September, the Spirit robot will have operated for 219 martian days -- called "sols". It was designed for 90 sols, Trosper said, but the Mars machinery is expected to continue on duty past mid-September.

Trosper also told SPACE.com that she will soon be heading to Washington, D.C. to be a part of NASA's Code T -- the Office of Exploration Systems -- the group now leading the space agency's Moon, Mars and beyond initiative outlined by President George W. Bush earlier this year."

onald Savage
Headquarters, Washington April 28, 2004

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

RELEASE: 04-142

MARS ROVERS FINISH PRIMARY MISSION AND ROLL ONWARD

Both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers have completed
their originally planned mission and are tackling extra-
credit assignments.

"Spirit and Opportunity have completed all the primary
objectives of the mission. The terrific success achieved is a
tribute to a superb team whose commitment to excellence, and
keeping the public engaged, is hard to match," said Orlando
Figueroa, director of the Mars Exploration Program, NASA
Headquarters, Washington.

Opportunity finished its 90th martian day of surface
operations on Monday. That was the last of several criteria
set in advance for full mission success. Spirit passed its
90-day mark on April 5. Both rovers have met all goals for
numbers of locations examined in detail, distances traveled,
and scientific measurements with all instruments. Both rovers
are healthy. In early April, NASA approved funding for
extending operation of Spirit and Opportunity through
September.

"This brings Opportunity's primary mission at Meridiani
Planum to a resounding and successful close. It's stunning to
think through the short history of this vehicle," said Matt
Wallace, Opportunity mission manger at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where rover assembly began
barely two years ago. In its three-month primary mission,
Opportunity drove 811 meters (more than half a mile) and sent
home 15.2 gigabits of data about Mars, including 12,429
images.

Opportunity found other rock exposures in recent days similar
to the ones near its landing site that yielded evidence for a
body of salty water covering the area long ago. Instead of
spending many days to examine those rocks, controllers told
the rover to go to the rim of a 130-meter-wide (approximately
430-foot-wide) crater informally named "Endurance."

-more-
-2-
When Opportunity sends home a view into Endurance Crater,
expected within a few days, scientists and engineers will
begin deciding whether the rover should try to enter that
crater. "We're coming up on a major branch point in the
mission," said Dr. Scott McLennan of the State University of
New York, Stony Brook, N.Y., a member of the rovers' science
team. "Can we get down into Endurance? Can we get back out?"
he questioned.

Last week, Opportunity paused beside a crater dubbed "Fram,"
less than one-tenth the size of Endurance Crater. It examined
a rock studded with small, iron-rich spherules that are one
part of the evidence for past water in the region. The rover
used its rock abrasion tool to grind a hole. This allowed
examination of the interior of the rock, called "Pilbara."

McLennan said, "Pilbara is a dead ringer for McKittrick," a
rock target in the outcrop Opportunity examined in February
and March. Another rock at Fram showed hints, it might
provide the best-yet evidence about how minerals precipitated
out of solution as the ancient body of water evaporated.
"It's something that would be of interest to come back and
study more if we don't see something of even greater interest
along our way," he said. Images of Endurance Crater from a
distance seem to show much thicker layers of outcrop than
Opportunity has been able to reach so far.

Improvement to the rovers' mobility from new software has
expanded options for planning their explorations. Spirit and
Opportunity have driven farther in April than in the previous
three months combined. Spirit has traveled more that 1.2
kilometers (three-fourths of a mile), and has another 1.8
kilometers (more than a mile) to go before reaching highlands
informally named "Columbia Hills." Scientists hope to examine
rock layers older than the volcanic plain Spirit has been
crossing. This week, Spirit is crossing from an area
dominated by material dispersed by crater-forming impacts
into an area with fewer rocks.

"We are transitioning into a geologically different region.
Nothing could be more striking evidence of this than the view
ahead of a landscape that has fewer and smaller rocks than
the region explored so far," said Dr. Dave Des Marais, a
rover science team member from NASA Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, Calif. Scientists are using Spirit's
observations at ground level to check ideas about the
region's geology based on observations from orbiting
spacecraft. That could improve interpretation of orbital data
for the whole planet. Spirit will systematically survey the
soils, rocks and other features on the plain as it continues
toward Columbia Hills, with an arrival planned for mid to
late June.

For images and additional information about the project on
the Internet, visit:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/

&

http://athena.cornell.edu

-end-

* * *

...and still they trudge along....

{{gwi:1370548}}

Spirit Rover's Next Steps

Mission planners for NASA's Spirit rover on Mars are using this view from above to help plan the remainder of the robot's travels. It shows the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater.

The picture was made by draping an image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor over a digital elevation model that was derived from two other images from the orbiter.

As of sol 135, or May 21, 2004 on Earth, Spirit sat approximately 0.4 miles (680 meters) away from its first target at the western base of the hills, a spot informally called West Spur. The team estimates that Spirit will reach West Spur by sol 146, or June 1, 2004. Spirit will most likely remain there for about a week to study the outcrops and rocks associated with this location.

When done there, Spirit will head approximately 0.38 miles (620 meters) to a higher-elevation location informally called Lookout Point. Spirit might reach Lookout Point by around sol 165 (June 20, 2004). On the way, the rover will pass by and study ripple-shaped wind deposits that may reveal more information about wind processes on Mars.

Lookout Point will provide a great vantagepoint for scientists to remotely study the inner basin area of the Columbia Hills, according to a statement released last week. This basin contains a broad range of interesting geological targets including Home Plate and other possible layered outcrops. These features suggest that the hills contain rock layers. Spirit might investigate the layers to determine whether they are water-deposited sedimentary rock.

Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/USGS

Rolling right along.....

Spirit Pushes Onward Toward Hills, Opportunity Retraces its Steps
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 04:07 pm ET
02 June 2004

{{gwi:1370549}}

To the delight of its mission scientists, NASA's Mars rover Spirit has spotted a potential rock outcrop and slopes covered in boulders on a set of hills the robot has been steering toward for more than a month.

"It's tantalizing now that we are seeing large rocks," said James Rice, rover science team manager at JPL, of the hills. "This is a really pulverized, beaten up area of terrain."

Researchers hope Spirit's access to the larger rocks and boulders will help them determine how hills form on Mars, whether it be by volcanism, tectonic plate uplift or some other process. A closer look at the region, dubbed the Columbia Hills, may also additional clues as to whether Gusev crater -- Spirit's landing site -- was once a wet land.

Meanwhile, the Spirit's robotic twin Opportunity is backtracking its way around the rim of Endurance Crater to study an area that may prove the gateway down to the crater's floor. Well into their extended missions to explore the red planet, the two rovers continue to perform their duties despite a pair of software glitches, spaced eight days apart, that delayed Spirit's progress toward the Columbia Hills.

Spiriting to the hills

An unlikely software glitch on May 16 forced a computer reboot aboard Spirit and forced rover handlers to spend the next two Martian days -- called sols -- confirming the robots position. A second unrelated software anomaly occurred on May 31 and halted Spirit's progress for three sols while mission controllers patched the problematic software and reacquired rover position. .

"I don't think these specific errors are due age or the duration of this mission," said Joe Snyder, a Lockheed Martin software engineer and member of the Mars Exploration Rover mission team (MER), during a briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "These two specific [errors] could have occurred during the start of the mission or any time in between."

Once thought to be too distant for Spirit to reach, the Columbia Hills are now about 1,312 feet (400 meters) away. To date, Spirit has driven 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers) and JPL researchers expect to reach the hills within the next 10 days.

Spirit's first encounter with the hills will be at a point called "West Spur," where the rover has seen a series of rocky terraces suggesting the possibility of layered material there. The rover has also picked up slopes where boulders have rolled down from higher regions, and a possible outcrop, though researchers won't know for sure until Spirit moves closer towards the spur.

"This is basically a brand new mission starting right now," Rice said.

Opportunity endures at Endurance Crater

{{gwi:1370550}}

On the Martian plains of Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover is retracing a path that took it halfway around the 430-foot (130-meter) wide Endurance Crater.

Their target is a region called "Karatepe," which could be a potential entry and exit point into the crater should rover team members decide it is necessary.

"If we go in, there is the possibility we may not come out again," said Matt Wallace, operations manager for Opportunity at JPL.

Wallace said rover team members have been using a JPL-based rover identical to Opportunity to see how the robot could perform on different terrain and slopes, but the final trip is still an unknown.

In the meantime, Opportunity has found that the floor of Endurance is covered in basalt, a rock type that makes up most of the ocean floor on Earth, some of which appears to stem from rocks along the crater rim.

"There are a few places that we see may actually have been a source for this basalt," explained Wendy Calvin, a rover science team member from the University of Nevada in Reno. "So we want to chase down this basalt story."

Using its robot arm-mounted microscopic imager, Opportunity has also spotted ripple structures and cavities left by crystals that once sat in Martian rocks, she added.

Opportunity has routinely been spending its nights in a "deep sleep" mode that save energy that was being lost by a heater that has been stuck on since the beginning of the mission. While the energy-saving effort has been successful, the dropping temperature of Martian nights is reaching the point that Opportunity's Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument could eventually fail. The electronics box for the instrument needs to be warmed at night to function perfectly.

"The mini-TES instrument has been surviving and performing well through the night, but it is a possibility the instrument will be damaged," Wallace said.

A Rover Motel....check-in...but not out?, may need local Mars towing service ;o)...

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington June 4, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-181

MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY GETS GREEN LIGHT TO ENTER CRATER

NASA has decided the potential science value gained by
sending Opportunity into a martian impact crater likely
outweighs the risk of the intrepid explorer not being able to
get back out.

Opportunity has been examining the rim of stadium-sized
"Endurance" crater since late May. The rover team used
observations of the depression to evaluate potential science
benefits of entering the crater and the traversability of its
inner slopes.

The soonest Opportunity could enter Endurance is early next
week. It will drive to the top of a prospective entry-and-
exit route on the southern edge of the crater and make a
final check of the slope. If the route is no steeper than
what recent testing runs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., suggest a rover can climb, controllers plan
to radio Opportunity the command to go into the crater.

"This is a crucial and careful decision for the Mars
Exploration Rovers' extended mission," said Dr. Edward
Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science.
"Layered rock exposures inside Endurance Crater may add
significantly to the story of a watery past environment that
Opportunity has already begun telling us. The analysis just
completed by the rover team shows likelihood that Opportunity
will be able to drive to a diagnostic rock exposure, examine
it, and then drive out of the crater. However, there's no
guarantee of getting out again, so we also considered what
science opportunities outside the crater would be forfeited
if the rover spends its remaining operational life inside the
crater."

At a rock outcrop in a small impact feature nicknamed, "Eagle
Crater," where Opportunity first landed, the rover found
small-scale rock textures and evaporite mineral compositions
testifying that a body of salty water covered the site long
ago.

The wet environment may have been a suitable habitat for
life, if it ever existed on Mars. However, only the uppermost
layer of the region's layered crust was exposed at Eagle
Crater, not deeper layers that could reveal what the
environment was like earlier.

The rock layer seen at Eagle Crater appears at Endurance
Crater, too. At Endurance, though, it lies above exposures of
thicker, older layers, which are the main scientific
temptation for sending Opportunity inside the crater.

"Answering the question of what came before the evaporites is
the most significant scientific issue we can address with
Opportunity at this time," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell
University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the
science instruments on both rovers. "We've read the last
chapter, the record of the final gasps of an evaporating body
of water. What came before? It could have been a deep-water
environment. It could have been sand dunes. It could have
been a volcano. Whatever we learn about that earlier period
will help us interpret the upper layer's evidence for a wet
environment and understand how the environment changed."

Richard Cook, project manager at JPL for the rovers, said
that reaching one exposure of the older rock layers inside
Endurance requires driving only about 5 to 7 meters (16 to 23
feet) into the 130-meter-diameter (140-yard-diameter) crater.
The rover is on the rim at that site, which had been dubbed
"Karatepe."

"We'll take an incremental approach, edging our way down to
the target," Cook said. The plan is to use the tools on
Opportunity's robotic arm to analyze the exposed layers for
several days, then drive in reverse back up the slope and
exit the crater. The slope between the rim and the layered
outcrop at Karatepe is about 25 degrees.

"We have done testing that says we can do 25 degrees,
provided the wheels are on a rock surface and not loose
sand," Cook said. Engineers and scientists on the rover team
built a test surface mimicking the rocks and sand seen in
Opportunity's images of Endurance Crater. The surface was
tilted to 25 degrees, and a test rover climbed it. If
portions of the route to the outcrop turn out to be between
25 and 30 degrees, the team plans to proceed slowly and use
Opportunity to assess the amount of traction the rover is
getting.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, successfully completed
their primary three-month missions on Mars in April.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Images and
additional information about the project are available from
JPL at:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

-end-

* * *

Rover Update: Wintering on the Red Planet
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06:30 am ET
08 June 2004

That double-header of a rover mission to Mars -- Spirit and Opportunity -- are both moving toward fresh rounds of science-gathering and could survive far longer than once expected.

Opportunity at Meridiani Planum, has received the go-ahead to "deep dive" into a large impact crater dubbed "Endurance", while on the other side of Mars, the Spirit rover at Gusev Crater is within days of reaching the "Columbia Hills" and studying geology that appears to offer unique insight into that regions history.

Meanwhile, scientists and engineers that operate the robotic twosome are looking at "wintering over" schemes -- putting the mechanized explorers in hibernation mode, and then restarting their duties on Mars next spring.

Mars rover scientists detailed future plans at last weeks American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, held in Denver, Colorado.

Taste-testing the hills

"Things are about to get very, very interesting," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and principal investigator for the science payload carried on each of the Mars rovers.

At Gusev Crater, Spirit has been making remarkable progress driving toward the Columbia Hills. "The hills are starting to get too big. So the images cut off the top of the hillsand thats kinda cool," Squyres said. Those pictures of the hills already reveal exposed bedrock and other features that look "very interesting, indeed," he added.

"We should pull up at the base of those hills within another week, or a little bit more. Then well see what we see," Squyres said.

A preliminary plan is to have Spirit traverse southward, along the margin between the hills and the plains of Gusev Crater. A variety of geological features is in that direction. "I dont have high confidence to be able to climb high into the hills," Squyres said. "But as we get closer and closerI can see that plan being altered significantly."

Squyres told the AAS audience that Spirit will first "take a taste" of the hills with its science gear, "then hang a right". Exactly what the traverse will be like after that will be decided by what is found, he said.

"Thats what is interesting about this mission. You cant plan too far ahead because Mars will surprise you," Squyres explained.

Enduring Endurance

The Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum is perched at the edge of the stadium-sized Endurance impact crater -- a feature roughly 65-feet (20 meters) deep and brimming with thick and old layers of bedrock and rich in sulfates, hematite, and basalts.

Careful study has been done of a section of Endurance tagged "Karatepe" -- a layered band of rock. That piece of real estate is seen by rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California as a safe entrance ramp into the roughly 430-feet (130-meter) diameter crater. This spot is less steep and more approachable than the rest of the craters rocky outcrops.

"It is a rocky surface, but there are these little spherules we call blueberries all over the place," said Jim Bell of Cornell University and leader of the panoramic camera team for the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Bell told SPACE.com that the potential risk of having Spirit drive on a plywood-like surface covered with spherules acting like ball-bearings has undergone detailed assessment. "The slopes are gentle enough. The rover wouldnt go tumbling down the hillbut it would slide and be hard to control. You could get in a situation where you sit spinning your wheels trying to get back up," he said.

Big cliffs

Squyres said Endurance crater is "just a stunning, beautiful, spectacular place." But such a hole in the ground "can be a permanent rover trap," he added, and "a one-way trip doesnt appeal to any of us very much."

"This is a dangerous place for a rover. There are big cliffs that we could drive off and die. So weve been very careful here," Squyres said.

In going into the crater, and taking a prudent route, Squyres said that Spirit would drive slowly forward with its robot arm stretched out, steer to a band of exposed rock, do its business and then back out, straight up the hill.

"The vehicle goes backwards as well as it goes forward," Squyres pointed out.

So far, so good

Regarding the overall health of the twin vessels of Mars exploration, both robots continue to perform well.

Several things could kill the rovers, such as a key electronic part failure or the wearing down of a critical mechanical piece of equipment. To date it has been so far, so good as the robots continue to march their way across the martian landscape.

"If both of those things hold out, then what is probably going to get us is dust build-up on the solar arrays," Squyres said. "Right now, were seeing a pretty sharp drop off in solar power on both vehicles. Thats a consequence of both the onset of winter and declining solar power because of the dust build-up."

Despite this issue, Squyres said rover engineers think the two robots will survive through the winter and to the next spring on Mars.

Wintering over: spring back to life?

Staying alive is tougher for Spirit than it is for Opportunity. Thats due to Spirits higher latitude exploration zone on the red planet, Squyres reported. "Were already looking at maps of the Columbia Hills and trying to pick a good spot to winter over," he said.

Part of the wintering over strategy will involve positioning the rovers to soak up as much continuous sunlight, even as the Sun moves low in the martian sky, Bell said. Secondly, the robots are to be oriented so that communications links with orbiters zipping overhead is maximized, he pointed out.

"Its a combination of those two things -- finding that sweet spot," Bell said.

Coming out of hibernation mode in the spring, "were looking at the final demise of these vehicles perhaps as late as the onset of our second winter on Mars," Squyres concluded.

...they just keep going, and going, and going...

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington June 15, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-192

MARS ROVERS GOING THE EXTRA MILE

NASA's Mars rovers are delighting scientists with their
extra credit assignments. Both rovers successfully completed
their primary three-month missions in April.

The Spirit rover is exploring a range of martian hills that
took two months to reach. It is finding curiously eroded
rocks that may be new pieces to the puzzle of the region's
past.
Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is also negotiating sloped
ground. It is examining exposed rock layers inside a crater
informally named Endurance.

"Both rovers have begun exploring brand new places," said
Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Opportunity has entered
Endurance Crater. Spirit has arrived at the Columbia Hills.
Both rovers are getting their second wind in bonus time, and
we are very excited about the scientific potential we see at
their new homes. Of course, the terrain at both locations is
challenging, one up and one down. We are making certain that
we proceed safely to keep these wonderful machines as
healthy as we can for as long as we can," he said.

Spirit began climbing into Columbia Hills late last week,
and right away sent pictures of tantalizing rocks. "Some of
the rocks appear to be disintegrating. They have an odd kind
of rotting appearance, with soft interiors and resistant
rinds or hulls," said Dr. Larry Soderblom, a rover science- team member from the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff,
Ariz. "The strangest things we've encountered are what we're
calling hooded cobras, which are evidently the resistant
remnants of some of those rocky rinds. They stand above the
surface like small canopies," he said.

Another rock, dubbed Pot of Gold, appears to have nodules
and resistant planes in a softer matrix. Scientists have
chosen it as a target for Spirit to examine with the
instruments on the rover's robotic arm. Afterwards,
controllers plan to send Spirit to an outcrop farther
uphill.

"Although it's too early to even speculate as to the
processes these rocks have recorded, we are tremendously
excited over the new prospects," Soderblom said.

The Columbia Hills rise approximately 90 meters (about 300
feet) above a plain Spirit crossed to reach them. Scientists
anticipate a complex blend of rocks in the hills, perhaps
holding evidence about a broader range of environmental
conditions than has been seen in the volcanic rubble
surfacing the plain. The entire area Spirit is exploring is
within Gusev Crater. Orbital images suggest water may have
once flowed into this Connecticut-sized basin.

"Halfway around Mars, Opportunity has driven about five
meters (16 feet) into stadium-sized Endurance Crater. "As we
look back up toward the rim, we can see the progress we've
made," said Scott McLennan, science-team member from the
State University of New York, Stony Brook, N.Y.

Opportunity's first target inside the crater is a flat-lying
stone about 36 centimeters by 15 centimeters (14 inches by 6
inches) dubbed Tennessee for its shape. Opportunity will
inspect it for analysis with the spectrometers and
microscopic imager on the rover's robotic arm. It is in a
layer geologists believe corresponds to sulfate-rich rocks.
The rocks are similar to those, in which Opportunity
previously found evidence for a body of water covering the
ground long ago.

"The next step will be to move farther down from this layer
to our first close-up look at a different sedimentary
sequence," McLennan said. "Color differences suggest at
least three lower, older layers are exposed below
Opportunity's location," he said.

"The interpretation of those lower units is in a state of
flux," he said. "At first, we thought we would encounter
poorly consolidated, sandy material. But as we get closer,
we're seeing more-consolidated, harder rock deeper into the
crater. If we can get to the lower units, this will be the
first detailed stratigraphic section ever done on another
planet. We're doing exactly what a field geologist would be
doing," he said.

Spirit is showing what may be the first sign of age and
wear. "The right front wheel is drawing about two to three
times as much current as the other wheels, and that may be a
symptom of degradation," Adler said. "There may be steps we
can take to improve it. We'll be studying that possibility
during the next few weeks," he said.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Exploration Rover project
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. For images
and information about the project on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov
& http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
-end-

* * *

Latest...

Spirit's 'Pot of Gold' Perplexes Researchers
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 04:30 pm ET
25 June 2004

{{gwi:1370552}}
This close-up image taken by Spirit highlights the nodular nuggets that cover the rock dubbed Pot of Gold. These enigmatic features appear to stand on the end of stalk-like projections. CREDIT: NASA/JPL. Click to enlarge.

NASA's Spirit rover has found a Martian rock unlike anything researchers have seen before -- on Mars or Earth -- but they hope it may finally hint at a watery past of the Gusev crater landing site. Mission engineers are also pushing the rover Opportunity to its robotic limits inside a crater on the other side of the planet.

Sitting at the foot of Gusev's "Columbia Hills," Spirit is studying "Pot of Gold," a softball-sized rock covered in knobby nuggets atop short rock stalks.

"This is a fiendishly difficult target to study," said Steve Squyres, rover principal investigator from Cornell University, during a mission briefing Friday. "I don't know how these things formed and it's driving me nuts, to be honest."

So far, the rock's most telling quality is its composition. According to Spirit's science instruments, "Pot of Gold" contains hematite, a mineral known to form in water, though it can also be produced through volcanic processes. The mineral has not been found in any other rocks at Spirit's Gusev crater landing site, but was found in quantity at Opportunity's Meridiani Planum landing site.

"The science team doesn't have a real clue as to how this hematite formed," explained Doug Ming, a rover science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "Could it mean water? Yes. Could it mean something else? Yes."

Spirit has taken panoramic and microscopic images of the rock and studied with two of its robot arm-mounted spectrometers. The robot is currently preparing to bite into "Pot of Gold" with its rock abrasion tool (RAT), but the RAT drill is typically suited for smooth rock faces, not the uneven texture of the nugget-ridden

"This is a remarkably strange-looking rock, and we have not got this thing figured out yet," Squyres said, adding that so far it resembles nothing seen on Mars or Earth. "But it may be something uniquely Martian."

Mission scientists plan for Spirit to spend the next few days solely studying 'Pot of Gold.' After that, the rover will conduct a series of maneuvers in attempts to restore its front right wheel to normal operations. The wheel has been drawing more current than its five counterparts during Spirit's trek to the Columbia Hills. Engineers hope they can stem that power drain by warming the wheel to redistribute lubricant within its drive acuator.

Opportunity on edge

On the other side of Mars at Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover is sitting on the cusp of the steepest slope yet on its descent inside "Endurance Crater."

The slope, roughly 35 degrees downhill, is right at the mission design limits for the robotic explorer, but tests with an Earth-based rover have shown that Opportunity should be able to proceed, said Chris Voorhees, a rover mechanical systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

"It's very fulfilling to see us, at both landing sites, fully utilizing the capabilities of these two rovers we sent to Mars," Voorhees said during the mission briefing.

Opportunity is currently studying a series of rock layers about 16 feet (five meters) inside the lip of "Endurance," grinding into each layer with its rock abrasion tool. The layers appear very similar to those seen at "Eagle Crater," Opportunity's first Mars home, where scientists were able to conclude that water did soak the region at some time in Mars' distant past.

But inside "Endurance," Opportunity has made some unexpected findings.

"There's a lot more salt here than we thought," Squyres said. "And there was a lot more water involved in doing this."

As the rovers continues further inside "Endurance," it no longer sees rocky ripples that indicated flowing water in the planet's past, and the level of the salt bromine appears more constant that at higher regions of crater.

One hypothesis is that these salts were deposited by evaporating water, then stirred up by Martian winds to give the crater interior its current appearance, Squyres said, adding that Opportunity should answer more questions as it moves further down into the crater.

"What I hope is to be able to learn what the total amount of water may have been," he added.

VgKg, That picture is a fossilized dinosaur...maybe.

Hi Wayne! Well, even my overly fertile imagination would be stretching the limits on that one ;o). That pic above is an extreme close-up of this wider angle pic below :
{{gwi:1370554}}

Limping along but still going strong...

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington July 16, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-4673)

RELEASE: 04-227

NASA'S MARS ROVERS ROLL INTO MARTIAN WINTER

As winter approaches on Mars, NASA's Opportunity rover
continues to inch deeper into the stadium-sized crater dubbed
"Endurance." On the other side of the planet, the Spirit
rover found an intriguing patch of rock outcrop while
preparing to climb up the "Columbia Hills" backward. This
unusual approach to driving is part of a creative plan to
accommodate Spirit's aging front wheel.

Spirit, with an odometer reading of over 3.5 kilometers (2.2
miles), has already traveled six times its designed capacity.
Its right front wheel has been experiencing increased
internal resistance, and recent efforts to mitigate the
problem by redistributing the wheel's lubricant through rest
and heating have been only partially successful.

To cope with the condition, rover planners have devised a
roundabout strategy. They will drive the rover backward on
five wheels, rotating the sixth wheel only sparingly to
ensure its availability for demanding terrain. "Driving may
take us a little bit longer because it is like dragging an
anchor," said Joe Melko, a rover engineer at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "However, this
approach will allow us to continue doing science much longer
than we ever thought possible," he said.

On Thursday, July 15, Spirit successfully drove 8 meters (26
feet) north along the base of the Columbia Hills backward,
dragging its faulty wheel. The wheel was activated about 10
percent of the time to surmount obstacles and to pull the
rover out of trenches dug by the immobile wheel.

Along the way, Spirit drove over what scientists have been
hoping to find in the hills -- a slab of rock outcrop that
may represent some of the oldest rocks observed in the
mission so far. Spirit will continue to drive north, where it
likely will encounter more outcrop. Ultimately, the rover
will drive east and hike up the hills backward using all six
wheels.

"A few months ago, we weren't sure if we'd make it to the
hills, and now here we are preparing to drive up into them,"
said Dr. Matt Golombek, a rover science-team member from JPL.
"It's very exciting," he added.

For the past month, the Spirit rover has been parked near
several hematite-containing rocks, including "Pot of Gold,"
conducting science studies and undergoing a long-distance
"tuneup" for its right front wheel.

Driving with the wheel disabled means that corrections might
have to be made to the rover's steering if it veers off its
planned path. This limits Spirit's accuracy, but rover
planners working at JPL's rover test bed have come up with
some creative commands that allow the rover to auto-correct
itself to a limited degree.

As Spirit prepares to climb upward, Opportunity is rolling
downward. Probing increasingly deep layers of bedrock lining
the walls of Endurance Crater at Meridiani Planum, the rover
has observed a puzzling increase in the amount of chlorine.
Data from Opportunity's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer
show that chlorine is the only element that dramatically
rises with deepening layers, leaving scientists to wonder how
it got there. "We do not know yet which element is bound to
the chlorine," said Dr. Jutta Zipfel, a rover science-team
member from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz,
Germany.

Opportunity will roll down even farther into the crater in
the next few days to see if this trend continues. It also
will investigate a row of sharp, teeth-like features dubbed
"razorback," which may have formed when fluid flowed through
cracks, depositing hard minerals. Scientists hope the new
data will help put together the pieces of Meridiani's
mysterious and watery past. "Razorback may tell us more about
the history of water at Endurance Crater," said Dr. Jack
Farmer, a rover science-team member from Arizona State
University, Phoenix.

Rover planners are also preparing for the coming Martian
winter, which peaks in mid-September. Dwindling daily
sunshine means the rovers will have less solar power and take
longer to recharge. Periods of rest and "deep sleep" will
allow the rovers to keep working through the winter at lower
activity levels. Orienting the rovers' solar panels toward
the north will also elevate power supplies. "The rovers might
work a little bit every day, or a little bit more every other
day. We will see how things go and remain flexible," said Jim
Erickson, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover
mission at JPL.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington.

Images and additional information about the project are
available on the Internet at:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
and
http://athena.cornell.edu.

-end-

{{gwi:1370556}}
The Cliffs of Endurance Crater

This view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is a false-color composite rendering of the first seven holes that the rover's rock abrasion tool dug on the inner slope of "Endurance Crater." The rover was about 39 feet (12 meters) down into the crater when it acquired the images combined into this mosaic. T

The view is looking back toward the rim of the crater, with the rover's tracks visible. The tailings around the holes drilled by the rock abrasion tool, or "Rat," show evidence for fine-grained red hematite similar to what was observed months earlier in "Eagle Crater" outcrop holes.

There are seven holes, which are fairly easy to find in this exaggerated color image.

Starting from the uppermost pictured (closest to the crater rim) to the lowest, the rock abrasion tool hole targets are called "Tennessee," "Cobblehill," "Virginia," "London," "Grindstone," "Kettlestone," and "Drammensfjorden."

Opportunity drilled these holes on sols between June 20 and July 7. Each hole is 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter. The pictures were taken July 19, combined, and released this week. Scientists are looking over the result for more clues about the water history of Mars.

Life on Mars Likely, Scientist Claims

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
03 August 2004

DENVER, COLORADO Those twin robots hard at work on Mars have transmitted teasing views that reinforce the prospect that microbial life may exist on the red planet.

Results from NASAs Spirit and Opportunity rovers are being looked over by a legion of planetary experts, including a scientist who remains steadfast that his experiment in 1976 proved the presence of active microbial life in the topsoil of Mars.

"All factors necessary to constitute a habitat for life as we know it exist on current-day Mars," explained Gilbert Levin, executive officer for science at Spherix Incorporated of Beltsville, Maryland.

Levin made his remarks here Monday at the International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, the 49th annual meeting of Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Provocative find

Levin has a long-standing interest in time-weathered Mars and the promise of life today on that distant and dusty world.

NASAs 1976 Viking mission to Mars was geared-up to look for possible martian life. And it was Levins Labeled Release experiment that made a provocative find: The presence of a highly reactive agent in the surface material of Mars.

Levin concluded in 1997 that this activity was triggered by living microorganisms lurking in the martian soil a judgment he admits has not been generally accepted by the scientific community.

Now roll forward to 2004. Consider the findings of Spirit and Opportunity, the golf-cart sized robots wheeling over Mars at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum.

"Those rovers have been absolutely sensational, pouring out thousands of images. Those images have lots of information in them. And Ive tried to deduce something in there relative to lifeand I think I found a lot," Levin told SPACE.com.

Squeezed out of the soil

In perusing rover imagery, Levin reports there is clear evidence for liquid water existing under Martian environmental conditions. "The images should be reviewed against the background of surface temperatures as varying from below to above freezing reported by both Spirit and Opportunity," he explained.

Levin points to the potential for mud puddles on Mars, showing an image of clearly disturbed martian soil after rover airbags bounced across Mars surface. Possible standing water and sinkholes can also be seen in rover imagery, according to his analysis. In some pictures, the often-discussed "blueberries, " tiny spheres of material, disappear as if submerged underneath mud-like surroundings, he added.

Then there are tracks left by the machines as they roll across the martian terrain. Self-taken shots by the robots show what Levin said appears to be water squeezed out of the soil which then freezes into a whitish residue left in embedded tread marks.

Similarly, Levin added, are images taken by Opportunity of the results from an operation of the robots Rock Abrasion Tool, or RAT. The center of that particular RAT hole is largely white, possibly indicating the formation of frost since the hole was drilled, he noted.

Organisms there now?

"The evidence presented strongly indicates the presence of liquid water or moisture at the Mars Exploration Rover sites," Levin reported at the SPIE meeting. "Mars today could support many forms of terrestrial microbial life."

Other scientists are cautious to point out that the presence of water does not guarantee life. Rather, it means one crucial ingredient exists.

There is clear evidence for frost or ice on Mars, the former Viking experimenter stated. At some point of the day -- when temperatures climb above freezing -- theres going to be moisture"and thats enough to support microorganisms," he said.

None of the many new findings about Mars revealed by Spirit and Opportunity, Levin concluded, conflict with, or render untenable, his long-held belief that the Viking Labeled Release experiment in 1976 detected living microorganisms in the soil of Mars.

"I contend that today you could take a great many Earth microorganisms, put them on Mars, and theyd grow," Levin said. "And I think there are organisms there now. They may have come from Earth. They may have originated on Mars. They may have come from a third place that populated both Mars and Earth."

Rocks can be kicked up from one planet by an asteroid impact, drift through space for eons, then land on the other. Other studies have shown that these rocks could potentially transport life, in a dormant phase, from one planet to the other.

Levin said that he thinks the "greatest speculation" would be to say there can be no life on Mars.

Moon used as Earth bio-shield

If indeed Mars is rife with life, care should be taken in hauling back to Earth specimens of rock and surface materials from the red planet. NASA has indicated that, next decade, robotic craft could be dispatched to gather and return to Earth select samples of Mars for detailed laboratory study.

Could those bits of Mars, perhaps laden with martian microbes, act as dangerous cargo?

As a precaution, Levin advocates a kind of bio-shield strategy for Earth but using the Moon.

The new NASA vision to reestablish a human presence on the Moon is good timing, Levin said. "Bring samples of Mars not to Earth but to the Moon," he said. "There we would have built a scientific laboratory in which scientists could examine the samples and determine whether or not there is a hazard."

As expected, the rovers days (as well as this thread) may be coming to an end soon...

Glitches Dog Both Mars Rovers
By SPACE.com Staff

posted: 04 August 2004
07:04 pm ET

In a prelude of more problems that are likely to arise, both of NASA's Mars rovers experienced glitches this week as they plow through unknown engineering territory, operating well beyond what the mission blueprints called for.

The twins are working at reduced capacity while project managers try to figure out what's wrong. Both rovers had 90-day primary missions and have more than doubled that time on the surface of the red planet.

Spirit is climbing the rocky Columbia Hills of Mars, examining bedrock for signs of past water.

While executing commands on Aug. 1, a semiconductor component on Spirit failed to power on as intended, according to a NASA statement issued today. The component, a programmable gate array, directly affects usability of the rover's three spectrometer instruments, which analyze light from various targets.

Fix likely

Subsequent commands for using the miniature thermal emission spectrometer in that day's sequence resulted in repeated error messages.

The most likely cause is a timing issue of one instruction reaching the gate array microseconds before another that was intended to precede it, engineers have determined. If that diagnosis is confirmed, a repeat could possibly be avoided by inserting a delay between commands that might reproduce the problem. Until then, Spirit cannot use the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, the Moessbauer spectrometer or the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

"While we're being very cautious in how we operate today and tomorrow, we expect to verify the problem and resolve this issue with a relatively easy workaround," said Jim Erickson, project manager for the twin rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Already, Spirit has been driving backwards on just five of its six wheels, since the right front wheel developed extra resistance in July. Managers are saving the wheel for use only when it is truly needed.

Spirit has traveled more than 2.1 miles (3.5 kilometers) since landing in January.

Opportunity

On the other side of the planet, Opportunity has driven about 66 feet (20 meters) into Endurance Crater, looking at older bedrock with each step down. The rover's odometer is nearing 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) for its entire mission.

Four times in the past two weeks, Opportunity has sent error messages while successfully taking pictures with its microscopic imager, officials said. The problem might be related to degradation of flexible cabling that runs down the rover's robotic arm to the instrument.

As a precaution, the rover team is being cautious about using the arm while they try to diagnose the problem.

"We are being very conservative about this because we certainly don't want to do anything to jeopardize the instruments," said Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz. And lead scientist for both rovers' microscopic imagers. "We are running more diagnostics that we hope will identify the problem."

There are potential explanations might lead to restoring full use of the arm. But mission managers know the rovers' days are ultimately numbered.

"We will no doubt have more issues with them in the future," Erickson said. "We'll do everything we can to milk the most value out of them while they are usable, but they won't last forever."

NASA Scientist Sees Possible Mat of Martian Microbes
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 09 August 2004
04:00 AM ET

DENVER, COLORADO -- A future astronaut traipsing across the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity might be squishing into a welcome mat of microbes, according to one NASA scientist.

While the twin robots push ahead in scouring their real estate locations at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum, they leave behind a tantalizing trail of issues that need to be sorted out.

One big unknown: Did life ever take root on Mars? And if so, is that planet home to living organisms today? So far, the life-on-Mars card has not played out. Rover scientists have seen nothing they regard as needing a biological explanation.

But the twin robot landers werent built to prowl around for life. What they have done is set the stage for a more focused hunt that could unveil the "living will and testament" of biology on Mars, if it ever existed in the first place.

And according to David McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, visual evidence from the rovers is pretty enticing.

Unfolding saga

The chronicle of Mars being viewed as a comfy habitat for biology is an unfolding one, McKay says.

McKay, Mars and controversy go way back. He led the research group that in August 1996 presented evidence of ancient life from Mars. The observations, they researchers said, strongly suggested primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago.

The NASA-funded team found the first organic molecules thought to be of Martian origin, several mineral features characteristic of biological activity, and possible microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organisms inside of an ancient Martian rock that fell to Earth as a meteorite the often-called "Mars Rock" or as scientists like to professionally label it: ALH84001.

"Ive seen the saga move from 20 or 30 years ago when virtually no one believed there was life on Marsor that there was even water on Mars," McKay said last week at the International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, the 49th annual meeting of Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). "Now the whole pendulum is swinging."

Microbial mat

McKay said it is now clear water flowed across Mars. A lot of water, in fact. Furthermore, there may still be water spurting out onto the planet at certain times. "The same pendulum may be swinging back toward life," he said. "Well wait and see. These are exciting times."

The Mars rovers represent an incredibly successful mission, McKay said. Moreover, they seemingly have "uncovered" a major find. He points to pictures taken by the rovers that show areas of the martian surface disturbed by the retraction of landing airbags.

{{gwi:1370558}}

Patches of surface "acted as a cohesive blanket of some sort" when the airbags pulled back, McKay explains. "It wrinkledand pulled along rocks with it. It didnt simply crack apart like a dried-up crust."

Why the soil reacted in such a manner remains obscure, McKay admits. "But one possibility is that this is the fossilized remains of a biological mat of some sort," he speculated. The mat would be made up of bacterial parts and pieces.

That claim cant be proven at this point, McKay said. "Thats one reason you have to go get samples to be sure."

Swept under the Magic Carpet

Mars has all the conditions for life: water, energy, and organic substances, McKay pointed out.

"It is very clear that Mars was a habitable place in terms of life as we know it. In addition to that, from the meteorites, we think theres evidence that, in fact, there was microbial life on Mars," McKay said. "And for all we know, there still could be. Its hard to kill off life once it has started."

Early in the mission of Spirit at Gusev Crater, scientists dubbed the region messed up by landing bags as the "Magic Carpet." The crumpled portion of the soil appeared to have been peeled away, as noted by rover scientists.

"I think theres really something there," McKay told SPACE.com. "There is some cohesiveness to that material. Talk about the Magic Carpet just went away. I dont think it should have gone away."

He pointed to work being done at Guerrero Negro, Baja California by NASAs Ames Research Center on the evolution of a microbial community functioning in microbial mats.

"Theyve also produced some in the lab. You pick that stuff up and its kind of like a fabric. It is fairly cohesive. A crusty material like dura crust breaks up immediately," McKay said.

Resolving power

According to a NASA Ames web site, microbial mats here on Earth are important because their 3.4-billion-year fossil record indicates they are our planets oldest known ecosystems.

On the early Earth, before higher multicellular organisms evolved, photosynthetic microbial mats literally covered the planet, and microbes were the only life forms. Later, as higher plants evolved, photosynthetic mat communities had to compete for sunlight and nutrients. The evolution of animals brought further pressures because mats are a nutritious food.

"There are two extremes here," McKay added. "If you accept the hypothesis that whats been seen is a microbial mat on Mars, is it an old one or a living one?"

On one hand, given moisture and becoming a little wetter than usual, a growing martian mat is conceivable. "One could also argue that its a very old mat, formed at the base of an ocean or lake. Perhaps its two billion years old. I have a lot of trouble figuring out how to tell those ideas apart," McKay said.

With each Mars rover toting science gear, including a Microscopic Imager, why then hasnt the microbial mat issue been resolved, quite literally? Because the robots carry no instrument that can really detect life or report theres no life, McKay says. "Thats a bit frustrating. But they werent intended for that purpose."

Microbial mat structures, biofilm, or other possible structures are just out of range of the microscopes focusing power. "The resolution of the Microscopic Imager sort of falls apart right when it starts to get interesting," McKay said.

Freeze-frame planet

Fossils of microbial life are difficult to find even on Earth, with the most sophisticated tools. And they don't endure well over billions of years. Higher forms of life -- larger, multicellular, and with more structure -- leave traces that are easier to detect. So far, the Mars rovers have found no obvious fossils big enough to be clearly observed and credible.

Most experts doubt that conditions on Mars could have supported the evolution of life beyond its most primitive forms.

"More evolved lifewe would have seen fossils of it by now, and we havent," McKay said. Yet the chemistry and the indications of water at both rover landing sites, he said, is certainly favorable for the development of microbial life.

Future orbiting and landing spacecraft are now being built to study Mars in far greater detail using more powerful devices than those utilized to date. "In my view, its a terrible waste of landers not to have a life-detection instrument on every lander," McKay stated. "The public is smart enough to understand that a negative result doesnt mean theres no life on Mars."

There is fear within the Mars research community, McKay continued, that a negative result would essentially kill the program. "I dont think thats the case at all."

Up to now, Mars is a freeze-frame planet, profiled in camera clicks. In the near future, the prospects are good for streaming video to present the red planet in motion, as never seen before.

"I would love of have had a video of that Magic Carpet being pulled up. That might have made the point incredibly strong," McKay concluded.

Latest news update...

Spirit Hints at Past Water, Opportunity Hits Rock Bottom
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 18 August 2004
4:30 p.m. ET

Despite living well beyond their primary mission lifetimes, NASA twin Mars rovers have been busy little robotic bees.

The robot Spirit, while some showing signs of age, has found signs that water once flowed atop the rocks of its Gusev Crater landing site. The rover has spent more than a month gradually climbing the Columbia Hills.

"I would say that this is the most powerful evidence [of water] in the rocks at Gusev Crater," said Steven Squyres, the rovers' principal investigator from Cornell University. "We had evidencethat a little bit of water percolated through the plains there."

Squyres spoke during a press briefing today at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

During the briefing researchers added that Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is suffering from a jammed drill. Despite its problems, the rover has photographed a mysterious rock that defies explanation, as well as a batch of red spherule-like objects that scientists don't yet understand. Opportunity has most likely reach the deepest point of its journey into Endurance Crater, a stadium sized hole carved in the robot's Meridiani Planum landing site, they added.

Opportunity bottoms out

Just as Spirit has gone up, so its twin Opportunity has gone down, rolling more than 32 feet (10 meters) into Endurance Crater at Meridiani Planum.

"In terms of depth, we've pretty much reached the end of the line," Squyres said, adding that only blueberries and sand dunes - which could end Opportunity's science mission if it were to bog down one - lie ahead. "We built a wonderful rover, but we didn't build a dune buggy."

But that hasn't stopped Opportunity from making a pair of perplexing finds. The rover has found lumpy, odd rock unlike anything its seen to date. Researchers hope to swing by the rock on the way out of Endurance for further study.

"It could just be one big mass of concretions," Squyres said. "I just don't know."

On top of that, Opportunity's robotic arm-mounted Microscopic Imager has detected small, red objects that researchers don't yet understand.

"We have no idea what it was," said Zoe Learner, a science team member and graduate student from Cornell who has studied Mars' blueberry formations.

The red formations are coarse, not always round and some of them appear to have even smaller objects weathering out of them, she said. They may be a kind of red-coated blueberry or an altogether type of concretion, but more study is needed, she added.

Meanwhile, researchers are also considering sending Opportunity to the edge of a nearby tendril of sand dunes, but only if it won't endanger the robot.

Snooping around Clovis

Sitting 29.5 feet (9 meters) above the Gusev Crater plains, the Spirit rover is currently at what researchers believe is a rich area for peering into the region's potentially watery past.

The rover has found an outcrop consisting of both pristine and transformed material, allowing researchers a chance to contrast the two and determine what role -- if any -- water may have played in altering nearby rocks. One such altered rock is Clovis, where the rover is currently perched, contains greater concentrations of sulfur, chlorine bromine, materials that can be easily deposited by water or other liquid, than other targets on the Gusev plains, researchers said.

"The bottom line so far is that we have intriguing evidence that this rock Clovis interacted with liquid," Squyres said.

But researchers need a baseline to compare Clovis to, unaltered rock for Spirit to scan with its multiple instruments, said Doug Ming, a rover science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center.

After a few weeks studying both unaltered and altered rocjs around Clovis, researchers plan to send Spirit further upward to a batch of layered rock - the first such formation seen at Gusev - a few meters away. Then it is on up to the summit of Husband Hill, one of seven in the Columbia chain.

Working through glitches

Engineers are working to help Opportunity unsnag its Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), a combination drill and brush that bites into rock targets.

The tool appears to have an object stuck between the drill bit and brush, though engineers want to verify that's the case before reversing the tool's spin to free the grit.

"We're not in a big hurry," said Chris Salvo, a rover mission manager at JPL. "The science team has no problem using the other instruments."

Spirit, on the other hand, is doing well despite a sick wheel and using five wheels to make most drives. The rover is generating less power than its twin, about 400 watt-hours compared to the up to 600 produced by Opportunity, due to age, dust and the limited sunlight available due to winter on Mars.

"And with [these] few aches and pains, they're really not showing that they're going to stop any time soon," Salvo said.

-end-

Here's some other news from Mars (from orbit)...

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington August 25, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-277

MARS ODYSSEY BEGINS OVERTIME AFTER SUCCESSFUL MISSION

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter begins working overtime
today after completing a prime mission that discovered vast
supplies of frozen water, ran a safety check for future
astronauts, and mapped surface textures and minerals all over
Mars, among other feats.

"Odyssey has accomplished all of its mission-success
criteria," said Dr. Philip Varghese, project manager for
Odyssey at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The spacecraft has been examining Mars in detail since
February 2002, more than a full Mars year of about 23 Earth
months. NASA has approved an extended mission through
September 2006.

"This extension gives us another martian year to build on
what we have already learned," said JPL's Dr. Jeff Plaut,
project scientist for Odyssey. "One goal is to look for
climate change. During the prime mission we tracked dramatic
seasonal changes, such as the comings and goings of polar
ice, clouds and dust storms. Now, we have begun watching for
year-to-year differences at the same time of year."

The extension will also continue Odyssey's support for other
Mars missions. About 85 percent of images and other data from
NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have reached
Earth via communications relay by Odyssey, which receives
transmissions from both rovers every day.

The orbiter helped analyze potential landing sites for the
rovers and is doing the same for NASA's Phoenix mission,
scheduled to land on Mars in 2008. Plans call for Odyssey to
aid NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, due to reach Mars in
March 2006, by monitoring atmospheric conditions during
months when the newly arrived orbiter uses calculated dips
into the atmosphere to alter its orbit into the desired
shape.

Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001, and used the same
"aerobraking" technique to shape its orbit during the initial
months after it reached Mars on October 23, 2001. The
spacecraft carries three research systems: a camera system
made up of infrared and visible-light sensors; a spectrometer
suite with a gamma ray spectrometer, a neutron spectrometer
and a high-energy neutron detector; and a radiation
environment detector.

Less than a month after the science mapping campaign began,
the team announced a major discovery. The gamma ray and
neutron instruments detected copious hydrogen just under
Mars' surface in the planet's south polar region. Researchers
interpret the hydrogen as frozen water -- enough within about
a meter (3 feet) of the surface, if the ice were melted, to
fill Lake Michigan a couple times.

Here are a few of Odyssey's other important accomplishments
so far:

-- As summer came to northern Mars and the north polar
covering of frozen carbon dioxide shrank, Odyssey found
abundant frozen water in the north, too.

-- Infrared mapping shows that a mineral called olivine is
widespread. This indicates the environment has been quite
dry, because water exposure alters olivine into other
minerals.

-- Findings indicate the amount of frozen water in some
relatively warm regions on Mars is too great to be in
equilibrium with the atmosphere, suggesting that Mars may be
going through a period of climate change. Features visible
near small, young gullies in some Odyssey images may be
slowly melting snowpacks left over from a martian ice age.

-- The first experiment sent to Mars specifically in
preparation for human missions found that radiation levels
around Mars, from solar flares and cosmic rays, are two to
three times higher than around Earth.

-- Odyssey's camera system has obtained the most detailed
complete global maps of Mars ever, with daytime and nighttime
infrared images at a resolution of 100 meters (328 feet).

"We've accomplished everything we set out to do, and more,"
said JPL's Robert Mase, Odyssey mission manager. Although an
unusually powerful solar flare in October 2003 knocked out
the radiation environment instrument, Odyssey is otherwise in
excellent health. The spacecraft has enough fuel onboard to
keep operating through this decade and the next at current
consumption rates. The mission extension, with a budget of
$35 million, essentially doubles the science payoff from
Odyssey for less than one-eighth of the mission's original
$297 million cost.

For more information about Mars Odyssey on the Internet,
visit:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey

-end-

* * *

Things seem a bit slow today on the other threads so here's an update from the Euro Mars Orbiter on possible life signs being detected on the red planet:

Mars Express Yields Provocative Observations
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 20 September 2004
02:12 pm ET

Europes Mars Express is gathering data regarding the geological and atmospheric processes on the red planet -- information that might shore up the case that present-day life is percolating subsurface.

Recent analyses of data gleaned by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) carried by the spacecraft reveal that concentrations of water vapor and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap.

New in-depth looks at the PFS data also bears out that methane is not uniform in the atmosphere, but thick in some areas. The PFS team observed that the areas of highest concentration of methane overlap with the areas where water vapor and underground water ice are also concentrated.

This spatial correlation between water vapor and methane seems to point to a common underground source.

One exciting prospect bolstered by the data: Can forms of bacterial life exist in the water below the ice table, producing methane and other gases and releasing them to the surface and then to the atmosphere? Indeed, the PFS data could be hinting at the presence of extant life on Mars in terms of the presence of biomarker gases.

Concentrated in regions

The Mars Express data and what they could mean were reported today by Vittorio Formisano, PFS principal investigator, at the International Mars Conference being held this week in Ischia, Italy, and organized by the Italian Space Agency.

The PFS is an Italian Space Agency instrument, developed by the Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI) of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).

ESA released today an overview of the PFS data, noting that at 6-9 miles (10-15 kilometers) above the surface, water vapor is well mixed and uniform in the atmosphere. However, the instrument found that, close to the surface, water vapor is more concentrated in three broad equatorial regions: Arabia Terra, Elysium Planum and Arcadia-Memnonia.

In those locales on Mars, the concentration is two to three times higher than in other regions observed. These particular areas of water vapor concentration also match up with places that NASAs Mars Odyssey spacecraft found a water ice layer just below the Martian surface, Formisano reported.

Ice table

The ESA press statement also explained that an underground ice layer dubbed an "ice table" could be the product of geothermal heat from below the surface that pushes water and other material towards the surface. It would then freeze before getting there, due to the very low surface temperature on Mars.

While further investigations are needed to fully understand the correlation between the ice table and the presence and distribution of water vapor and methane in the atmosphere, the ESA statement today poses several questions:

· Can the geothermal processes which feed the ice table also push water vapor and other gases, like methane, to the surface?

· Can there be liquid water below the ice table?

· Can forms of bacterial life exist in the water below the ice table, producing methane and other gases and releasing them to the surface and then to the atmosphere?

Provocative observations

"This is great news," said James Garvin, Chief Scientist for Mars and the Moon and Deputy Exploration Chief Scientist within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

"All of us are encouraged by this first retrieval from Mars orbit of such noteworthy species [gases], clearly relevant to the photochemical evolution of Mars and potentially linked to provocative possibilities, including active volcanism among others."

Garvin added that "the real test" will come when the broadest possible participation by the international community gains an opportunity to analyze these new data, given the potentially controversial nature. "Thats the way science breakthroughs gain standing in the science community."

While "encouraged, excited, and delighted" that the Mars Express PFS investigators have reported such provocative observations, Garvin said the findings must undergo open peer
review by external experts, including those who have made similar detections from Earth-based systems.

Corroboration needed

Garvin explained that NASAs Mars Odyssey detected a higher concentration of hydrogen, not necessarily water ice. Mars Odyssey cannot observe "water ice layers", Garvin said, only the presence of hydrogen.

Furthermore, that hydrogen, he added, could be due to hydrated minerals, such as those found on the surface by the Mars Exploration Rovers and also detected from orbit by the Mars Express OMEGA imaging spectrometer.

In Garvins view, the real test will come when future spectrometers -- such as those destined to fly aboard the NASA Phoenix lander to be launched in 2007, and potentially carried on the Mars Science Laboratory in 2009 -- corroborate the Mars Express measurements.

"The message here is that exciting initial observations such as those reported by the Mars Express PFS are what catalyze new questions, observations, and ultimately testable hypotheses," Garvin concluded.

Time to come out of hibernation and resume roving...

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington Sept. 21, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-307

ROVER MISSIONS RENEWED AS MARS EMERGES FROM BEHIND SUN

As NASA's Spirit and Opportunity resumed reliable
contact with Earth, after a period when Mars passed nearly
behind the sun, the space agency extended funding for an
additional six months of rover operations, as long as they
keep working.

Both rovers successfully completed their primary three-month
missions on the surface of Mars in April and have already
added about five months of bonus exploration during the first
extension of their missions.

"Spirit and Opportunity appear ready to continue their
remarkable adventures," said Andrew Dantzler, solar system
division director at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "We're
taking advantage of that good news by adding more support for
the teamwork here on Earth that's necessary for operating the
rovers."

Neither rover drove during a 12-day period this month, while
radio transmissions were unreliable because of the sun's
position between the two planets. Daily planning and
commanding of rover activities recommenced Monday for
Opportunity and today for Spirit.

"It is a relief to get past this past couple of weeks," said
Jim Erickson, project manager for both rovers at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "Not only were
communications disrupted, but the rovers were also going
through the worst part of Mars southern-hemisphere winter
from a solar-energy standpoint."

"Although Spirit and Opportunity are well past warranty, they
are showing few signs of wearing out," Erickson said. "We
really don't know how long they will keep working, whether
days or months. We will do our best to continue getting the
maximum possible benefit from these great national
resources."

Rovers' science team members will spend less time at JPL
during the second mission extension. They are able to attend
daily planning meetings by teleconferencing from their home
institutions in several states and in Europe. "All 150
science team members and collaborators have been provided the
tools to be able to participate remotely," said JPL's Dr.
John Callas, science manager for the rover project. Workstations researchers used at JPL are at their home
institutions. Planning tools include video feeds, workstation
display remote viewing, and audio conferencing.

Besides reducing costs, remote operations allow scientists to
spend more time at home. "We get back to more normal lives,
back to our families, and we still get to explore Mars every
day," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.Y., principal investigator.

Another change in operations is a shift from seven days per
week to five days per week from October through December.
This accommodates a temporary trim of about 20 percent in the
project's engineering team to about 100 members. The rovers'
reduced energy supply, during the rest of the Martian winter,
makes the inactive days valuable for recharging batteries. By
January, the energy situation will have improved for the
solar-powered rovers, provided they are still operating. The
team size will rebound to support daily operations.

As Mars emerges from behind the sun, Spirit is partway up the
west spur of highlands called the "Columbia Hills," a drive
of more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) from its landing site.
Opportunity is inside stadium-size "Endurance Crater," headed
toward the base of a stack of exposed rock layers in "Burns
Cliff," and a potential exit route on the crater's south
side.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Images and
additional information about the project are available on the
Web at:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

http://athena.cornell.edu

For information about NASA programs on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-

* * *

Here's a good overview status report for the Rover's discoveries thus far....

{{gwi:1370559}}

Rover Report Card: Prospect of Mars Life More Likely

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 28 September, 2004
7 a.m. ET

Rolling, rolling, rolling. Keep those Mars rovers rolling. You can almost hear the crack of a Martian whip.

Since January, NASAs Spirit and Opportunity robots have been wheeling and dealing with the red planet. Last week they had their driving licenses renewed for an additional six months. The science results already have changes how researchers view Mars, and the mission could be far from over.

The rovers steadily worked through a primary three-month mission that ended in April. Then the Mars twosome added another five months of "bonus exploration" during the first extension of their respective duties.

The overall health of the robotic explorers points to more travel, more science and more discovery, mission officials say. All the better to piece together a more solid story about the history and present state of the red planet and whether or not it has been, or is today, a home for life.

Cold conditions

Spirit at the Gusev Crater site is partway up the west spur of highlands tagged the Columbia Hills, a drive of more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) from its landing spot.

On the other side of the planet, at Meridiani Planum, Opportunity is inside the stadium-size Endurance Crater, wheeling itself toward the base of a stack of exposed rock layers labeled Burns Cliff a location that is a potential exit route on the crater's south side.

If power were the only limiting factor, the solar-energized rovers could chalk up multiple years of service. "But chances are that something else will get us before then," said Mark Adler, Mars Exploration Rover Mission Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Both rovers face ever-colder conditions as winter sets in on Mars. "Anybody that has a machine knows. Things break sooner or later," Adler said. "But life is goodand were going to keep driving them as long as they last."

Heat shield inspection

Next on Opportunitys agenda is to wheel itself up and out of Endurance Crater.

The plan is to steer the robot by a nearby hunk of discarded hardware a heat shield that protected the rover and airbag landing system as they plunged through the martian atmosphere last January.

"If the heat shield broke, we may be able to see a cross-section of the heat-shield material and observe the char depth to compare that with what we predicted," Adler told SPACE.com. "For science, we expect that the heat shield dug a pretty good trench on impact."

Opportunity could use its Microscopic Imager to inspect in detail the heat shield, Adler said. Once done at that site, the rover is to bolt out across the "big Meridiani parking lot," he added.

Spirits mission is being geared to explore rock outcrops in the Columbia Hills a far different place than months of driving across the plains of Gusev Crater.

"And thats sort of the bottom line," Adler said. "In my opinion, its worthwhile to keep funding the rovers because the discoveries keep coming as long as they can go explore new terrain. I hope our sponsors will agree with that. Itll be very hard to stop operating these rovers as long as they can continue to roll."

Emerging picture

In looking back on the months of Mars exploration, what is the most striking, surprising new view of Mars obtained by the rovers?

"That's hard to say this early in the game. I think it's going to take a long time for the science community to fully digest our results," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover project.

But Squyres added: "What's emerging to me is a picture of Mars as a planet that's made of basaltic rock, and with groundwater that's dilute sulfuric acid. The acid interacts with the rock, dissolving things out of it, and then can evaporate away and leave interesting sulfate salts behind. When you have a little interaction and a little evaporation, you get the kind of deposits -- like a little bit of magnesium sulfate salt in the soil -- that we see at Gusev. When you have a lot of interaction and a lot of evaporation, you get the kind of sulfate-rich evaporate beds we see at Meridiani."

Taking this into consideration, the life on Mars issue, Squyres said, means grappling with a key notion. "I think that we've got to start considering how easy it might or might not be for life to take hold in this kind of sulfur-rich, low-pH [measure of acidity] environment."

Supporting suspicion

And given the data amassed to date by the twin robots, is the prospect now more likely that Mars was, or is now, an abode for life?

"I think so," Squyres responded. "We've always suspected that there were places on Mars where liquid water has been present at the surface for significant periods of time, but now we have some actual in-situ evidence to support that suspicion," he told SPACE.com.

Squyres underscored the significance of the kinds of mineral deposits that the Opportunity rover has found at Meridiani, including evaporites and concretions the kinds of materials that can be good at long-term preservation of evidence for life.

"So our results don't just provide evidence that there were habitable environments, they also suggest a possible search strategy for evidence that there might once have been
life," Squyres said.

Martian time scale

Thanks to rover science data relayed so far, the outlook for life on Mars is a resounding yes, but with a caveat, explained Ronald Greeley, a leading planetary scientist at the Department of Geological Sciences at Arizona State University in Tempe. "This is still a long way from saying that the spark of life ever took place."

Consider the exploration of Mars by spacecraft, beginning with the NASA Mariner 4 flyby of Mars in 1965. Greeley recounted that every new mission provides increasing information to support the idea of a "wet" Mars.

From polar processes, channels and valley networks, to the recent observations of small young gullies and measurements of water the water history of the red planet is being revealed in step-by-step fashion.

Now the twin Mars rovers show that the rocks at both sites have been formed and altered by extensive water, Greeley said. "While water is certainly at or near the surface in many areas today, what we do not know is the time scale for the formation and alteration of the rocks seen at the rover sites."

Greeley said that, in his mind, placing constraints on the martian time scale is the biggest need facing Mars researchers now. "The next level of understanding of the features seen on the surface -- and the related environments -- is dependent on this time scale. The only way to get at this issue is to have suites of samples returned to Earth from key places on Mars," he said.

Saga of water

So far, the most striking aspect of Mars rover work is the saga of water on the planet.

Not necessarily floods of water, but sufficient amounts to alter the rocks. This is true even at the Gusev site, Greeley added, where the basaltic rocks show several lines of evidence of modification by water. This could be from water in the atmosphere, interactions by ground water that is to say, subsurface water that percolates through the rocks and soils -- or surface water, he said.

"For the most part, the Mars Exploration Rover results confirm the pre-mission interpretations of remote sensing data for Gusev crater and Sinus Meridiani. This gives confidence that the Mars community can exploit the great wealth of present and future remote sensing data as the exploration program moves forward," Greeley concluded.

Life on Mars, past or present, remains an open question. Thats the view of Joy Crisp, JPL project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover effort,

"We already knew that there was liquid water around in the past, so I'm not sure that the rover mission has really changed the prospects for past life," Crisp noted. "The mission has not changed the prospects for current life. Today, Mars is still the harsh place we thought it was."

Fossils?

Through Mars rover science, research teams have found a specific rock deposit that preserves a record of a past environment that could have been favorable for life.

"And that could have preserved evidence of fossil life, if life was around when the rocks were deposited or later soaked in liquid water," Crisp said.

To the extent that water and life go together -- which they do -- the rovers have enhanced the case that "Mars had the right stuff in the past in terms of liquid water," said Ray Arvidson, Mars Exploration Rover Deputy Principal Investigator from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

"Certainly, all the ingredients to make the biogeochemical compounds would have been there," Arvidson stated.

"It bodes well for all the right stuff, in terms of a Mars environment and materials for life to get started and to evolve. And whether it happened or not, I think we need to go down and explore with the right tools," Arvidson concluded....

Next Rover Assignments....

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington October 7, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-342

MARS ROVERS PROBING WATER HISTORY AT TWO SITES

NASA's Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars
about three times as long as originally scheduled. The more
they look, the more evidence of past liquid water on Mars
these robots discover. Team members reported the new findings
at a news briefing today.

New findings raise the possibility Opportunity's work area
was soaked long ago, before it dried and eroded into a wide
plain. There are also signs some rocks may have gotten wet
again, after an impact excavated a stadium-size crater in the
plain.

Evidence of this exciting possibility has been identified in
a flat rock dubbed "Escher" and some neighboring rocks near
the bottom of the crater. These plate-like rocks bear
networks of cracks dividing the surface into patterns of
polygons, somewhat similar in appearance to cracked mud after
the water has dried up here on Earth.

Alternative histories, such as fracturing by the force of the
crater-causing impact, or the final desiccation of the
original wet environment that formed the rocks, might also
explain the polygonal cracks. Rover scientists hope a lumpy
boulder nicknamed "Wopmay," Opportunity's next target for
inspection, may help narrow the list of possible
explanations.

"When we saw these polygonal crack patterns, right away we
thought of a secondary water event significantly later than
the episode that created the rocks," said Dr. John
Grotzinger. He is a rover-team geologist from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Finding geological evidence about watery periods in Mars'
past is the rover project's main goal, because such
persistently wet environments may have been hospitable to
life.

"Did these cracks form after the crater was created? We don't
really know yet," Grotzinger said.

-more-
-2-
If they did, one possible source of moisture could be
accumulations of frost partially melting during climate
changes, as Mars wobbled on its axis of rotation, in cycles
of tens of thousands of years. According to Grotzinger,
another possibility could be the melting of underground ice
or release of underground water in large enough quantity to
pool a little lake within the crater.

One type of evidence Wopmay could add to the case for wet
conditions after the crater formed would be a crust of water- soluble minerals. After examining that rock, the rover team's
plans for Opportunity are to get a close look at a tall stack
of layers nicknamed "Burns Cliff" from the base of the cliff.
The rover will then climb out of the crater and head south to
the spacecraft's original heat shield and nearby rugged
terrain, where deeper rock layers may be exposed.

Halfway around Mars, Spirit is climbing higher into the
"Columbia Hills." Spirit drove more than three kilometers
(approximately two miles) across a plain to reach them. After
finding bedrock that had been extensively altered by water,
scientists used the rover to look for relatively unchanged
rock as a comparison for understanding the area's full range
of environmental changes. Instead, even the freshest-looking
rocks examined by Spirit in the Columbia Hills have shown
signs of pervasive water alteration.

"We haven't seen a single unaltered volcanic rock, since we
crossed the boundary from the plains into the hills, and I'm
beginning to suspect we never will," said Dr. Steve Squyres
of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator
for the science payload on both rovers. "All the rocks in the
hills have been altered significantly by water. We're having
a wonderful time trying to work out exactly what happened
here," he added.

More clues to deciphering the environmental history of the
hills could lie in layered rock outcrops further upslope,
Spirit's next targets. "Just as we worked our way deeper into
the Endurance crater with Opportunity, we'll work our way
higher and higher into the hills with Spirit, looking at
layered rocks and constructing a plausible geologic history,"
Squyres said.

Jim Erickson, rover project manager at JPL, said, "Both
Spirit and Opportunity have only minor problems, and there is
really no way of knowing how much longer they will keep
operating. However we are optimistic about their conditions,
and we have just been given a new lease on life for them, a
six-month extended mission that began Oct. 1. The solar power
situation is better than expected, but these machines are
already well past their design life. While they're healthy,
we'll keep them working as hard as possible."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Images and
additional information about the project are available from
JPL and Cornell at:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
http://athena.cornell.edu
-end-

* * *

Mars Rovers: Still Squeezing Out Science
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
Space.com
posted: 27 October 2004
11:26 am ET

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming Those work-a-day robots Spirit and Opportunity remain steadfast in their Mars research duties. But scientists must face the day when each rover surrenders to electronic or mechanical breakdown, or falls victim to Mars itself.

Both rovers long ago finished their three-month primary missions and even their first mission extensions. The twin robots began their second extra-inning sessions earlier this month.

Although engineers are nursing a nagging problem that affects the steering of Spirit, the rover continues to probe the Columbia Hills at Gusev Crater. Spirit has driven a total of 2.3 miles (3,647 meters) since landing, more than six times the distance set as a goal for the mission.

For its part, Opportunity at Meridiani Planum has driven just over a mile (1,619 meters). It has completed observations on a lumpy boulder nicknamed "Wopmay" inside Endurance Crater.

The robots next assignment is to trek towards "Burns Cliff" on the way to exiting Endurance Craterand heading out for more adventure.

Digesting volumes of data

"Well never be finished. I know that the day each rover dies, theres going to be something wonderful just out of reachbecause theres been something wonderful just out of reach the entire mission," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University and leader of the science teams for the dual Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project.

How do you prepare for the eventual demise of the Mars machines?

"Its going to happenand weve just got to deal with it," Squyres told SPACE.com during the Second Conference on Early Mars: Geologic, Hydrologic, and Climate Evolution and the Implications for Life, held here Oct. 11-15.

Digesting the volumes of data from the MER mission is going to take many years, Squyres said. "Weve known that from the start. Thats the nature of scientific investigation."

Squeezing out science

Squyres pointed out that Mars experts are still purging good science out of the NASA Viking missions twin sets of orbiters and landers -- sent to the red planet in the 1970s.

The number one duty for the MER team is to squeeze out as much science from each rover as possible, every single day, Squyres explained. "There will be plenty of time to analyze the data."

"We are moving as rapidly as we possibly can to get our results published and out in the scientific literature. But right now, the primary focus and responsibility of my team is the continued operation of those vehicles that are, literally, priceless assets on the surface of another world."

Change of scenery

While the Spirit rover is deep in science at Columbia Hills, a change of scenery awaits Opportunity. To date, the rover has spent over 130 sols perusing Endurance Crater.

A first stop is inspecting a piece of Opportunitys cast off Mars entry hardware that plopped down nearby.

From there, scientists have their eyes set on a huge crater at Meridiani Planum tagged Victoria. "Whether or not we will ever get thereI have no idea," Squyres said.

Victoria Crater is big six times larger than the stadium-sized Endurance Crater, the feature in which Opportunity is now wrapping up its exploration tasks.

Sand traps, steep slopes, cracks of death?

Yet driving the rover some three miles (5 kilometers) to the south to reach Victoria wont be an easy stroll through rock and sand.

Between the rover and Victoria there is whats called etched terrain.

"Whether or not we will be able to fight our way through that barrier, I havent the slightest clue," Squyres said.

Imagery snapped by Mars orbiters of that bizarre looking area yield only naive interpretations, Squyres added. There could be sand traps, steep slopes, cracks of death, and other rover-challenging impediments. Nobody knows for sure.

"The point is that if we get to the etched terrain weve got great science to do there. And if we get through the etched terrain, then theres another wonderful target beyond that," Squyres explained. "But its exploration. Well go and well see."

Mars Rover Get Mystery Power Boost
By John Antczak
The Associated Press
posted: 04 November, 2004
7:45 a.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ As NASA's Mars rovers keep rolling past all expectations of their useful lives, scientists have a happy mystery: For some reason one of the vehicles has actually gained power recently.

Opportunity recently experienced an unexplained rejuvenation from what can so far be described only as two or three significant "cleaning events,'' said Jim Erickson, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

"Now we're assuming they're cleaning, but all we can really say is that overnight the solar panels produced between 2 and 5 percent additional power immediately,'' he said. "We're surmising that for some reason dust is being removed from the solar panel and that's increasing the efficiency of the sunlight being converted to electricity.''

The rover team has been bandying about theories, but hasn't figured out the cause.

"One favorite is that a dust devil happened to pick the vehicle to go through and go over the surface of it and clean it off a little bit,'' Erickson said.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, parachuted to opposite sides of Mars back in January, but they remain in good shape after enduring the worst of the Martian winter, which cut down on the amount of energy reaching their solar panels.

Both six-wheeled rovers have discovered geologic evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet and are continuing to send valuable data.

"We are pushing these vehicles to their very limits,'' said Steve Squyres, the rover principal investigator from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "In many ways they are performing better in some sense just because we've gotten better at operating them and we are in this much more challenging and geologically rich terrain.''

Spirit has had several minor problems, indicating that various parts may be showing their age, Erickson said.

Spirit, having trekked nearly two miles across the flat terrain of the vast Gusev Crater region where it set down, is zigzagging up the rugged Columbia Hills and is now nearly 200 feet above the surrounding plain.

The intriguing layered rocks of the hills are much different than the plain below, and scientists are working on multiple hypotheses to explain how they formed.

The leading theory is that the rocks began as volcanic ash that fell out of the sky or moved along the ground in ash flows, and minerals inside them were subsequently altered by ground water, said Ray Arvidson, the rover deputy principal investigator from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Opportunity is nearing the end of its exploration of stadium-size Endurance Crater in the Meridiani Planum region and may claw its way over the rim.

The rovers had available about 1,000 watt-hours a day when they arrived on Mars, but dust on their solar panels and the seasonal decrease in solar energy have limited their power, and therefore their activities.

Opportunity is now at about 820 watt-hours and remains very close to full capability. Spirit, which is in a less advantageous position to point its arrays toward the sun, has 350 to 400 watt-hours daily.

{{gwi:1370560}}
A majestic view of Burns Cliff as it appeared to Opportunity on Nov. 6, 2004. The rover will not be able to reach parts of the cliff due to terrain that appears to treacherous to pass, but it can safely advance to the squarish white rock at the center of this image. After examining the site for a few days from that position, the rover will turn around and head out of Endurance Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL.

November 23
Space.com

Mars Rover Spirit Takes a Brake

Busily surveying the Columbia Hills at Gusev Crater, NASAs Spirit Mars Exploration Rover continues to suffer a bit of a "brake down."

Rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California continue to deal with Spirit wheel and brake issues. While surpassing its original warranty, Spirit has intermittently sent information in recent weeks that the brakes on two wheels were not releasing properly when the rover received commands to set a new course.

Recent images relayed by Spirits navigation camera show in graphic detail what ground operators are dealing with. A westward view from the robot shows the effects of dragging its right front wheel, explained Leo Bister, Spirit mission manager.

{{gwi:1370561}}
The image shown here was taken on November 19, during Spirits 313th day of martian operations as the rover drove backwards for about 98 feet (30 meters) on the day the picture was taken, Bister confirmed to SPACE.com .

This type anomaly has not been observed on the Opportunity rover as it wheels around Endurance Crater on the other side of Mars.

-- Leonard David

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington Dec. 2, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 04-385

REPORTS DETAIL ROVER DISCOVERIES OF WET MARTIAN HISTORY

The most dramatic findings so far from NASA's twin Mars
rovers -- telltale evidence for a wet and possibly habitable
environment in the arid planet's past -- passed rigorous
scientific scrutiny for publication in a major research
journal.

Eleven reports by 122 authors in Friday's issue of the
journal Science present results from Opportunity's three-
month prime mission, fleshing out headline discoveries
revealed earlier.

Opportunity bounced to an airbag-cushioned landing on Jan.
24. It is exploring a region called Meridiani Planum, halfway
around Mars from where its twin, Spirit, landed three weeks
earlier. Sedimentary rocks Opportunity examined, "clearly
preserve a record of environmental conditions different from
any on Mars today," report 50 rover-team scientists led by
Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. and Dr.
Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

"Liquid water was once intermittently present at the Martian
surface at Meridiani, and at times it saturated the
subsurface. Because liquid water is a key prerequisite for
life, we infer conditions at Meridiani may have been
habitable for some period of time in Martian history,"
according to Squires, Arvidson and other co-authors.

"Formal review and publication this week of these amazing
discoveries further strengthens the need for continued
exploration by orbiters, surface robots, sample-return
missions and human explorers. There are more exciting
discoveries awaiting us on the red planet," said Dr. Michael
Meyer, chief scientist for Mars exploration at NASA
Headquarters, Washington.

-more-

-2-

Opportunity and Spirit have driven a combined 5.75 kilometers
(3.57 miles), nearly five times their mission-success goal.
They continue in good health after operating more than three
times as long as the three-month prime missions for which
they were designed.

NASA's rover team makes the resulting scientific discoveries
available quickly to the public and the science community.
One type of evidence that Meridiani was wet is the
composition of rocks there.

The rocks have a high and variable ratio of bromine to
chlorine; indicating "the past presence of large amounts of
water," write Dr. Rudi Rieder and Dr. Ralf Gellert of Max- Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, and co- authors. Their paper and another by Dr. Phil Christensen of
Arizona State University, Tempe, and collaborators report an
abundance of sulfur-rich minerals in the rocks, another clue
to a watery past. Clinching the case is identification of a
hydrated iron-sulfate salt called jarosite in the rocks, as
reported by Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of the University of
Mainz, and Dr. Richard Morris of NASA's Johnson Space Center,
Houston, and co-authors.

Structures within the rocks add more evidence according to
Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff,
Ariz., and co-authors. Plentiful cavities, about the size of
shirt buttons, indicate crystals formed inside the rocks then
dissolved. Minerals carried by water formed peppercorn-size
gray spheres, nicknamed "blueberries," that are embedded in
the rocks. Certain angled patterns of fine layers in some
rocks tell experts a flowing body of surface water shaped the
sediments that became the rocks.

Several characteristics of the rocks suggest water came and
went repeatedly, as it does in some shallow lakes in desert
environments on Earth. That fluctuation, plus the water's
possible high acidity and saltiness, would have posed
challenges to life, but not necessarily insurmountable ones,
according to researchers. If life ever did exist at
Meridiani, the type of rocks found there could be good
preservers of fossils, according to Squyres, Dr. John
Grotzinger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, and co-authors.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has
managed the Mars Exploration Rover project since it began in
2000. Images and additional information about the rovers and
their discoveries are available on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html

Information about NASA and agency programs is available on
the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-

* * *

On Mars: Earth-Like Clouds and a New Type of Rock
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 13 December 2004
4:00 p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO - NASA's Mars rovers have returned new evidence for past water, pictures of Earth-like clouds seen for the first time from the planet's surface, and a rock that doesn't look like anything scientists have ever seen.

Meanwhile, officials say both robots are in surprisingly good health and could continue their science investigations for months more, despite nagging health problems.

The Spirit rover, ambling through the Columbia Hills at the fringe of the Gusev crater, has uncovered a riot of rock forms and chemistries, including a mineral called goethite, which had not been found on Mars before. Goethite is common on Earth and forms only in the presence of water, though the water can be liquid, frozen or vaporous, said Goestar Klingelhoefer of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany.

Rover scientists presented their latest findings here Monday at meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

A chunk of terrestrial goethite about the size of a can of tomato soup, passed around during a press conference, was black and shiny and weighed about as much as a can-and-a-half of tomato soup.

Other findings suggest the rocks of Columbia Hills have a history that included either a meteorite impact or volcanic activity, and that water was involved at some point.

Cornell astronomer Steven Squyres, principle investigator for the rover science instruments, said that just this weekend the team spotted a type of rock never seen before. Scientists haven't yet analyzed it and Squyres wouldn't speculate on what it was. But he noted that the exposed rocks of the Columbia Hills, thought to be billions of years old, reveal an extremely complex structure and range of mineral types.

"We're stunned by the diversity of rocks," Squyres said. "This stuff looks like it was put into a blender."

Squyres said it is clear the rocks in the hills have been altered by water, but it's not yet known if it was liquid water. Several chemical signatures suggest liquid water, he said.

On the other side of Mars, the Opportunity rover emerged from the Endurance crater on Sunday after six months inside. "We're out," Squyres announced. The rover backed out of the crater, because it climbs better while going backward, he explained.

Opportunity, back on the Meridiani Planum, took pictures of wispy clouds that look strikingly like cirrus clouds on Earth.

"This is just a totally spectacular image," said NASA rover scientist Michael Wolff as he presented the first image. And upon unveiling the second: "I can't get enough of these."

Wolff said the clouds are almost surely made of water ice. They've been spotted by orbiting spacecraft before and are known to occur near the equator -- where the rovers are -- only when Mars is at aphelion, or at its farthest point from the Sun on its elliptical orbit. During aphelion, about 40 percent less sunlight warms the planet, changing the climate,

The clouds are being blown by wind. Wolff estimates they're moving at up to 22 mph (10 meters per second).

Opportunity's solar-powered batteries are working at near full capacity. The system produced about 950 watt-hours upon landing at the beginning of this year. Dust and a low, wintertime Sun dropped that figure significantly at times in recent weeks. But lately it's been generating 900 watt-hours when the solar panel is pointed northward, said rover project manager James Erickson.

Spirit is producing just 400 watt-hours, but Erickson expects that to improve as spring brings the Sun higher into the sky. For now, Spirit can only investigate rocks where rover drivers can keep its solar panel tilted north.

Erickson said the rovers are likely to continue exploring until some mechanical failure takes them down, rather than any problem with solar power generation. Spirit is still dogged by a balky front wheel and Opportunity continues to struggle with a shoulder problem. Both have outlasted their 90-day warranties, however, and will have been on Mars for a year in January.

"It looks like they'll both be around for the anniversary next month," Erickson said.

Asked if they robots will still be at work in May, Squyres alluded to his hard-working team, which for much of the early part of the mission worked on Mars time, by joking that "the rovers have a better chance of being alive then than we do."

December 15

Mars Rover Eyes Foreign Object

Fresh from some six months of driving inside Endurance Crater, the Opportunity Mars rover now has a piece of foreign space hardware in its sights.

After successfully climbing out of the stadium-sized crater, engineers are now steering the robot toward a part of the spacecrafts entry hardware. The discarded gear tumbled to the surface of Mars, part of the landing equipment that protected the rover from its heated plunge through Mars atmosphere in January.

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Opportunity Mars rover is wheeling toward a discarded section of its entry, descent, and landing system. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell (Click to Enlarge)

The rovers trek to the nearby heat shield is on its driving trajectory this week, confirmed Guy Webster, a spokesman for the Mars rover project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

A goal of Mars scientists is to inspect the deepest, freshly dug hole known on the red planet. Meanwhile, spacecraft engineers are itching to assess just how well the heat shield withstood its fiery fall through the Martian atmosphere. Photos sent back could be helpful in designing or testing future heat shield designs.

Wheeling itself across Meridiani Planum, Opportunity remains in excellent health with its solar power meter nearly as high now as it was at the start of its Mars mission.

-- Leonard David

Is the little critter programed to say a few words of thanks over the carcass?

Yeah Marshall, the rover will roll on over to it's demised heat sheild and say :
"Thanks for the Opportunity!"
Starman...err ahh...vgkg

Drowning in the ocean means you have succummed to Davy Jone's locker. What do you call it on Mars, Ray Bradbury's locker?

A thought anyway.

I am always blown away by those pictures. Thanks for the updates Vgkg.

"Bradbury's Locker" would surely be fitting AZDesertRat! I too am constantly amazed at the photos & info streaming back from our many photogenic neighbors. It's not much to do with SOE concerns, but perhaps while learning about the workings of other planets & planet-like moons we will become more enlightened about our own? (that's my excuse anyways ;o).

If you have cable/satillite out there check out the Science channel (SCI- not to be confused with SCIFI) on Tuesday nite @ 8-9pm "The Planets". It usually has loads of photos & up-to-date info from all of the solar system's "probed" worlds. The entire weekly 8-11pm Tues time slot covers in great detail many other astronomical topics.
vgkg