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Opportunity Rolls Onto Martian Soil and Confirms Hematite
"For the first time in history, two mobile robots are exploring the surface of another planet at the same time."
- January 31, 2004, NASA/JPL
January 31, 2004 Pasadena, California - Early this morning, NASA got the Mars Opportunity lander moving a few days before schedule and out onto the soil of the Meridiani Planum shallow crater it landed in. Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation of the successful drive at 3:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time via a relay from the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth reception by the Deep Space Network. Cheers erupted a minute later when Opportunity sent a picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the Martian soil. Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform.
Is There Living Green Algae in the Gusev Crater on Mars?
"Certainly like the green in the Gusev crater picture or by looking at the development of darker spots toward the South Pole which are tied to seasonal variations, it certainly gives rise to the speculation that there could be algae."
- Michael McKay, European Space Agency
January 31, 2004 Darmstadt, Germany - The European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter has been exploring the red planet from 186 miles (300 kilometers) altitude. Its high resolution stereo camera has been sending back extraordinary color images. Some, like the Gusev crater image above, show green areas. Some like the Reull Vallis ancient river channel below show blue and blue-green regions.
Mars – First Bedrock Seen Beyond Earth
Opportunity Lands on Mars – in “Muddy” Hematite?
"I will attempt no science analysis, because it looks like nothing I've ever seen before. I've got no words for this. I am flabbergasted. I am astonished. I am blown away. Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre alien landscape."
- Steven Squyres, Principal Investigator, Cornell University
January 25, 2004 Pasadena, California - Opportunity, NASA's second rover, landed on Mars five minutes after 9 p.m. in California and after midnight on the East Coast as expected. Opportunity bounced down in its airbag-covered lander on to a smooth plane called Meridiani Planum near the equator half way around Mars from the Gusev crater where the first damaged rover, Spirit, landed on January 3, 2004. Opportunity's mission is to search for signs of water and its landing marks and the soil look even muddier than the Gusev crater's.
Updated – Spirit Alive, But in “Critical” Condition. Mars Express Sees Water Ice and Ancient River Channel
Updated - January 24, 2004 Pasadena, California -
Spirit Communication Revived Briefly, But Rover's In "Critical" Condition
On January 23, the flight team for NASA's Spirit rover finally received data from the silent robot in a communication session that began at 5:26 a.m. PST and lasted 20 minutes at a data rate of 120 bits per second. Spirit's response was provoked by a JPL command to Spirit at 5:02 PST via the NASA Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, telling Spirit to begin transmitting about its problems.
Spirit Rover’s First Martian Soil Analysis Has Surprises
January 21, 2004 Pasadena, California - Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena yesterday were puzzled about the first soil examined by the Spirit rover in its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer as it begins its exploration of the Martian Gusev crater.
Martian Soil “Clumpy” – Electrostatic Binding of Dust?
Part 2 – Is Dark Matter the “Heavy Shadow” of Light Matter?
January 17, 2004 Urbana-Champaign, Illinois - Not everyone is certain that Supersymmetry of super atomic particles is the answer to Dark Matter. In fact, some theoretical physicists argue about whether the Brookhaven muon magnetic moment measurement is even a meaningful discrepancy.
Spirit Is Moving in the Martian Crater
January 15, 2004 Pasadena, California - NASA reported early today after the 3 a.m. ET roll out of Spirit onto the Martian crater soil: "This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's rear hazard identification camera shows the rover's hind view of the lander platform, its nest for the past 12 'sols,' or Martian days. The rover is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) in front of the air bag-cushioned lander, facing northwest. Note the tracks left in the Martian soil by the rovers' wheels, all six of which have rolled off the lander. This is the first time the rover has touched Martian soil."