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Spirit Rolls NASA's Mars rover Spirit has rolled off its lander and onto Martian soil for the first time. |
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January 15, 2004: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early today. The robot's first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Above: After Spirit rolled onto Mars, it looked back and took this picture of its lander. A 3D version of the image is also available. View it using red-blue glasses. [more] In the control room, engineers played Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" as they watched new images confirming that Spirit had successfully exited its lander platform. "Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and discovery. We have six wheels in the dirt," said JPL Director Charles Elachi later.
The command to roll off the lander was sent to Spirit at 12:21 a.m. PST today. Twenty minutes later Spirit had moved onto the martian soil. The drive moved Spirit 3 meters (10 feet) in 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) away from the foot of the egress ramp, said JPL's Joel Krajewski, leader of the team that developed the sequence of events from landing to drive-off. "There was a great sigh of relief from me," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the drive-off. "We are now on the surface of Mars."
Left: This image from the rover's front hazard identification camera shows the rover's view of the martian landscape from its new position northwest of the lander. [more] "Now, we are the mission that we all envisioned three-and-a-half years ago, and that's tremendously exciting," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral on June 10, 2003. Now that it is on Mars, its task is to spend the rest of its mission exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether Gusev Crater was ever watery and suitable for life. (Read the Science@NASA story "Destination: Gusev Crater" for more information about this.) Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; 9:05 p.m., Jan. 24, PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet. |
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Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips |
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The Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center sponsors the Science@NASA web sites. The mission of Science@NASA is to help the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities. |
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Mars Exploration -- (JPL) NASA's home page for exploration of the red planet Carbonated Mars -- (Science@NASA) Here on Earth the only way to make carbonate rocks is with the aid of liquid water. Finding such rocks on Mars might prove, once and for all, that the barren Red Planet was once warm and wet. The Case of the Missing Mars Water -- (Science@NASA) Plenty of clues suggest that liquid water once flowed on Mars --raising hopes that life could have arisen there-- but the evidence remains inconclusive and sometimes contradictory Making a Splash on Mars -- (Science@NASA) On a planet that's colder than Antarctica and where water boils at ten degrees above freezing, how could liquid water ever exist? Scientists say a dash of salt might help. Sedimentary Mars -- (Science@NASA) Mars Global Surveyor images reveal sedimentary rock layers on the Red Planet that may have formed underwater in the distant martian past. Layers
of Mars -- (Science@NASA) Mars Global Surveyor has spotted
terrains on Mars that look like sedimentary rock deposits. If
the mysterious layers formed underwater, as some scientists
suspect, they may be a good place to hunt for Martian fossils. |
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