Page 54 - (DK) Eyewitness - Mars

Mars rovers and Martian rocks

NASA launched two Mars
Exploration Rover spacecraft in mid-
2003, each carrying identical rovers. The
prime mission of these two “robotic field
geologists,” as Spirit and Opportunity
rovers were described, was to find signs of
past water activity. Spirit arrived in Gusev
Crater on January 4, 2004. Opportunity
landed halfway around the Martian globe on
Meridiani Planum on January 25. Equipment
on their Instrument Deployment Devices—
robotic arms—drilled rock and took the first-ever
microscopic photographs on Mars. Each rover
drove thousands of yards around its landing site.
The search for evidence of water was a resounding LANDING SITE A DRY SEABED
success, particularly with the discovery of Opportunity landed on Meridiani Planum, one
of the smoothest, flattest regions on Mars. This
minerals that usually form in groundwater. high plain may once have been a shallow, salty
Opportunity found sedimentary rock that had sea, as depicted in this painting.
been laid down in liquid, probably water.
Scientists are gaining confidence that Mars Antennas
could have once supported life. Cameras and

spectrometer Solar array
ROBOTIC GEOLOGISTS on mast
Spirit and Opportunity are six-wheel-
drive rovers with a speed of 120 inches Instrument
(300 cm) a minute. They are 5.2 feet Deployment
(1.6 m) long, weigh 384 pounds (174 kg), Device
and are ideal mobile geological laboratories.
The rovers carry panoramic stereo cameras,
spectrometers, and a magnetic dust
collector. Telecommunications and
computer equipment let them operate
independently of their landers.

PANORAMA OF EAGLE CRATER
Opportunity Rover’s stony Martian
laboratory is seen in this 360-degree
panorama of Eagle Crater, the landing
site at Meridiani Planum. Many of the
rock outcroppings on the crater’s floor
and walls were studied and given
descriptive names such as “El Capitan”
and “Berry Bowl.” Opportunity eventually
had to find its way out of the crater by
carefully climbing over the rim.

52