NASA鈥檚 Spirit rover is surveying the lay of the land from its perch atop Husband Hill in Mars鈥檚 Gusev Crater 鈥� and the panoramic view it is beaming back is one of the highlights of the 20-month mission, say team scientists.
Mission managers never thought they would see this day. When Spirit landed in the basin of Gusev Crater on 4 January 2004, Husband Hill 鈥� the highest of seven mounds on the horizon 鈥� seemed 鈥渋mpossibly far away,鈥� says lead rover scientist Steve Squyres from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US.
Spirit drove for six months across Gusev鈥檚 lava plains to reach the hill. Then it spent 14 months zigzagging its way uphill to prevent slipping on the steep slopes. Now, it has finally reached the 82-metre-high summit. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 no Mount Everest, but for a little rover, that鈥檚 a heck of a climb,鈥� Squyres said during a press conference on Thursday.
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Geological promised land
The trip was worth it. Along the way, Spirit found jumbled, layered rocks suggesting meteoroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, wind and water all shaped the region more than three billion years ago.
And now, the rover has beamed back a 360-degree panoramic view from the peak, where it will stay for about a month. A video of Spirit鈥檚 (18.4MB QuickTime) has also been released by NASA.
In that time, managers will scout out future science targets on the south side of the hill and may try to plan a route down to a vast region of intriguing rocks that one team member has dubbed 鈥渢he geological promised land鈥�.
Not to be outdone, the Opportunity rover on the other side of the planet has also been investigating new terrain as it studies some of the first bedrock it has seen in several months of roaming across sand.
Water episode
It has used its rock abrasion tool to grind into the layered bedrock in several places. One featured a dark material scientists have seen elsewhere but never studied in detail. This so-called 鈥渞ind鈥� has high levels of both sodium and chlorine, which could mean that it is halite, or rock salt.
杏吧原创s are still trying to work out how the rind formed. One possibility is that it was deposited there by the evaporation of liquid water, a theory Squyres favours. 鈥淚t speaks to yet another water episode,鈥� he says.
Both rovers have lasted about 17 months beyond their original mission. And Spirit is in especially fine form, operating at a power level of 950 watt-hours of electricity per day. That is only 10 watt-hours less than it had after it landed 鈥� gusts of wind have probably blown accumulated dust off its solar panels to keep them operating well.
If the rovers continue to thrive, NASA will probably extend their mission past September 2006, when the rover programme鈥檚 funding is scheduled to run out. 鈥淎n asset on the surface like this is invaluable,鈥� says Doug McCuistion, director of NASA鈥檚 Mars programme. 鈥淲e certainly wouldn鈥檛 want to prematurely cut them off.鈥�
