U.S. Rover Calls Home, Beams Back Color Photos
Mon January 5, 2004 03:06 AM ET
By Gina Keating
PASADENA, Calif., Jan(Reuters)PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 4 (Reuters) - The U.S.
robotic probe Spirit beamed panoramic color images of unprecedented clarity
back to Earth Sunday after establishing direct contact with NASA scientists
guiding its search for ancient signs of life on Mars.
The successful deployment of the rover's lollipop-shaped main antenna cuts the delay in communications between the rover and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to about nine minutes from the hours needed to relay signals through two Mars orbiters, flight director Jason Willis said.
At 9:20 p.m. PST, the control room at JPL erupted in cheers as test signals showed that the rover had correctly located Earth in the Martian sky and had positioned the main, "high gain" antenna correctly.
"This is just fantastic. We got the high gain antenna to work on the very first try," Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager, said. "We are ready for the rest of the mission."
Spirit began transmitting science and telemetry data, as well as the mission's first color images of the Martian landscape from the rover's high-resolution panoramic cameras.
"I expect to see a lot of good stuff on this pass," Adler said, adding that scientists planned to "wake up" the rover four or five times during the night to calibrate temperature sensors that may have failed.
The mission fell behind Sunday as scientists ran out of time to cut cables that tied the folded-up rover to battery and electronics systems on its landing pad, an omission that may delay its three-stage "stand-up" by one Martian day, or "sol," about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, Adler said.
The team also may try to retract airbags that cushioned the rover's landing but now block its path to the planet's surface, adding another sol to the time needed to prepare the robotic rover for its three-month trek across Mars' surface to look for ancient evidence of life-giving water in the rocks and soil.
The rover's "stand-up" was scheduled for sols three through five, after more cables bolting the rover's wheels and robotic arm are cut by pyrotechnic blades, and its six wheels are moved to their correct positions, Adler said.
Once the rover is freed, scientists will "do a little drive" on top of the lander and turn it to drive off the lander -- about sol eight or nine.
The team of scientists and engineers that guided Spirit to a bouncy but textbook-perfect landing pored over data beamed back by the rover Sunday to learn more about its descent, landing and exact position on the hostile planet.
The craft landed Saturday night -- mid-afternoon Mars time -- almost exactly
on target, at Gusev Crater, a massive basin the size of Connecticut that scientists
believe may be the site of dry lake bed once fed by a long, deep Martian river.
Besides being an ideal place to search for evidence of water, and possibly
life, the landing zone is an area free of large boulders and thick accumulations
of dust, making it easier to maneuver the rover.
"It's a lot flatter than I expected and a lot less rocky than I expected," geologist Wendy Calvin told reporters at an Sunday evening news conference.
Mission controllers said Spirit appeared to have come through its rough-and-tumble descent and touchdown in good working order. "All in all things performed pretty nominally and we are very satisfied," Prasun Desai, NASA trajectory analyst, said.
Spirit is the fourth probe ever to successfully land on Mars, following in the footsteps of two Viking landers in the 1970s and the Pathfinder mission in 1997. Spirit's twin explorer, the rover Opportunity, is due to land on the opposite side of the planet on Jan. 25.
Spirit's triumphant arrival Saturday night, confirmed by a radio signal at 8:52 p.m. PST, came after it plunged through the thin Martian atmosphere tethered to a parachute, then bounced to the surface cushioned in a cluster of air bags. The landing climaxed a seven-month journey to the fourth planet from the sun -- the second closest to Earth after Venus.
Mars has proven a perilous destination. NASA said more than half of man's missions to the red planet have ended in failure. Mars claimed two NASA spacecraft in 1998 and 1999.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe called the $820 million mission a "double-header" following the successful Stardust mission Friday that intercepted a comet and gathered particles from its tail in a first that could offer clues about how Earth began.
A spokesman for the center for diseases control in Guangdong said a virus
gene sample from the SARS patient resembled that of a coronavirus found in
civet cats, which are a delicacy in southern China.
"We should begin the measures to prevent SARS beforehand and ban sales
and eating of the animal in a bid to reduce the chance of contracting SARS
virus," Xinhua quoted him as saying.
The patient was admitted to hospital in Guangzhou in December but laboratory tests had been inconclusive.
The patient told doctors last month he had not left Guangzhou or eaten wild animal meat for a month before hospitalization.
Some scientists suspect SARS spread from farms in southern China, possibly jumping from animals such as ducks, pigs and rats to humans. Others say it probably originated in wild animal markets, like those where civets are sold.
SARS emerged in Guangdong in late 2002 and travelers spread it to nearly 30 countries where about 8,000 people were infected between November 2002 and May 2003.
A Hong Kong newspaper said a waitress had become the second suspected SARS case in Guangdong but provincial officials and hospitals denied the report.
China's new eradication campaign brought to mind Mao Zedong's campaigns against rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows, which he denounced as the country's biggest four evils. (Additional reporting by Carrie Lee in Hong Kong)
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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