MER Spirit Is Alive And Well On Martian Surface
It was a celebration reminiscent of the scene in Mission Control
when Apollo 11 landed. Controllers whooped and waved and hugged
each other like long-lost relatives. The Spirit has landed.
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is the first of two robotic
vehicles NASA sent to the Red Planet. The other, Opportunity, is
scheduled to land later this month.
Spirit's bouncy landing came after the European Space Agency
lost contact with its own lander, Beagle 2. In fact, Spirit's
touchdown in the Gusev Crater is the first successful Mars landing
since 1997.
"It's a place almost... tailor-made for our vehicle," Mars
Exploration Rover chief mission investigator Steve Squyres said.
"It's a glorious crater. We have hit what the science team believes
is the scientific sweet spot."
The reason: water. Spirit and Opportunity are exploring
geographical formations that NASA and JPL scientists believe might
have been formed under a long-vanished Martian sea.
The first pictures from Spirit were breathtaking. And they're in
stereoscope, giving a depth of field never before seen from
Mars.
"The images are outstanding," Mars Exploration Rover science
manager John Callas said as the pictures from Spirit began to
appear on a giant screen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. "The quality (is) the best that have been
taken. This is incredible."
So, how's Spirit doing now?
"The state of the vehicle is clearly very good ... the batteries
are fully charged and ready to go," Jennifer Trosper, Spirit
mission manager for surface operations said. If there could be any
problem, it's a big boulder against which Spirit was leaning as it
emerged from its air-bag cocoon. It could prove a roadblock when
Spirit starts to roam.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, long beleaguered by the shuttle
disaster, problems with the return to flight and ongoing budget
concerns, was clearly elated. "This is a big night for NASA --
we're back.... We're on Mars."
Indeed, NASA is on a roll. Not only has the Spirit succeeded in
landing on Mars -- a feat which eluded a number of probes that went
before it -- but NASA's comet-catching Stardust probe successfully
navigated a hair-raising close encounter with Wild 2, passing
within 149 miles of the celestial body and collecting what NASA
hopes are microscopic samples of the stuff from which the solar
system was made.