Spirit Slowly Heading to New Location
The Mars rover Spirit is slowly being moved by the NASA team to a new location on Mars, where it will have the best chance of surviving its third Martian winter since its original landing on Mars for both Spirit and Opportunity’s projected ninety-day mission in January of 2004.
Now Spirit is celebrating its 4th anniversary on Mars. The discovery of silica-rich deposits uncovered in May was reported by Cornell’s Steve Squyres and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in early December in San Francisco. Squyers, principal investigator for NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission, calls it “one of the most significant” mission discoveries to date.
Spirit is entering this Martian winter handicapped with dusty solar panels caused by giant dust storms earlier. The amount of energy needed for full power for the rovers could drop to dangerous low levels in the fading winter sunlight. Spirit’s perch is now on a 15 degree tilt on the north-facing slope of the Home Plate Plateau so as the sun moves lower, the drivers on earth will nudge Spirit to a steeper angle. “The fact that we’ve gotten to a good tilt and we’re going to get a better tilt, this is a good sign” said Bell. However, any winter work that the rover does will be strictly low-exertion. “Most of 2008 is going to be a quiet time for Spirit. It’s really about survival.”
Evidence has been found for a one-habitable environment in Gusev Crater–at the same time, Spirit’s still-healthy twin Opportunity is creeping slowly down the inside of Victoria Crater. Layers of exposed rock are confirming findings made at much smaller Eagle and Endurance craters and where the deeper layers could show new insights into Mars’ history. While exploring near a plateau in the Gusev Crater, scientists noticed upturned soil from a dragging wheel appeared very bright. The soil was found to be 90% amorphous silica-a substance associated with life-supporting environments on earth.
Silica deposits that are found on Earth in hot springs are dissolved by hot water in rocks below the surface. As they raise and cool the silica that precipitates-out near the surface and at the fumaroles–where hot acidic water or vapors seep through rock and as it dissolves away–the silica is left behind. “Either place on earth is teeming with microbial life”, said Squyres. “So this is, either way, a representation of what in the past was a local habitable environment—a little habitable niche on the surface of Mars.” This situation is similar to Spirit’s earlier journey when it uncovered patches of bright soil that contained high levels of sulfur-another possible indicator of past hydro thermal activity.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 6:27 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News, Technical Concerns, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
