Mars Exploration Rovers Update - March 15, 2004

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/daily/3-15-04.cfm

Opportunity Status for sol 50
Finishing up at the Outcrop
posted Mar. 15, 5:45 pm PST

On sol 50, which ended at 4:08 p.m. PST on March 15, Opportunity got closer
to completing its observations of the rock outcrop. The rover arm, with
the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer at the ready, was placed on the rock
called "Shark's Tooth" for a 30-minute observation. The microscopic imager
then took a series of pictures of the targets "Enamel 1" and "Lamination."
The focus then switched back to "Shark's Tooth" for an examination by the
Moessbauer spectrometer.

The song chosen to awaken Opportunity was "The Dentist" by Bill Cosby, in
honor of the toothy targets in "Shark's Cage."

The sol also included many panoramic camera observations of targets with
creative names like "Patio Rug," "Anaconda Snake Den," "West Zen Garden"
and "Garter Snake."

The next sol calls for a final experiment at the outcrop called "scuffing."
"Scuffing" essentially turns one of the rover wheels into a tool to scrape a
rock to help determine its hardness. The rock "Carousel" will be scraped by
Opportunity's front left wheel. After that experiment, the rover will begin
its trans-crater traverse to five soil survey targets, the first of which
will lead Opportunity up the sandy southern face of the crater.



Spirit Status for sol 70
Spirit's Busiest Day
posted Mar. 15, 11 am PST

Spirit began what would be a very busy sol 70, which ended at 3:47 a.m. PST
March 15, by analyzing a soil target dubbed "Gobi 1" with the Moessbauer
spectrometer. This was the first of 43 observations that Spirit would
complete on sol 70, breaking the previous observation record of 31
observations in one sol.

After the successful Moessbauer integration, Spirit took panoramic camera
images of the sky. Then the miniature thermal emission spectrometer analyzed
rock and soil targets. Following this, Spirit turned its panoramic camera
and miniature thermal emission spectrometer to a range surface and atmospheric
observations. Before the sol ended, Spirit also took microscopic images of
the Moessbauer footprint left on the soil target and switched instruments to
the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for a long integration starting early
on sol 71 at the "Gobi 1" location.

Spirit will spend Sol 71, which will end at 4:26 a.m. PST March 16,
completing the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer analysis, taking panoramic
camera images and microscopic imager images of the area, and then driving
15 meters (49.2 feet) to a location dubbed "Serpent Dune" in the afternoon.