Spirit Flexes Its Arm To Use Microscope On Mars' Soil

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster (818) 354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

NEWS RELEASE: 2004-022 January 16, 2004

Spirit Flexes Its Arm To Use Microscope On Mars' Soil

NASA's Spirit rover reached out with its versatile robotic arm early
today and examined a patch of fine-grained martian soil with a
microscope at the end of the arm.

"We made our first use of the arm and took the first microscopic image
of the surface of another planet," said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The rover's microscopic imager, one of four tools on a turret at the
end of the arm, serves as the functional equivalent of a field
geologist's hand lens for examining structural details of rocks and
soils.

"I'm elated and relieved at how well things are going. We got some
great images in our first day of using the microscopic imager on
Mars," said Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey
Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz. Herkenhoff is the lead scientist
for the microscopic imagers on Spirit and on Spirit's twin Mars
Exploration Rover, Opportunity.

The microscope can show features as small as the width of a human
hair. While analysis of today's images from the instrument has barely
begun, Herkenhoff said his first impression is that some of the tiny
particles appear to be stuck together.

Before driving to a selected rock early next week, Spirit will rotate
the turret of tools to use two spectrometer instruments this weekend
on the same patch of soil examined by the microsope, said Jessica
Collisson, mission flight director. The Mössbauer Spectrometer
identifies types of iron-bearing minerals. The Alpha Particle X-ray
Spectrometer identifies the elements in rocks and soils.

The rover's arm is about the same size as a human arm, with comparable
shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. It is "one of the most dextrous and
capable robotic devices ever flown in space," said JPL's Dr. Eric
Baumgartner, lead engineer for the robotic arm, which also goes by the
name "instrument deployment device."

"Best of all," Baumgartner said, "this robotic arm sits on a rover,
and a rover is meant to rove. Spirit will take this arm and the
tremendous science package along with it, and reach out to investigate
the surface."

The wheels Spirit travels on provide other ways to examine Mars' soil.
Details visible in images of the wheel tracks from the rover's first
drive onto the soil give information about the soil's physical
properties.

"Rover tracks are great," said Dr. Rob Sullivan of Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y., a member of the science team for Spirit and Opportunity.
"For one thing, they mean we're on the surface of Mars! We look at
them for engineering reasons and for science reasons." The first
tracks show that the wheels did not sink too deep for driving and that
the soil has very small particles that provide a finely detailed
imprint of the wheels, he said.

Opportunity, equipped identically to Spirit, will arrive at Mars Jan.
25 (Universal Time and EST; 9:05 p.m. Jan. 24, PST). The amount of
dust in the atmosphere over Opportunity's planned landing site has
been declining in recent days, said JPL's Dr. Joy Crisp, project
scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project.

Today, Spirit completes its 13th martian day, or "sol", at its landing
site in Gusev Crater. Each sol lasts 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer
than an Earth day. The rover project's goal is for Spirit and
Opportunity to explore the areas around their landing sites for clues
in the rocks and the soil about whether the past environments there
were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. Pictures and additional information about
the project are available from JPL at

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at


http://athena.cornell.edu/ .

-end-

"Jan Panteltje" wrote in message
...

vituperative rant snipped

If we really wanted to rule the world, many places might already be
radioactive glass parking lots.

Plonk.

Cheers!

Chip Shults

OG wrote:

At the top of Ron's posting is an indication that it's a press release. We
are not the intended audience for these - but they are written for
publication in the general media.

Ron re-posts these to us and we can choose to read them or not. Mostly I
don't.
snip
Press releases have to be written in a media friendly style otherwise
nobody will bother to read them. I think that on the whole, the quality of
press releases is reasonable for a general medium, with some real hard
information included.

If more science writing were done with the skill of Ron Baalke's we'd
have fewer legal fights over evolution in the schools, more money from
governments whose officials actually understood what science money went
for, and in general a more scientifically literate populace.

Scientists shouldn't try to baffle the public with bs, or wow them with
words longer than your arm. Part of the job of science is translating
the behavior of the world into mathematics, those mathematics into
words, and those words into comprehensive meaning. Anything less, and
science has failed, IMO. If you do, people take their money elsewhere to
things they understand.
Jo



--
Geo Communications Services -- www.geocommunications.net
Jo Schaper's Missouri World -- http://www.missouriworld.net

After looking at the raw images from the microscope in the last batch
posted on the rover website, I see what might just be visual artifacts, but
appear to be elongated structures. Some are hairlike, others are granular,
but there seems to be quite a few of them.
Have a look at this particular one (picked at random) and see what I
mean.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...EFF0309P2930M2
M1.JPG

Now, about 20% from the left, near the top, there is a long, pale,
nearly vertical feature. from what they say about the image size and
resolution, it is likely about 0.1 mm in thickness. Similar ones appear
hear and there, mostly near the top of this particular image.
I think that it is possible that they are focal artifacts, caused by the
proximity of similarly lit or sized granules or clumps, and that since the
focus field is not flat, but much clearer in the image center, it might well
be the case. And statistically, there are going to be such things in many
images that contain many small, essentially random particles.
However, it is something worth looking into. Maybe I should get some
material that clumps in the same manner (cocoa, as they noted?) and try
getting some images through my microscope here. Might be informative.
Comments, anyone? Care to try an experiment? Oh, one question for Ron
Baalke- is this material undisturbed on the crater floor, or has it been
scooped into a container for examination? That, too, might have quite an
influence, such as causing "cracks" in the clumps, false alignments that are
not natural, etc.

Cheers!

Chip Shults

Dear Sir Charles W. Shults III:

"Sir Charles W. Shults III" wrote in message
m...
After looking at the raw images from the microscope in the last batch
posted on the rover website, I see what might just be visual artifacts,
but
appear to be elongated structures. Some are hairlike, others are
granular,
but there seems to be quite a few of them.
Have a look at this particular one (picked at random) and see what I
mean.


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...EFF0309P2930M2
M1.JPG

Now, about 20% from the left, near the top, there is a long, pale,
nearly vertical feature. from what they say about the image size and
resolution, it is likely about 0.1 mm in thickness. Similar ones appear
hear and there, mostly near the top of this particular image.
I think that it is possible that they are focal artifacts, caused by
the
proximity of similarly lit or sized granules or clumps, and that since
the
focus field is not flat, but much clearer in the image center, it might
well
be the case. And statistically, there are going to be such things in
many
images that contain many small, essentially random particles.
However, it is something worth looking into. Maybe I should get some
material that clumps in the same manner (cocoa, as they noted?) and try
getting some images through my microscope here. Might be informative.
Comments, anyone? Care to try an experiment? Oh, one question for
Ron
Baalke- is this material undisturbed on the crater floor, or has it been
scooped into a container for examination? That, too, might have quite an
influence, such as causing "cracks" in the clumps, false alignments that
are
not natural, etc.

I'm thinking this is unscooped. I did an "emboss" transform, and there are
a number of "lines" formed about 5° clockwise from 12:00, across the entire
image (al tiller weak in the lower left). As if wind had last blown across
that way.

David A. Smith

First, thank you Ron, for posting these press releases here for us to
read.

But, I would like to find a source with more depth to it. I realize
the press releases are for the general public, and the web pages have
a lot of material geared for school kids... all great stuff, but I
can't seem to find the more in-depth stuff.

I imagine the content I want to see is on NASA TV. However, I can't
view the broadcast either via the airwaves, or online, and can't seem
to find any archives of the regular broadcasts online.

Where do I get the good stuff?

Joe

(Smiley) wrote:

First, thank you Ron, for posting these press releases here
for us to read.

But, I would like to find a source with more depth to it.
I realize
the press releases are for the general public, and the web
pages have a lot of material geared for school kids... all
great stuff, but I can't seem to find the more in-depth
stuff.

I imagine the content I want to see is on NASA TV.

NASA TV is a bad joke. Usually, it's some unattended cameras,
with an occasional droning voice telling you virtually nothing.
They can go for hours through what should be an interesting
event without any commentary at all. Then they show one side of
some kind of interview. Yes, one side. The interviewee sits
staring into a camera while an unheard and unseen person asks a
question, and then he answers it. Sometimes they broadcast a
program with a couple of cutesy teenagers talking down to
elementary school kids. Sometimes they have a press conference
where reporters ask questions (some of which are remarkably
stupid) that you can barely hear and a panel of NASA people
answer.

However, I can't
view the broadcast either via the airwaves, or online, and
can't seem to find any archives of the regular broadcasts
online.

Where do I get the good stuff?

You'll see virtually no "good stuff" on NASA TV, but if you're
in the Seattle area, try UWTV on one of the public access
channels. Don't bother looking for a schedule. Just keep that
channel tuned in until they (apparently) randomly cut NASA TV in
for a while. You might see other things that are more
interesting while you wait.

NASA TV ****es me off. They pay some people to do public
relations. They ought to pay a few more and give us some
interesting information.

They did something pretty good once...the pilot's view and some
crew cabin views, plus several ground station views of a shuttle
landing. That was cool. Every few minutes some babe would
interrupt the silence and tell where the shuttle was at the
time, and you could hear some of the communications.

"John Griffin" wrote in message . 1.4...

NASA TV is a bad joke. Usually, it's some unattended cameras,

You're nuts. NASA-TV is wonderful for that exact reason.

I absolutely love stumbling on e.g. live and raw video feeds in the
wee hours of the morning from the Shuttle... No audio (except
for periodic communications with the astronauts), no glitzy
schlock, nothing to get in the way of some of the most incredible
and breathtaking views you'll ever see of our planet.

As for the one-sided interviews, etc, in these cases it's either
seeing that or dead air. Personally I'd much rather see the
former than the latter.

Rick

"Rick" wrote:

"John Griffin" wrote in message
. 1.4...

NASA TV is a bad joke. Usually, it's some unattended
cameras,

You're nuts. NASA-TV is wonderful for that exact reason.

I absolutely love stumbling on e.g. live and raw video
feeds in the wee hours of the morning from the Shuttle...
No audio (except for periodic communications with the
astronauts), no glitzy schlock, nothing to get in the way
of some of the most incredible and breathtaking views
you'll ever see of our planet.

I love all that stuff too. Sometimes those little teeny windows
do get in the way of the views. It's really cool to try to
figure out where they are by looking at those breathtaking
views. If only you knew the shuttle's attitude and which
direction the camera was pointed, you could do that...
sometimes.

As for the one-sided interviews, etc, in these cases it's
either seeing that or dead air. Personally I'd much rather
see the former than the latter.

It's great fun inferring what they asked. I have more than those
two choices, though, so I don't spend much time at it.

NASA TV is a bad joke. Usually, it's some unattended cameras,

So, where do I go for more information than the press releases?