Mars Rover Opportunity Lands Tonight!

[Ian W.]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Now to hope that the same thing that happened to Spirit wont happen to Oppurtunity, so we can have more oppurtunity(pun intended) to collect data.

Well, now that they know the problem to Spirit (Flash RAM doesn't like Mars, it seems), I'd think they'll take some precautions, and reprogram Opportunity to try and avoid the Flash RAM. Or at least have something ready to send over in case it does screw up.

In any case, congrats to everyone who helped on those projects (I guess this includes everyone from Colin to Dave to all the other scientists and engineers :-p), and hopefully both rovers will be up and running within the next two weeks :-).

[Ashley Weed]

Congratulations to Dave and all of NASA.... I struggled to stay awake last night to watch it, unfortunately I missed the show. Now let's sit back, and hope for the best - and watch the information flow in!

[Wetzel]

"Science leader Steve Squyres says Opportunity has scored a 300-million-mile hole in one!

As suspected overnight when the first images arrived on Earth, the rover has landed inside "a 20-meter diameter" crater, Squyres reports. The crater is estimated to be "a couple of meters deep." Therefore, it should not be a challenge for the rover to drive out, he said.

A much larger crater, seen in the descent camera images, is near the lander and likely within reach of Opportunity to explore. "


However, I don't see many things that look like rocks that could be used by the RAT.

Wetzel

[Yan Wang]

I wonder how old Squyres' kids are... I know one of them is in 10th grade. Why isn't she on robotics!??!! I want her Dad on the team!!!

Some cool stuff related to Mars and FIRST:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news...ws/278779.html

[dlavery]

All - thank you for your comments and well-wishes. They are most appreciated!

Literally three minutes before the descent images were received, Steve Squyres was telling me "Dave, I know you really want to drive this thing and get some odometry on it. But based on what I can see of the outcrop in this crater, this is the mother-lode. We can do the entire science mission here, and we don't have to drive anywhere. We will do the long distance tranverses at Gusev - but Opportunity will be a local mission."

Then the descent images came in, and we saw the big 150-meter diameter crater just 400-500 meters away. 30 seconds later, Steve came over to say "forget everything I just said!"

Originally Posted by Wetzel

"Science leader Steve Squyres says Opportunity has scored a 300-million-mile hole in one!"

Ha! Just wait until you see the stuff we are going to release tomorrow! We know what is outside the crater in which we rest, from the descent imagery. But we have also figuered out where we are in the larger context, and what lies just beyond the edges of the descent images that were released today (you can see the final descent image here - the shot includes the shadow of the descent parachute just to the left of the large crater at the edge of the frame).

RAT-able rocks are right in front of us, less than ten meters away! But 100, and then 1000, meters beyond that is even more spectacular stuff!

You know, sometimes it is really cool to be a geek!

-dave