NASA may send Mars Rover to 'Sleepy Hollow'
Project managers said "Sleepy Hollow," which was spotted in the first pictures sent back to Earth by the Spirit rover, is one of several shallow bowls in the Mars surface that interest science teams looking for evidence of past water.
"It's clear that while we have a generally flat surface (in the Gusev crater where the rover touched down), it is pockmarked with these things," Steve Squyres, principal investigator, said. "It's a hole in the ground. It's a window into the interior of Mars."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Though the scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California have described themselves as "like kids in a candy store" with the possibilities for exploration, they will have to wait nearly a week before the six-wheeled rover is ready to roll off its lander and onto the surface of Mars.
Spirit spent much of Monday undergoing tests of its delicate instruments, while scientists spent the previous night -- the equivalent of the martian day -- studying data and a 3-D panoramic photo of the landing site.
In addition to the 3-D photos, Spirit also beamed down the mission's first color pictures -- so-called "thumbnails" of the high-resolution panoramic images it snapped on Sunday.
The rover also succeeded in finding the sun with its panoramic camera, which allows it to calculate how to point its main antenna toward Earth.
Four major instruments on the rover's retractable arm, including a German-made Mossbauer Spectrometer that had malfunctioned during the seven-month space voyage to Mars, were found to be in working order, helping to cap three days of near-perfect performance by the U.S. probe.
Night And Day
The spectrometer will help scientists find iron-bearing rocks and other minerals that could have been formed in hot, watery conditions that may yield clues about the ancient Mars environment.
The scientists have readjusted their schedules to conform with martian sols, which are about 40 minutes longer than Earth days. Their work day, 9 a.m. Mars time, starts at about 4 p.m. PST (7 p.m. EST/2400 GMT) Earth time.
On Monday night, the Spirit team planned to run the panoramic camera through its paces and test the mini-thermal emission spectrometer, nicknamed "Mini-TES," which reads infrared radiation emitted by rocks to determine their mineral composition.
Scientists then will press Mini-TES into service to help determine which rocks hold the most promise of clues to possible life on Mars. The team also planned to cut cables that tied the folded-up rover to battery and electronics systems on its landing pad and to retract airbags that cushioned the rover at landing but now block its path to the planet's surface.
The scientists ran out of time on Sunday to complete some tasks and were forced to delay the rover's three-part "stand-up" by at least one sol. That process is now set to begin Tuesday night, after more cables bolting the rover's wheels and robotic arm are cut by pyrotechnic blades and its wheels are moved to their correct positions.
Once the rover is freed, scientists will test-drive it on top of the lander, then position it to drive off in about eight or nine martian days.
The craft landed Saturday night almost exactly on target at Gusev Crater, which scientists believe may be the site of a dry lake bed once fed by a long, deep river. The landing zone is free of large boulders and thick accumulations of dust, making it easier to maneuver the rover.
Spirit is the fourth probe ever to successfully land on Mars, following in the footsteps of two Viking landers in the 1970s and the Pathfinder mission in 1997. Spirit's twin explorer, the rover Opportunity, is due to land on the opposite side of the planet on January 25.
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