Spirit’s first post-crash image shows its robot arm examining the rock dubbed Adirondack (Image: NASA/JPL)
The Mars rover Spirit has made an almost complete recovery from its computer troubles and on Thursday sent back its first new images.
The prospects for its twin, Opportunity, which landed on the opposite side of the planet, also look good. It is now expected to roll off its landing platform onto the dark surface of Meridiani Planum early on Saturday or Sunday – about three or four days earlier than originally predicted.
Spirit suffered an almost total loss of communication with mission control due to an apparent overload of its computer’s file system and managers had initially expected it to be out of commission for two to three weeks.
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But it is now expected to be back in full operation by Sunday. The first post-recovery image returned picture shows its robot arm still poised over a rock called Adirondack, just as it was when the problem began.
Most of the important data that had been stored in Spirit’s flash memory – the apparent problem area – has now been recovered, including data it had taken of Adirondack using its Mossbauer spectrometer and Alpha-proton X-ray spectrometer.
Irreplaceable data
Furthermore, it has also sent back most of the data that was considered most irreplaceable. These came from a series of coordinated observations taken by the rover’s cameras looking up at exactly the time when the European Space Agency’s orbiter Mars Express was passing overhead and looking down.
The simultaneous observations will provide a vital “ground truth” for future Mars Express observations, while the orbiter’s data will give useful information to the rover team about Spirit’s immediate surroundings.
Opportunity has also been successfully returning a variety of data, even as it completes the deployment of its wheels and its “stand-up” in preparation for the weekend roll-off. It has completed its first full-color, 3-D panoramic view of its surroundings, as well as initial portions of its mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer panorama.
The mini-TES is expected to reveal the location and concentration of the iron oxide called hematite – which often forms in the presence of liquid water. The mineral’s presence was the main reason for the selection of this landing site.
It is also expected to give more information about the composition of light, layered bedrock exposed near Opportunity. Scientists are excited by the prospect that these rocks could be water-lain sediments.
