Twin robots
Opportunity, Spirit travel to Mars
Laura Hahn
On Jan. 24 NASA's gifted
scientists began celebrating the successful landing of Opportunity, NASA's
second robot to land on Mars within three weeks. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, landed 6,600 miles, halfway
across the planet, from Opportunity on Jan, 2.
With the rovers in place,
thanks to Navigation and Mission Design Manager Dr. Michael Watkins, the
exploration could begin. "I think it's a good idea to find out more about the
world around us," said junior Jackie Glassman. According to Pittsburgh
post-gazette.com, "NASA calls Spirit and Opportunity the most sophisticated
robots ever sent to another planet."
Scientists are hopeful that
if all goes according to plan the twin rovers will accomplish more in their 90
day mission than the star of the Pathfinder Mission, Sojourner, did during its
three month long mission. Sojourner
began its mission on July 5, 1997.
The ideal time to launch a Mars mission is about
every 26 months when Earth and Mars enter into close proximity of each other,
but last summer, when the two rovers were launched, was the best launch time
any scientist could hope for. The two planets were within 34.7 million miles of
each other. This encounter is
thought to never have happened since the Cro-Magnon man inhabited Earth and is
said that it will not happen again until 2287.
NASA was overjoyed when
Spirit began transmitting photos down to Earth at rapid speed almost
immediately after touch-down. The
flow of pictures was fairly steady until the rover developed a problem with its
software, and instead of resting to conserve its energy, Spirit stayed awake
for almost two entire days. This
disappointed scientists because a malfunction like this could set the robot's
research back three weeks. Despite
this setback with Spirit, Opportunity was able to transmit the first 360-degree
color panoramic image ever taken of Mars.
These NASA scientists are
working around the clock to discover if life ever existed on Mars or if life
ever could exist. Freshman Gina
Stevens said, " I think if it was safe you could, but if it's not then don't
try it." In the mission, so far,
scientists have discovered Hematite rocks, which are used on Earth to make
jewelry and are formed from standing water, mineral hot springs or volcanic
activity. Hematite is a good
indicator that Mars was once a wet planet, able to sustain life.
"I think it would be difficult
and weird [to live on mars]," said lab supervisor Mrs. Julie McSharry,
"I wouldn't be interested. It's
way too far out."
Scientists working on this
Mars Mission want to gain as much knowledge about the red planet as they can
from the twin rovers. In order to
do this, each member of the science team was asked to leave their home and move
into NASA corporate housing. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory or the JPL in
Pasadena, California is where all the research is done.
" Until we can learn to take
care of our own planet we shouldn't mess up another," said physics teacher Mrs.
Sharon Genoways, "but, it will be interesting to see what this does for
missions to other planets."
Scientists such as Dr. Tim Rice
are so excited about learning as much as they can that they generally work 12
hour days. Their shifts adjust
according to time on Mars. In Mars
the days are about 40 minutes longer than our Earth days, so each person
working on this study must adjust their work schedule to have maximum day light
time with the robots. For example,
if your shift were to start at 9 a.m. one day the next day your shift would
begin at 9:40 a.m.
The trip to Mars is very
difficult and of the 30 attempts to reach the planet only one third have
succeeded. Only three out of the
nine attempts to touch down on the planet have worked. NASA deputy administrator Ed Wailer
told CNN, "A lot of people have had bad days on Mars. They don't call it the death planet for nothing."
NASA scientists are finding
out more and more about Mars each day.
The $820 million mission will help scientists and the world figure out
if Mars has sustained life before and if Mars could support life once again.