1Opportunity Rover Begins Careful Rollout

MARSDAILY

Opportunity's Sol 446 Position. This mosaic of navigation-camera frames from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, presented in a vertical projection, shows the rover's position after it dug itself to wheel-hub depth in a small dune during its 446th martian day, or sol (April 26, 2005). The elongated dune, or ripple, is about one-third of a meter (one foot) tall and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide.

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Pasadena CA (JPL) May 15, 2005
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity rotated its wheels on sol 463 for the first time since the rover dug itself into a sand dune more than two weeks earlier.

The wheels made about two and a half rotations, as commanded, and the results were a good match for what was expected from tests on Earth, boosting the confidence of mission managers that they can get the rover out of the dune.

In the loose footing, the rover advanced 2.8 centimeters (1.1 inch) forward, 4.8 millimeters (0.19 inch) sideways and 4.6 millimeters (0.18 inch) downward.

After further analysis of the results, the rover team will decide whether to repeat the same careful movement again on sol 465. Meanwhile Opportunity's main tasks for sol 464 were remote-sensing observations.

Opportunity has started moving its wheels again after a couple weeks of holding still while taking some amazing images.

While waiting for the rover team to finish tests for planning the best strategy for driving out of a sand trap, Opportunity has been busy taking a comprehensive color panorama of the area.

On sol 461 (May 11), Opportunity straightened its wheels. After checking data and images confirming the success of that move, the team planned commands for beginning to rotate the wheels on sol 463 (May 13). The rover is healthy and ready to go.

Sol 456 - 460 The rover's situation, dug into a sand dune, limited in the amount and type of science possible. While sitting here, Opportunity has taken the opportunity to take a 360 panorama of the area called "Rub al Khali," a name meaning the "empty quarter," from a region of the Arabian Peninsula with that name.

During sol 456, power engineer Eric Wood happily recognized a cleaning event. Winds removed some dust from solar panels and Opportunity's daily energy supply increased to about 650 watt-hours, from a recent range of about 620 to 630 watt-hours.

Sol 461: Today Opportunity was allowed to position its wheels to their egress direction. The plan is for the rover to leave the sand trap with an arc, moving forward and slightly to the left.

The wheels were placed in that position. Before this sol's steering move, the wheels were in position from a turn in place that was Opportunity's last attempted move on sol 446.

Sol 462: Opportunity is still in restricted sols, and is precluded from driving today, so the rover spent the day taking some additional panoramic camera frames of Rub al Khali.

Sol 463 (May 13): After confirming the new position of the wheels, the team proceeded with plans for Opportunity to rotate its wheels about two and a half times on sol 463. Results from that move will be evaluated before rotating them some more.

MARSDAILY

Map Of Life On Earth Could Be Used On Mars

St Louis MO (SPX) May 12, 2005
A geologist from Washington University in St. Louis is developing new techniques to render a more coherent story of how primitive life arose and diverged on Earth � with implications for Mars.

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