#Valley of otz barsoom Patch#

In the process, the rover stumbled onto what Squyres called a 'terrific geologic puzzle.' Torquas was loaded with the tiny millimeter-sized spherules that seem just like all those millions of other spherules the rover has been seeing around Meridiani. The team took advantage of that and had Spirit place the iron-detecting Mössbauer spectrometer on a large slab of rock called Torquas for an in-depth investigation of its make-up. While at Mitcheltree Ridge, the science team was cleared to use the instrument deployment device (IDD) that had been off-limits since glitching with positioning errors in February. 'We went to the north a bit to image Home Plate, then we moved off to Mitcheltree Ridge across from the eastern perimeter of Home Plate,' he said in an interview earlier this week. Instead of going right onto Home Plate, which team members believe formed from some kind of volcanic process, and beginning a tour of the feature, 'the plan evolved,' said deputy principal investigator of the rovers, Ray Arvidson, of Washington University, St.

#Valley of otz barsoom Patch#

The rover had departed the sulfur-rich patch called Tyrone at the end of February and headed for Home Plate, taking panoramic camera (Pan Cam) pictures of the strange, circular plateau on its approach.

Of course anything could happen anytime, but if the dynamic duo continue on as they have been, who among any such panel could deny them the right to explore until 'death' stops them in their tracks? Odds against odds, MER has become dollar for dollar and discovery for discovery, something of a 'miracle' mission to Mars and Spirit and Opportunity have proved to be nothing less than roving robot superheroes.Īs March blew in, Spirit was roving into a lot of 'neat geology,' as Squyres described it. NASA generally funds mission extensions based on recommendations from an outside panel of scientists. So this last week, the rovers' principal investigator, Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, dotted the i's and crossed the t's on the proposal for a fifth mission extension, which he sent on to NASA headquarters just a couple of days ago. The twin robot field geologists, which have each exceeded their original 90-day mission by more than 1000 sols, are doing so well that even though their current, fourth mission extension takes them to October, it is entirely probable that the rovers will still be roving strong after that. The work completed in March is leading both Spirit and Opportunity to embark on new, textbook-changing adventures and the mission, as those who have been following MER know, is doing anything but slowing down.

Both Spirit and Opportunity chalked up yet another productive month of field geology as they roved onward in their fourth year on location, checking out more of the local environs some 149,597,900 kilometers (93 million miles) away on Earthlings' favored other planet. It's been business as usual on the Red Planet this month as the Mars Exploration Rovers investigated new areas on their ever-moving missions to explore Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum.