NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover getting travel tips from orbiting spacecraft
December 17th, 2010 - 4:24 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Dec 17 (ANI): NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover, which is exploring areas that might hold clues about past Martian environments, is getting important travel tips from an orbiting spacecraft.
Researchers are using a mineral-mapping instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to help the rover investigate a large ancient crater called Endeavour.
MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) is providing maps of minerals at Endeavour’s rim that are helping the team choose which area to explore first and where to go from there.
As MRO orbits more than 150 miles high, the CRISM instrument provides mapping information for mineral exposures on the surface as small as a tennis court.
“This is the first time mineral detections from orbit are being used in tactical decisions about where to drive on Mars,” said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is the deputy principal investigator for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and a co-investigator for CRISM.
Opportunity’s science team chose to begin driving the rover toward the 14-mile-wide crater in 2008, after four years studying other sites in what initially was planned as a three-month mission. The rover has traveled approximately nine miles since setting out for Endeavour crater. It will take several months to reach it. (ANI)
- NASA Rover finds clue to Mars past - Jun 07, 2010
- 'Missing carbon' may explain reduced density of Mars' atmosphere - Mar 09, 2011
- New find points toward habitable environments deep in Martian crust - Oct 12, 2010
- Mars Rover find traces of mineral gypsum - Dec 08, 2011
- NASA's Mars Orbiter completes 5-yr mark - Mar 10, 2011
- NASA rover reaches rim of the big Martian crater ap - Aug 11, 2011
- NASA's Odyssey spacecraft sets exploration record on Mars - Dec 16, 2010
- NASA's Odyssey spacecraft becomes Mars' longest-staying guest - Dec 16, 2010
- Conditions favourable to life existed throughout Mars - Jun 25, 2010
- NASA to launch new mission to Mars Saturday - Nov 24, 2011
- NASA orbiter shows angled view of Martian crater - Aug 13, 2009
- US rover to scout for Mars' habitability - Nov 27, 2011
- One more try to free plucky Mars rover: NASA - Nov 13, 2009
- NASA's Spirit Mars Rover may not call home - Jul 31, 2010
- 99 percent pure water ice found on Mars - Sep 25, 2009
Tags: co investigator, crism, endeavour, mars opportunity rover, mars reconnaissance, martian, mineral mapping, nasa, nine miles, orbits, principal investigator, ray arvidson, science team, spacecraft, spectrometer, spirit and opportunity, spirit and opportunity rovers, tactical decisions, tennis court, washington university in st louis