SPACE.com -- Opportunity Ready to Rock and Roll

PANORAMA: This image captured by Opportunity's panoramic camera highlights the puzzling rock outcropping that scientists are eagerly planning to investigate. These layered rocks measure only four inches (10 centimeters) tall and are thought to be either volcanic ash deposits or sediments carried by water or wind. Click to enlarge.

AIR BAG TRACKS: The circular shapes seen on the martian surface in these images are footprints left by the Opportunity's airbags during landing.The circular region of the flower-like feature on the right is about the size of a basketball. Scientists are studying the prints for more clues about the makeup of martian soil. Click to enlarge.

AIR BAG SEAMS: The inflated airbags in this image - taken during ground tests - show a pattern of seams exactly like those left in the martian soil by Opportunity during landing at Meridiani Planum, Mars. Click to enlarge.

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	Opportunity Ready to Rock and Roll By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 04:15 pm ET 28 January 2004

OPPORTUNITY NEAR READY TO ROLL

PASADENA, Calif. -- Operators of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity have successfully deployed its wheels and completed the first half of a stand-up process -- all part of readying the rover to do what it was built to do best, rove.

If all continues on track, the robot may wheel itself onto the flat and dark terrain of its landing spot, inside a small crater at Meridiani Planum this coming Sunday. That drive is eagerly awaited by scientists gathered here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Within easy driving range is a perplexing rock outcropping. These layered rocks measure only 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall and are being hotly debated as being either volcanic ash deposits or sediments carried by water or wind.

Opportunity landed at approximately 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, January 24, Earth-received time.

One small hop

"Its been another great day for Opportunity at Meridiani," said Rick Welch, JPLs Activity Lead for the MER project at an early morning press briefing here today.

In completing the first two part of a four-part stand-up routine of the rover atop its landing perch -- now tagged the Challenger Memorial Station -- all is going smoothly toward Opportunitys "one small hop" onto Mars surface, he said.

By tugging on Opportunitys rearward airbags, the front edge of the lander hardware will be lowered, permitting easy, straight-ahead egress of the rover during its ninth day on Mars.

Tumbling end-over-end

Meridiani Planum "is the smoothest, flattest place weve ever investigated on Mars," said Matt Golombek, JPL Science Team Member for the MER endeavor. But in a roll of the dice -- or airbags in this case -- Opportunity made a figure-eight traverse within a small crater. It tumbled end-over-end, down-and-up, up-and-down the craters walls before coming to full-stop.

Opportunity sits in a crater that is roughly 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter.

Left in the process are sets of circular shapes and radial spokes. These impressions in the soil show the behavior of Opportunity before stopping, said. Jim Bell, Lead Scientist for the Panoramic Camera (Pan Cam) from Cornell University. They offer clues to scientists about both the makeup of martian soil within the crater and what to expect when the rover begins it driving duties, he said.

"These marks are telling us something about the physical properties of the material. We are leaving an indent in this soil," Bell said. The airbags appear very clean, with that material not sticking like that seen at the Spirit Mars rover site in Gusev Crater.

Up and out

Golombek said the robots Panoramic Camera (Pan Cam) has provided some tantalizing glimpses over the craters rim to the outstretched landscape that is Meridiani Planum. Eventually, Opportunity will do "up and out" driving from the floor of the small crater onto the flat territory, he said

Once the rover has wheeled out of the crater, Bell said that another set of images will be taken to yield a 360-degree Pan Cam sweep of Meridiani Planum. "Were just piling on the pixels," he added. A pixel is the smallest picture element of a digital image.

Clearly attracting attention of scientists are the thin layers in rocks, just a modest drive away from where the rover temporarily sits. Those layers -- some no thicker than a finger -- are deserving of up-close, detailed scrutiny.

One-stop-shopping for science

Bell told SPACE.com that more detailed shots of that outcrop are planned from where the rover now sits. Finding a spot in the exposed rock that exhibits multiple types of materials would be ideal. That would allow Opportunity to conduct a type of "one-stop-shopping" for science in one driving session.

"It would be irresponsible not to study that material which could provide some key to the action of water in this area," Bell said.

Golombek said he is hopeful that Opportunitys Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) will identify compositional variations in the rock outcrop. There is also a "strong desire" to trench in the soil with the rovers wheels while still within the crater. "Its all sitting there for us," he said.

On the other side of the planet, engineers continue to troubleshoot the software problems that bedevil the Spirit rover in Gusev Crater. "Were still not quite there," said Jennifer Trosper, JPLs Mission Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover program.

Significant steps forward, however, are being made daily, Trosper said, to "getting Spirit back on its feet," she said. The rover may well be in a healthy state to restart science-gathering tasks next week.

Mars Rovers: Complete Coverage