If all went well on Mars late yesterday into the early morning hours here on Earth the robots Rock Abrasion Tool, or RAT, should have been used on a football-sized rock dubbed Adirondack.
Operation of the RAT is expected to be discussed by scientists and engineers later today.
International science
The international nature of Spirit operations was underscored by Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator for the Mars Rover Exploration project from Cornell University
Squyres said he likened Spirits array of science instruments to a Swiss Army Knife, "each having its own strength," he said.
In a press briefing yesterday here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), home of Spirit control, the preliminary results from two German-built instruments, an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and a Mssbauer spectrometer were discussed. Both analyzed the same patch of soil that was directly in front of the rover after Spirit drove off its lander January 15.
These same two pieces of hardware, as well as Spirits Microscopic Imager, have been busy again yielding new data on Adirondack.
Olivine surprise
Goestar Klingelhoefer, Payload Element Lead for the Mssbauer spectrometer from University Mainz in Germany, explained during the Tuesday briefing the preliminary results in using the instrument on Mars.
"This soil contains a mixture of minerals, and each mineral has its own distinctive Mssbauer pattern, like a fingerprint," Klingelhoefer noted.
In a surprise find, Klingelhoefer said the instrument identified olivine, a shiny green rock commonly found in lava on Earth. The other two have yet to be pinned down.
Scientists were somewhat perplexed by the discovery of olivine. Finding that material at Gusev Crater implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered.
That lack of weathering suggested by the presence of olivine might be evidence that the soil particles are finely ground volcanic material, Squyres said. Another possible explanation is that the soil layer where the measurements were taken is extremely thin, and the olivine is actually in rock hidden below the topside soil.
The Mssbauer spectrometer uses two pieces of radioactive cobalt-57, each about the size of pencil erasers, to determine with a high degree of accuracy the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals in martian rocks and soil.
Faint signatures
Reporting on the APSX preliminary findings was Johannes Brueckner, Science Team Member of the Mars rover team from Germanys Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
Brueckner reported that the instrument detected the presence of three different iron-bearing minerals in the soil at the rover's landing site within Gusev Crater.
As was found at the landing sites of past missions to Mars, iron and silicon make up the majority of the martian soil. Sulfur and chlorine were also observed as expected.
A new APXS finding was spotting trace elements, including zinc and nickel. These latter observations demonstrate the power of the device, Brueckner said, to pick up the signatures of elements too faint to be seen before.
The APXS uses alpha particles and X-rays to measure the presence and abundance of all major rock-forming elements except hydrogen.
Parking Spirit
Scientists are now deciding where to park Spirit for a stretch of time. That will give engineers and scientists time to ready themselves for the landing of Opportunity just a few days away.
"My guess is, if things go well, well drive Spirit to another location before stand down," Jennifer Trosper, JPL Mission Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project, told SPACE.com. Spirits arm will be extended during that duration, using its science instruments to collect new data on a patch of select martain soil just a short drive away from Adirondack.
Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, is nearing Mars. All is on track for the spacecraft to plunge through the atmosphere on Mars, touching down on January 24, at 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Opportunity is heading for a landing on the opposite side of the planet from Spirits landing site at Gusev Crater.
Mars Rovers: Complete Coverage
Tales of the RAT Man: A History and Future of Mars Rovers
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