"This is not a long drive," said Mark Maimone, a mobility software engineer for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) program, during a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Monday. "But it opens up new opportunities that lets us drive further distances."
Before Spirit's jaunt, both Mars robots have been relying on the direction of their ground controllers to tell them where to go. Each rover carries a pair of navigation cameras and four hazard cameras to identify possible rocks or other that could endanger the rover. As a general rule, the rover's are programmed not to try and drive over an object taller than its 10-inch (25-centimeter) wheels. Andirondack, NASA researchers said, was not big enough to be an obstacle.
"Now we're going to open things up and let the rover make its own decisions," Maimone said. "We're going to go for long drives, but we're not sure how far yet. That's up to the rover."
Maimone added that the race is now on between the twin MER probes, with Spirit traveling a total of about 41 feet (12.6 meters) on Mars, compared to the 42 feet (13 meters) traversed by Opportunity.
Andirondack and Opportunity's litter
Before Spirit made its self-directed drive, it finished off its scientific mission at Andirondack, which included using its Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to shear off surface material and its Microscopic Imager (MI) camera to take microscopic pictures of the results.
"Andirondack is looking a bit different now," explained Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the Athena science payload project aboard each rover. "It looks very much like a volcanic rock, so we know what it is and it's time to move on."
Meanwhile, the Opportunity robot has roved about its own Meridiani Planum landing site. The rover drove four meters up to a nearby section of a rock outcrop, dubbed Opportunity Ledge by mission scientists, and performed a series of scientific studies with its arm instruments.
The study found puzzling spherical granules embedded in the outcrop rock like blueberries in a muffin, as well as a high sulfur content yet to be explained, Squyres said.
Opportunity's Panoramic Camera also took images of the robot's landing litter, including its parachute and backshell. The items were jettisoned before Opportunity activated its retrorockets and airbags, bounced 26 times and settled at its landing site, JPL scientists said.
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