NASA'slively robotic twosome--the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers--are in good shapeto soldier onward in their dealings with the red planet.
Bothmachines have come through superior conjunction--when the Sun impedes transmissionsbetween Mars and Earth--and are in fine shape to start new work assignments.
Thatsolar conjunction stretched over several weeks, ending in early November. Evenwith the Sun getting in the way of direct Earth-Mars telecommunications, therovers didn't get a rest.
Eachwas uploaded prior to the conjunction with science tasks while they stayed put- like weather watching and self-inspecting their respective coatings of Martiandust. Stored data is now making its way from the robots to Earth via NASA'sMars Odyssey spacecraft that is orbiting the red planet.
"We'vehad to start up a little bit slowly with Opportunity because the rover's flashmemory was very full post-conjunction...mostly with all the images we tookduring conjunction. It'll take a little while to clear those out," Squyresadvised.
"Wehaven't decided how far we'll go in that direction, but it seems clear thatsome of the most intriguing geology we can see from the rim is to be found thatway. So that's where we're headed for now," Squyres declared.
Opportunity is moving towardone of the highest spots on the crater's rim, a tall promontory named "Cape St.Mary".
"Forthe immediate future, while the [rover's] power is still low, we're going tofocus on other targets right around us on Low Ridge," Squyres told SPACE.com."We're talking about very small moves that will bring nearby soils and rockswithin reach of the [robot's] arm. So it'll be baby steps at first," he said.
Squyresadded that once Spirit's power gets high enough, rover operators will haveplenty of extra energy to wheel the robot to new exploration targets. Thenit'll be time to head back to a feature called "Home Plate".
"Andunlike our last trip there, the power will be gradually increasing and we'll beable to take our time," Squyres added. "In fact, there are one or two temptingtargets on the way to Home Plate that we think we'll spend a little time onfirst."
"They'reall still up for grabs, but there are some hypotheses that are substantiallyfavored over others. We're working on a paper right now that will lay out thestrengths and weaknesses of the various hypotheses," Squyres responded.
"Idon't have any idea how long we'll spend at Home Plate," Squyres said. "Itreally depends on what we find," he observed.
Afterdeparture from Home Plate, Spirit's science team already has another targetthey're eyeing.
"There'sa new challenge waiting," Squyres noted. "Off toward the southwest there issome terrain that's less than a kilometer away that has a strange 'etched'appearance from orbit... completely different from anything we've seen before.So that's where we'll be headed," he concluded.
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