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Mars scientists find tempting new rocks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-08 08:49
Excited Mars mission scientists on Thursday released spectacular pictures of
cliff-like rocks they hope will provide further clues about the extent of water
on the red planet.
Scientists at the Mars mission headquarters in Pasadena said the pictures
were taken by the robot rover Opportunity from the rim of a football-stadium
sized crater reached after a six-week trek across martian flatlands.
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This approximate true-color image taken by the
panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity highlights a
feature called 'Burns Cliff' within the impact crater known as
'Endurance.' [AP Photo]
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The crater, dubbed Endurance, is lined by multiple layers of exposed bedrock
resembling cliffs that mission scientists said is completely different from
anything they have seen since the ground-breaking Mars mission began in January.
"It's the most spectacular view we've seen of the martian surface, for the
scientific value of it but also the sheer beauty," principal science
investigator Steve Squyres told a news conference.
"It looks fundamentally different from anything we've seen before. It's big.
It's massive. It has a story to tell us."
The Endurance crater is about 500 meters from the Eagle crater where
Opportunity landed and where scientists announced in March that they had found
geologic evidence of a body of salty water once deep enough to splash in.
Since then they have been trying to fill in the picture of the environment on
Mars before the water evaporated.
Eagle Crater "was the last dying gasp of a body of water," Squyres said. "The
question that has intrigued us since we left Eagle Crater is what preceded that.
Was there a deep body of water for a long time? Was there a shallow, short-lived
playa (beach)? We don't know."
Squyres said the team planned to send Opportunity on a traverse lasting
several weeks around the rim of the Endurance crater to assess the prospects of
the rover descending into it and using its array of geological tools to inspect
and take samples from the rocks.
Mission scientists are anxious to balance the geologic discoveries within
their grasp with the danger of Opportunity toppling into the crater, thereby
ending the mission, if it takes the wrong route.
"The rover could fall off and die if we are not careful," Squyres said.
Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit, on the other side of the planet, were
designed for 90-day missions. That landmark came and went last month but the
rovers, controlled from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, are still in
such good health that NASA has approved funding to extend the missions through
September.
"We are not worried about whether there is enough gas in the tank. It is like
the mission is starting over. There is something cool going on there. Let's go
have a look at it," Squyres said.
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