Posted on 09/11/2007 9:38:48 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is making its way into a giant impact crater to learn more about the Red Planet's geologic past.
Engineers sent commands to Opportunity to drive into Victoria Crater and received a confirmation signal from the rover. It will be several hours before NASA knows how well the drive went.
Opportunity is expected to drive all six wheels into the crater and back out before making the full plunge several days from now.
The drive comes two months after a massive Martian dust bowl kept Opportunity and its twin Spirit hunkered down to conserve energy.
Coincidentally, I just watched the Blu-Ray version of "Total Recall" again the other night. One of Arnold's best - insanely violent for its time, but almost tame by today's standards. Too bad he doesn't deal as firmly with California Democrats. ;)
Wow! Seems to me we should find a way to be independent of oil, if we can do this!
Yep. All you have to do is reduce your life to 5 volts and 400 watts per day and you're golden.
Thanks for the post, Norm. Those rovers are just one of the coolest stories ever. American science and engineering at its best!
Yeah, Arnie is a huge disappointment politically, but I will always be a fan, grew up on too much of his stuff.
See you at the party Richter!
spaceflightnow.com
Dawn asteroid probe back on the launch pad again
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: September 11, 2007
The eight-year, 3.2-billion-mile mission is scheduled for liftoff from Florida’s east-central coast on Wednesday, September 26 at 7:25 a.m. EDT. The morning’s available launch period will extend to 7:54 a.m.
The probe will be dispatched on a trajectory to encounter Mars where it will use the Red Planet’s gravity in a sling-shot maneuver for the trek into the asteroid belt for reconnaissance of the massive asteroid Vesta in 2011 and “dwarf planet” Ceres in 2015.
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