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Second Mars rover starts exploring planetary surface

Mars Exploration Rover team member Art Thompson, left, points out features of the lander for the Mars rover Opportunity to John Wirth at the Mars Project Mission Control Center in Pasadena, California, on Saturday. PHOTO: EPA

The NASA rover Opportunity made tracks on Saturday across the vast gray plain where it landed on Mars, driving down the front ramp of its landing pad until its three pairs of wheels touched the planet's surface.

The rover then aimed its onboard cameras for a last look back at the spacecraft that cushioned its crash landing on the Meridiani Planum near the planet's equator seven days ago.

Opportunity's 3m jaunt at 12:30am marks the first time that two mobile robots have simultaneously explored another planet. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, landed on the other side of Mars on Jan. 3 and began exploring the massive Gusev Crater for signs of ancient water 12 days later.

A crowd of engineers and scientists -- some fresh off 12-hour shifts piloting Spirit -- whooped and clapped as the images confirming Opportunity's successful egress reached them at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena at 3:01am via the Mars orbiter Odyssey.

"We're two for two! One dozen wheels on the soil," flight director Chris Lewicki announced to the packed control room.

The photos taken by the rover's hazard and navigation cameras showed two straight, rough tracks in the powdery surface leading away from the empty lander.

"That was probably the scariest part of the drive we're going to have on Mars," mission manager James Erickson said.

The next couple of martian days, or sols, will be devoted to calibrating the scientific instruments on Opportunity's robotic arm, which the rover will then use to test and photograph the soil in the small crater where it landed.

Yesterday Spirit was expected to resume scientific duties that were interrupted on Jan. 22 when the rover's computer memory malfunctioned and it stopped communicating with NASA.

Software engineers on Friday apparently solved the rover's problems by deleting a large number of files from its flash memory, which may have become overloaded, and rebooting it.

The rover was poised with its robotic arm extended, preparing to grind the surface of a football-shaped rock nicknamed Adirondack, when it froze. Over the next few days, Spirit is expected to complete its examination of Adirondack, which data showed is a volcanic basaltic rock of a type common on Earth.

Scientists said Spirit then will make its way toward a crater nicknamed Bonneville about 250m away, taking time to investigate two nearby whitish rocks dubbed Cake and Blanco.
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