“We’re on Mars, everybody!” JPL’s Rob Manning, manager for development of the landing system, told the mission flight team and other guests, including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Vice President Al Gore.
The Mars Opportunity Rover landed in a region near the Martian equator called Meridiani Planum, about halfway around the planet from the Gusev Crater site where its twin rover, Spirit, landed on Jan. 3. Meridiani is rich in a mineral called gray hematite, an iron compound that forms almost always in the presence of water.
By initial estimates, Opportunity landed about 15 miles down range from the center of its target landing area — well within the are of gray hematite. Lots of great pictures are arriving.
“We managed to target Opportunity to the desired atmospheric entry point,” said Louis D’Amario of JPL, navigation team chief for the rovers. The craft pushed itself upright by opening the petals of the lander and transmitted the first images of its landing site.
Mission planners chose Meridiani as a possible place to search for signs that water once flowed on the surface of Mars. If the planet had liquid water, scientists think it might have supported life at one time in its history — or it still might harbor living organisms in certain protected areas under the right conditions.
Google has the latest. Dailywireless has more on Spirit Telecommunications, Beagle 2 systems and Telepresence Now!
The Recording Industry Association of America admitted that it was responsible for the Mars Spirit’s silence.
“We faced Spirit with some of its recent Internet activity,” said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy, “We advised it to discontinue all transmissions until we have met with the rover’s attorney.” At issue is a particular stream of bytes transmitted by Spirit that very closely resembled four notes from a recent Christina Aguilera song, ‘Stripped’. Spirit, through its attorney, has denied any wrongdoing.
“This is completely out of hand,” said a frustrated Sean O’Keefe, of NASA. “I can assure the RIAA that it is not sharing music, upload or download.”
