MER-A (Spirit) Lands Successfully

Mars Exploration Rover A (Spirit) managed to successfully bounce to a stop on Mars tonight. If all continues to go well, expect to see what Gusev Crater looks like close up in the next day or so.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-04 AT 02:07 AM (CDT)
 
Fascinating and amazing. Can't wait for the photos to start coming in. Found a great website with lots of info. They were giving updates every 2 or 3 minutes during the critical part of the landing phase. Might have to get cable TV again just to get good live coverage of such events. Well that didn't take long! It landed less than 2 1/2 hours ago and the photos are already coming in!

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

Is that the Eurpean one that landed around Christmas and been quiet since?

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-04 AT 10:57 AM (CDT)
 
No. Beagle2 is the European one that has not been heard from since.

Spirit is the first of two golf cart sized follow-ons to Pathfinder that the US send to Mars. So far we are 1 for 2 on this mission. The other rover is due to hit the planet later this month.

I had the good fortune to be at JPL when both Pathfinder and Global Observer arrived.

It is an amazing thing to watch happen.

One of the few things left that makes me proud of the species.

Cy

P.S. For those of you with Quicktime in your browser:

http://www.airandspacemagazine.com/ASM/Web/Site/QTVR/SaganStation.html

And here is a very quick and dirty first QTVR panorama from Spirit Station:

http://www.airspacemag.com/demo/mars04-1.mov

This is not fully corrected, but it gives you a sense of what things look like around the lander. The math does not work out, as this is not a full panoramic image. But it's the first I've seen.

Enjoy.

Fantastic!

Should be a piece of cake getting this EdS Satellite onto orbit
on the 9th or 10th!! Might have a one day delay. There should be
a real time web cast of it on the Boeing Sea Launch web site!

I heard that there is a Yellow Brick Road and Singing something about OZ?

Scott(good job JPL)Riese

Brett,
Might this include some of your software effort?

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-04 AT 11:46 AM (CDT)
 
>Brett,
> Might this include some of your software effort?

Nope. I'm just an interested observer.

By the way, the main image gallery is here:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/images.html

LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-04 AT 12:42 PM (CDT)
 
Am I the only one just awe-struck by what man can do when he challenges his mind to learn? This stuff is just amazing to me. Kind of like William Tell shooting the apple off a guys head in Colorado...when Bill was in Honolulu.

Bravo to all concerned.

>Am I the only one just awe-struck by what man can do when he
>challenges his mind to learn? This stuff is just amazing to
>me. Kind of like William Tell shooting the apple off a guys
>head in Colorado...when Bill was in Honolulu.
>
>Bravo to all concerned.
>
>Ted

No Ted, I am also in awe. "Almost" makes this retired aerospace guy want to go back to work. I said "almost!".
Roger V.

Yes, but why didn't we land at Cydonia so we could learn where we TRUELY come from?

Just kiddin, listening to too much Art Bell and Richard Hoagland lately.