www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/02/04/rover.halted.ap/index.html
PASADENA, California AP - The Mars rover Spirit briefly resumed science operations before NASA once again halted the work to finish correcting a computer memory problem that has stymied the wheeled robots mission. Mission officials had hoped the rover would brush off and examine a rock that it has faced since January 18, but ongoing software problems forced engineers to delay gathering the data until Thursday, a day after they planned to reformat the rovers flash memory. We decided it would be better to not try new things until we got the flash reformatted, deputy project manager Richard Cook told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Spirit landed on Mars on January 3, followed three weeks later by its twin, Opportunity, on the opposite side of the red planet. In the meantime Spirit was suddenly crippled by a problem with its flash memory. Were just trying to get Spirit back to nominal operations, so we can have two missions operating in parallel, project manager Pete Theisinger said. Opportunity was continuing to work well, taking microscopic photographs of soil that scientists believe could contain evidence the dry planet once was a wetter world capable of sustaining life. The pictures, released Tuesday, show a coin-sized patch of grainy soil, peppered with what look like minute pebbles. Opportunity captured the images with its microscopic imager, one of four instruments at the end of its robotic arm. Opportunity also began a 24-hour analysis of the tiny patch of soil, this time using its Mossbauer spectrometer. The German-built instrument measures the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals. Scientists hope the spectrometer can provide the second eureka moment of Opportunitys mission. Within days of landing, Opportunity used another instrument, its mini-thermal emissions spectrometer, to discover an iron-rich mineral called gray hematite at its landing site. Preliminary measurements suggest the mineral is of a variety that forms in liquid water, providing the first hint that the site once was wet. NASA launched the $820 million pair of rovers to find geological evidence of past water activity on Mars. Scientists are now eager to learn if the Mossbauer can reveal the presence of either of two other iron-bearing minerals, goethite and magnetite. Finding goethite, named for the German poet Goethe, would point to a watery origin for both it and the previously discovered hematite. Otherwise, if Opportunity discovers magnetite in the soil, that would suggest that it and the hematite formed from iron-rich volcanic lava. It was not immediately clear when the space agency would release them to the public. Im waiting for it, too, because I want to know it says, Theisinger said of the Mossbauer results. NASA plans to continue hammering away at Mars throughout the decade. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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