I am happy to report as many of you already know, the first of the MER Rovers "Spirit" sucessfully landed on the surface of mars Saturday evening. I started monitoring it about 5 min before the parachute was deployed. There was data aquired as it landed then silence for about 10 min. 10 long minutes. My fists were clinched tight as I hoped, prayed, and wondered how the little rover was doing. Then the data started comming in. It was ok. I was so happy. And it was great joy to see the mission controllers celebrating. Later around 1am central time, the first images started comming in. Mars Oddessey aquired data from Spirit for about 10 min. as it passed in range. The info transmitted was enough to create the first panoramic mosaic view for the mission. A picture you will probably see many places in the media later today and in the future. The rover appears to be healthy, on a fairly level surface, and in the middle of a gold mine of geological samples. The plan is to roll out off the lander in about 9 days.
So far this mission has been as nominal as you could get. I can only imagine what is in store for us with this little rover. I am very happy to be living in a time when such things are possible. And unique to other missions, this rover carries a disc that contains around 4 million names of people from all walks of like. One of those names is mine. Eighteen simple letters but packaged in a way that make me feel in some way as though I am a little closer to Mars now. Only time will tell what's in the future for our little rovers. But for now I know I am very happy to see it happening.
You dropped your pocket, your socks are untied, and those are the same clothes you were wearing the day after yesterday.
Well thats one down and one to go. Oppurtunity will hopefully enjoy a successful landing in the coming weeks. I am so glad to see Spirit succede not just because NASA could really use the boost in morale but because NASA Langley played a big part in the design of the landing system as well as the entry shell owing to its many years of atmospheric flight research. Heck some of this technology used on these landings actually goes back to technology developed for the Viking landers in 1976 also another project Langley played a big part in.
Jason original callsign Loverboy
SC 1991
SA Level 1 1993
AC Intermediate 1996
ASA 1998
Corporate Space Camp 2005
AC Counselor Summer 07 callsign Boomerang
Adult Alumni Camp 2007
Adult Alumni Camp 2008 Official Space Camp Ambassador
