Los Angeles, Feb 25: The Mars rover Spirit drove into a field of boulders ejected eons ago from an impact crater and surveyed them to find clues to the Red planet's geological history, a Nasa official said. Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is engaged in a microscopic study of an outcropping of bedrock that scientists at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California say may contain elements formed in the presence of water.
The robotic rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars in January to search for signs that Earth's arid neighbor once held enough water to support life. Spirit touched down January 03 in the massive Gusev crater, believed to be a former lake bed.
Project manager Richard Cook told reporters yesterday that spirit reached a hollow nicknamed Middleground after driving 100 feet on the 51st Martian day, or Sol, of the rover's planned 90-day mission.
The golf cart-sized rover accomplished about half of the traverse using its auto-navigation system to zig-zag through the thickly rock-strewn landscape surrounding the crater that is its ultimate destination. When it reaches the crater it will have driven about 328 feet from its landing pad.
Scientists will use high-definition photos and spectrometer images to find rocks that may have been ejected from beneath the planet's surface and are unlike the volcanic basalt they have studied so far.
Cook said the team planned for spirit to reach Bonneville crater, a journey of about 164 ft, in nine sols. The rover will stop along the way to take panoramic photographs and spectrometer readings of the boulder field, and may take a side trip or two to examine interesting features, he said.