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Mars Pathfinder Update - July 27, 1997

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

              Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
                     July 27, 1997
             4:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time

     All lander and rover systems and science instruments 
continue to operate well on Sol 23 of the Mars Pathfinder 
mission. Earth rise at the landing site occurred at midnight PDT 
July 26; sunrise followed at 3:13 a.m. PDT today.

     In keeping with the tradition of playing wake-up songs for 
the space shuttle astronauts, the rover and flight teams were 
awakened on Sol 23 to the music of the Blues Brothers' version of 
"Raw Hide," a 1960s television western.  The song was chosen to 
match "a long day of driving" for the rover.

     Flight Director Jennifer Harris reported that start-of-the-day
images showed the rover had begun to climb up the side of the 
rock named "Souffle," but was not able to position its science 
spectrometer against the rock. Consequently, no alpha proton X-
ray spectrometer data were acquired today.

     "However, this did not deter the rover from executing a long 
traverse which took it past the lander, through the 'Rock Garden' 
and past a rock named 'Casper,' before coming to a stop near the 
rocks 'Desert Princess' and 'Baker's Bench,'" Harris said.  In 
all, Sojourner traveled six meters (nearly 20 feet) to complete 
the traverse, the longest excursion it has taken yet.

     Images of the traverse, as well as routine beginning and 
end-of-day images, were taken by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder 
(IMP) camera.  These images will go into a "rover movie," which 
is being compiled by the imaging team.

     The IMP imaged sunrise on Mars, Phobos, one of Mars' two 
small moons, and the next portion of the super panorama, Harris 
said. The flight team also  completed its downlink of the IMP 
stowed-position "insurance pan," which will enable them to begin 
downloading another portion of the super panorama.

     Tomorrow's activities will include sending the rover to a 
way point beyond the rocks "Calvin" and "Hobbes." There it will 
be instructed to turn toward a rock named "Mini Matterhorn," take 
a picture of it and then image the lander.

     On this Martian day, Sol 23, the Earth set at 1:43 p.m. PDT 
and the sun set at 4:04 p.m. PDT.

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