[meteorite-list] Moon-Watching Mars Rover Catches Deimos Crossing the Sun

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Mar 22 13:49:44 2005
Message-ID: <200503221849.j2MIn6K27332_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://space.com/missionlaunches/050322_mars_moon.html

Moon-Watching Mars Rover Catches Deimos Crossing the Sun
By Leonard David
space.com
22 March 2005

That dynamic duo on Mars, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, are
satellite watchers too.

Turning their respective camera systems up into the martian sky, the
robots have caught sight of the moons of Mars - Phobos and Deimos -
scooting across the face of the Sun.

"We got four of the possible six Phobos and Deimos transits during this
year's 'eclipse season' from the rover sites," said Jim Bell of the Mars
Exploration Rover Project at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

A recent photo shoot involved a transit of Deimos from the Spirit
rover's vantage point at Gusev Crater. Earlier sessions were all Phobos
transits, Bell explained.

"Of course it's a cool thing to do, but more importantly, there's some
good science to be had because we're using these data to refine the
orbits and orbital evolutions of both satellites," Bell told
SPACE.com. "The data from 2005 complement the eclipse data that we got
in 2004," he said.

<http://www.space.com/media/b050322_transitraw.mov>
Credit: QuickTime Movie by Gus Frederick

If rover operations survive into the 2006 eclipse season, Bell said,
there's a good chance of learning more about the rate at which Phobos -
in a much lower orbit around Mars that Deimos - will slowly spiral in
and impact the red planet. Phobos could break up due to gravitational
forces and form a ring of debris about Mars - either event estimated to
be millions of years into the future.

Rovers on a roll

The Opportunity and Spirit rovers have been examining Mars since their
respective touchdowns in January 2004.

The Mars machinery has operated more than four times as long as their
successful three-month primary missions. While Spirit is exploring the
Columbia Hills at Gusev Crater, Opportunity is on the other side of the
planet, scouting about in Meridiani Planum - a large expanse of open
landscape.

NASA is expected to extend the rover missions by funding the project for
another six months, said Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program
Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Presently, the rover operations are funded through the end of this
month. A new slug of money would keep the robots on the move from April
1st to the end of September, McCuistion said.

"We've completely voided the warranty [on the rovers] at this point,"
said Steve Squyres, the lead scientist for the Mars rovers at Cornell
University. "Every day is a gift.'
Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 01:49:05 PM PST


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