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Planetary News: Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner (1997)Mars Pathfinder Swamps Scientists with Images and DataPlanetary Society Web Site Adds Mars Image Archive To Keep Up with New FindingsJuly 9, 1997 For the Mars Pathfinder mission, success is becoming hard to handle. The Pathfinder lander and rover Sojourner are sending so much imagery and data back to Earth that scientists are having a hard time keeping up with the deluge. To keep our members up to date on the flow of mission findings, the Planetary Society has added a New Views of the Red Planet link on our home page. Of course, this flood of new information is the kind of problem every planetary explorer dreams of. Since the Pathfinder lander bounced onto Mars on July 4 and since rover Sojourner rolled away from its host spacecraft on July 5, the new images of the planet have been coming to Earth and the mission's scientific instruments have been collecting data about the soil, rocks and atmosphere of Ares Vallis, the dry riverbed where the lander set down. Perhaps the most exciting finding thus far is that the lander did in fact touch down on what was once a riverbed. Geologic evidence strongly confirms that a massive flood once coursed through the area where the Carl Sagan Memorial Station (the lander's new name) now sits. In its exploration of the properties of the martian surface, the rover continues to examine the rocks -- dusty, reddish hulks that mission scientists are referring to as Barnacle Bill and Yogi -- rocks that bear the distinctive marks of having been deposited by a massive flood. In yet another press briefing last night at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, mission scientists announced surprising results about the rock known as Barnacle Bill. Based on earlier Viking data and, to a lesser extent, on testing of the martian meteorites, scientists expected the rocks to be mostly basalt, a relatively simple volcanic rock. Instead, Sojourner sent back data that helped scientists determine that Barnacle Bill also contained a large amount of silica, much more than anyone had predicted. Based on this data, scientists now think that some Mars rocks may contain quartz, as do many Earth rocks. Today Sojourner instruments are examining the bear-shaped rock known as Yogi. The data and discovery continue to roll in.... Planetary Society Members Have Made It to MarsIn one of the many exciting announcements made at Planetfest '97 this past weekend, the public learned that members of the Planetary Society made it to Mars in more than spirit. A few years ago, the names of 100,000 Society members were placed on a chip that flew on Russia's Mars '96 mission as part of MAPEX -- the microelectronics and photonics experiment devised by JPL as a passive recorder of incoming radiation at the martian surface. Although Mars '96 was lost shortly after launch, JPL made several MAPEX spares, and one was flown on Mars Pathfinder -- complete with the list of the 100,000 names of Planetary Society members. The Planetary Society has been thrilled to broadcast Planetfest '97 and frequent updates about Mars Pathfinder LIVE over the Internet. |
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