Having combed much of Pathfinder's immediate surroundings, the Mars rover Sojourner will turn its attentions to NASA's longer-term monitoring goals, the team of scientists leading the unmanned exploration of the arid planet said today.
"We're about ready to change the focus of what we do," said Matthew Golombeck, Mars Pathfinder project scientist. "We'll be relying more on the rover's instruments" instead of views from Pathfinder's cameras.
The longer-term goals will include a study of the red planet's weather conditions and air pressure over time.
The morning briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave researchers from the different teams involved in the Pathfinder project a chance to share what they had gleaned during the mission's first 53 days, including images of the sunrise and sunset, soil and rock mineral composition, and air pressure.
They also let the public know what the limits are of the analysis. For example, Tom Economou, a co-investigator on the Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer team, discussed the detailed analysis of two early exploration targets, the silica-rich rocks named Barnacle Bill and Yogi. Despite the abundance of information on their mineral make-up, Economou explained that it was still too early to form conclusions about how these rocks were formed.
For much of its 53-day Mars stay, Sojourner has traveled roughly 70 meters, not counting the distance covered when the vehicle turns around. Much of this ground had been mapped out in advance by researchers on Earth who worked from images capture by cameras mounted atop Pathfinder. This wide-area pan has led Sojourner to investigate soil and rock compositions within a 5- to 10-meter range of the Pathfinder craft.
Golombeck said Sojourner would take another look at sites including Mermaid Dunes, to take a sample of the sand-like material that appears to be there. Once these second looks are completed, the mission will shift into its long-term goal - what is hoped to be a year - of studying the atmosphere. Through this study, scientists hope to learn how atmosphere and climate affect the rock and soil composition on Mars.
For example, nightly winds on Mars have reached a peak speed of 20 mph. The mission has yet to see the dust storms that generate winds three to four times stronger than those at night. Long-term studies will also give scientists a chance to see how the change of seasons affects the length of the Martian day as well as atmospheric pressure, Golombeck said.
