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Life on Mars?

Update -- August 27 2:30pm EDT (1830 UT): Project scientists reported on the status of the Mars Pathfinder mission at a press conference this afternoon. The mission continues to go well despite a few navigation problems with the rover, which are under control. Weather conditions remain stable, although more than a dozen "dust devils" have been seen around the landing site in the last few weeks. The lander continues to return images of the landscape and the atmopshere, including water ice clouds seen high in the atmopshere 90 minutes before dawn. Other data from Pathfinder shows evidence for high (80 km) carbon dioxide clouds when Pathfinder passed through that portion of the atmosphere before landing. Data from the rover appears to show that there are two different classes of rocks on the surface, which vary by the amount of silicon found in them.
     The lander will continue to take atmosphere readings and images in the daytime, with occassional nighttime observations as battery power permits. Sojourner will remain in an area known as the "Rock Garden" for the next week or more, taking measurements of several rocks. It will then go around the lander for more observations before heading towards a distant hill.

Update -- August 26: After a series of problems with Sojourner, the rover appears to be back on track and working within a rock-strewn area of the landscape known as the "Rock Garden". Sojourner had problems navigating the area and got hung up on rocks for several days. As of last report, however, the rover was free and had approached its current objective, a smooth, dust-free rock called "Shark". The Pathfinder team plans to use Sojourner's spectrometer to study the composition of the rock before proceeding.
     More information about the mission should be given at a press briefing August 27 at 1pm EDT (1700 UT).

Update -- August 8 4:00pm EDT (2000 UT): Mars Pathfinder officials held a news conference this afternoon to update the status of the mission. All systems on the rover and lander are working well. A recap of the past month's accomplishments was reported, including the return of 1.2 gigabits (1.2 billion bits) of data since landing, twice what was expected. JPL's Web site has also logged over 565 million hits, including nearly 47 million on July 8 alone, "the biggest Internet event in history," according to project scientist Matthew Golombek.
     Golombek said the top three discoveries of the mission to date was the ability to accurately predict the nature of the landing site before landing, discovery of elevated levels of silica in the rock Barnicle Bill which appear to prove that Mars differentiated as it formed, sending lighter materials to the surface and heavier ones below; and the wide variety of weather phenopmena, including wide swings in temperature and pressure over just a few minutes.
     Plans for the near future call for the rover to spend up to a week or more thoroughly exploring the "Rock Garden" near the landing site, taking measurements on a number of different rocks. In the long term, "many, many weeks away," according to Golombek, the rover may travel to a distant hill, returning images of what landscape appears beyond.

Update -- August 5 11:45am EDT (1545 UT): Mars Pathfinder resumed operations earlier this week after taking a two-day "holiday" to recharge the batteries on the lander. Sojourner is traveling through an area dubbed "The Rock Garden" for its large number of different rocks. A JPL spokesperson said the project had "indefinie funding" from NASA and would continue until the rover and lander are no longer operational.

Last Update: 1997 August 27
Questions/Comments: jeff@astron.mit.edu

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