Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Mission to Mars
Aired January 05, 2004 - 05:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, NASA scientists hope to be looking at new color pictures from the surface of the Red Planet. The pictures are just the latest in what they hope will be a steady stream of discoveries from the Mars rover Spirit.
CNN's Miles O'Brien has more on the mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: NASA's Spirit rover is safe and sound on the surface of Mars. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment. But since it has landed, it has been performing flawlessly, phoning home repeatedly, sending back data about its health -- everything looks pretty good -- and sending back a ream of pictures already.
For the control room, the scene has been euphoric. Of course, when it first landed, the scene was over the top. Since then, they've had a chance to regale themselves with all kinds of great pictures, including this one, which is a 360 degree panorama shot from the mast camera on the Spirit rover. It shows the surroundings. And this gives scientists an opportunity to figure out precisely where to go.
But even before they do that, they need to find out exactly where Spirit is. It's not as simple as it may sound because, after all, this is unexplored territory.
Joining me to talk a little bit about this and how that whole process occurs is the site scientist for this mission, as well as the Opportunity mission, which will land in three week's time, Matt Golombek.
Good to have you with us, Matt.
MATT GOLOMBEK, MISSION SCIENTIST: Thanks.
A pleasure to be here.
O'BRIEN: We're looking at descent images which came down from the spacecraft as it came close to the surface. This is about a mile off the surface. And there is a distinct pattern of craters there. Let's count 'em up. One...
GOLOMBEK: Yes, one...
O'BRIEN: ... two, three, four, five. GOLOMBEK: Four, five, that's sort of a little...
O'BRIEN: Now, what are you looking for there?
GOLOMBEK: That's just an identifiable pattern that you'll see when we go to another suite of images that was taken before we ever landed. So we know that we landed somewhere here because this is a descent image of the spacecraft as it's going down.
O'BRIEN: All right, so that's very close to touchdown. And we've probably moved it fairly quickly back from it.
GOLOMBEK: Oh, yes.
O'BRIEN: So not to long, much later, it was on the ground.
Now let's take a look at an image from an orbiting spacecraft, which was taken, I don't know (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
GOLOMBEK: Oh, you know, a year before or so.
OK, before we landed, and you can see this same sequence of craters that I'm circling right here.
O'BRIEN: OK, that pattern is a match.
GOLOMBEK: So that's the match that's the same sequence. We know we've landed somewhere in that area. We don't exactly know at this point. But when we look off to the southeast, we see this series of hills here, which are cropping up above the surface. And that, we think, is a scene from the lander in the distant horizon now, looking off, let's see, which way?
O'BRIEN: Let's move it back.
GOLOMBEK: We want to move back a little bit.
O'BRIEN: Let's move back a little bit and we'll get you to those hills.
GOLOMBEK: Keep going.
O'BRIEN: I'm going, I'm going, I'm panning.
GOLOMBEK: There we go.
O'BRIEN: And there we go.
GOLOMBEK: There they are.
O'BRIEN: Those hills...
GOLOMBEK: So there's the same sequence of hills, we think. We think they're about, oh, one to probably two kilometers away, a mile and a bit. And that's a possible prospect for a long-term drive. O'BRIEN: All right, so maybe that's the direction you head, maybe not. Nevertheless, it does give you a good sense of where Spirit lies and that's the first step before you start...
GOLOMBEK: That's right. Basically, you're doing Asama (ph) south to that and what angle is that and you try to match it up, and that's how you sort of figure it out.
O'BRIEN: Matt Golombek with Triangulation 101.
GOLOMBEK: There you go.
O'BRIEN: Thanks very much.
Miles O'Brien reporting from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Oh, we're going to have more for you later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 5, 2004 - 05:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, NASA scientists hope to be looking at new color pictures from the surface of the Red Planet. The pictures are just the latest in what they hope will be a steady stream of discoveries from the Mars rover Spirit.
CNN's Miles O'Brien has more on the mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: NASA's Spirit rover is safe and sound on the surface of Mars. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment. But since it has landed, it has been performing flawlessly, phoning home repeatedly, sending back data about its health -- everything looks pretty good -- and sending back a ream of pictures already.
For the control room, the scene has been euphoric. Of course, when it first landed, the scene was over the top. Since then, they've had a chance to regale themselves with all kinds of great pictures, including this one, which is a 360 degree panorama shot from the mast camera on the Spirit rover. It shows the surroundings. And this gives scientists an opportunity to figure out precisely where to go.
But even before they do that, they need to find out exactly where Spirit is. It's not as simple as it may sound because, after all, this is unexplored territory.
Joining me to talk a little bit about this and how that whole process occurs is the site scientist for this mission, as well as the Opportunity mission, which will land in three week's time, Matt Golombek.
Good to have you with us, Matt.
MATT GOLOMBEK, MISSION SCIENTIST: Thanks.
A pleasure to be here.
O'BRIEN: We're looking at descent images which came down from the spacecraft as it came close to the surface. This is about a mile off the surface. And there is a distinct pattern of craters there. Let's count 'em up. One...
GOLOMBEK: Yes, one...
O'BRIEN: ... two, three, four, five. GOLOMBEK: Four, five, that's sort of a little...
O'BRIEN: Now, what are you looking for there?
GOLOMBEK: That's just an identifiable pattern that you'll see when we go to another suite of images that was taken before we ever landed. So we know that we landed somewhere here because this is a descent image of the spacecraft as it's going down.
O'BRIEN: All right, so that's very close to touchdown. And we've probably moved it fairly quickly back from it.
GOLOMBEK: Oh, yes.
O'BRIEN: So not to long, much later, it was on the ground.
Now let's take a look at an image from an orbiting spacecraft, which was taken, I don't know (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
GOLOMBEK: Oh, you know, a year before or so.
OK, before we landed, and you can see this same sequence of craters that I'm circling right here.
O'BRIEN: OK, that pattern is a match.
GOLOMBEK: So that's the match that's the same sequence. We know we've landed somewhere in that area. We don't exactly know at this point. But when we look off to the southeast, we see this series of hills here, which are cropping up above the surface. And that, we think, is a scene from the lander in the distant horizon now, looking off, let's see, which way?
O'BRIEN: Let's move it back.
GOLOMBEK: We want to move back a little bit.
O'BRIEN: Let's move back a little bit and we'll get you to those hills.
GOLOMBEK: Keep going.
O'BRIEN: I'm going, I'm going, I'm panning.
GOLOMBEK: There we go.
O'BRIEN: And there we go.
GOLOMBEK: There they are.
O'BRIEN: Those hills...
GOLOMBEK: So there's the same sequence of hills, we think. We think they're about, oh, one to probably two kilometers away, a mile and a bit. And that's a possible prospect for a long-term drive. O'BRIEN: All right, so maybe that's the direction you head, maybe not. Nevertheless, it does give you a good sense of where Spirit lies and that's the first step before you start...
GOLOMBEK: That's right. Basically, you're doing Asama (ph) south to that and what angle is that and you try to match it up, and that's how you sort of figure it out.
O'BRIEN: Matt Golombek with Triangulation 101.
GOLOMBEK: There you go.
O'BRIEN: Thanks very much.
Miles O'Brien reporting from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Oh, we're going to have more for you later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
