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CNN Live At Daybreak
Red Rover: 'Opportunity' Knocks
Aired January 26, 2004 - 05:42 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well NASA has a second chance at MARS or a new "Opportunity," if you will. Opportunity, the second Mars rover, is sending a steady stream of pictures that is thrilling scientists back here on Earth.
CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the kind of opportunity the mission team dreamed of, a robot geologist smack dab in the middle of a crater on the surface of Mars, exposed rocks all around just waiting to tell their story.
STEVE SQUYRES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: What has happened is we have scored a 300 million mile interplanetary hole in one and we are actually inside a small impact crater.
O'BRIEN: Sixty feet across, six feet deep, the crater may offer nearly one-stop shopping for scientists on the rover opportunity team. All the features they could hope to explore may be right here, a dark surface possibly sprinkled with hematite, a mineral that may be a rosetta stone for ancient water, and an outcropping of rocks whose layers may be tantamount to pages in a martian history book.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: A white outcrop on the rim of the crater is a geologists treasure trove.
O'BRIEN: As it fell toward Mars, Opportunity snapped three images of the surface as it rose to meet it. This dot is the shadow of the parachute. Opportunity did not land in the large crater, but in another one somewhere in the bottom of this image. The soil appears to be very fine. Opportunity left distinct imprints as it bounced and retracted its airbag.
The landing site is on the opposite side of the planet from its twin, the Spirit rover, which landed three weeks ago and remains crippled while engineers troubleshoot what now appears to be a software glitch.
PETER THEISINGER, ROVER PROJECT MANAGER: The software people are on a hot track of a problem so it may be difficult to get them rest. I think we're kind of on the way to a normal recovery here. And I think we have a very good chance now that we'll have -- we'll have a very good rover when we get done getting this thing back up.
O'BRIEN (on camera): They are confident because unlike hardware, software can be fixed from the ground by sending up a patch. Still, the engineers here are being cautious. They say it will be at least three weeks before Spirit is rolling again. By that time, Opportunity should be exploring its crater as well.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 26, 2004 - 05:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well NASA has a second chance at MARS or a new "Opportunity," if you will. Opportunity, the second Mars rover, is sending a steady stream of pictures that is thrilling scientists back here on Earth.
CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the kind of opportunity the mission team dreamed of, a robot geologist smack dab in the middle of a crater on the surface of Mars, exposed rocks all around just waiting to tell their story.
STEVE SQUYRES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: What has happened is we have scored a 300 million mile interplanetary hole in one and we are actually inside a small impact crater.
O'BRIEN: Sixty feet across, six feet deep, the crater may offer nearly one-stop shopping for scientists on the rover opportunity team. All the features they could hope to explore may be right here, a dark surface possibly sprinkled with hematite, a mineral that may be a rosetta stone for ancient water, and an outcropping of rocks whose layers may be tantamount to pages in a martian history book.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: A white outcrop on the rim of the crater is a geologists treasure trove.
O'BRIEN: As it fell toward Mars, Opportunity snapped three images of the surface as it rose to meet it. This dot is the shadow of the parachute. Opportunity did not land in the large crater, but in another one somewhere in the bottom of this image. The soil appears to be very fine. Opportunity left distinct imprints as it bounced and retracted its airbag.
The landing site is on the opposite side of the planet from its twin, the Spirit rover, which landed three weeks ago and remains crippled while engineers troubleshoot what now appears to be a software glitch.
PETER THEISINGER, ROVER PROJECT MANAGER: The software people are on a hot track of a problem so it may be difficult to get them rest. I think we're kind of on the way to a normal recovery here. And I think we have a very good chance now that we'll have -- we'll have a very good rover when we get done getting this thing back up.
O'BRIEN (on camera): They are confident because unlike hardware, software can be fixed from the ground by sending up a patch. Still, the engineers here are being cautious. They say it will be at least three weeks before Spirit is rolling again. By that time, Opportunity should be exploring its crater as well.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
