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American Morning
Mars Movers
Aired February 17, 2004 - 09:22 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about space. The latest from mars now, where NASA's two rovers are reaching new heights in space exploration. Opportunity is digging for minerals that could indicate the presence of water. And Spirit has taken its longest trip on the Martian surface, 88 feet.
Joining us from Miami to talk about the activity on the Red Planet is Jack Horkheimer. He's the executive director of the Miami Planetarium.
Nice to see you again, Jack. Thanks for being with us.
JACK HORKHEIMER, EXEC. DIR., MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let talk a little bit about the Spirit first. The longest run so far, 88 feet, but actually fell far short of what the hopes were, something like 168 feet were hoped for. What exactly happened there?
HORKHEIMER: Well, that wasn't really a big deal. It's kind of like when you take a trip with your family and think you're going to make it 800 miles in two days, and then you see things of interest along the way, and so you stop and see a few attractions. That's basically what happened. They stopped and found some interesting rocks along the way, took a little longer than a anticipated to examine them, and then went further.
The goal now at the edge of this crater we want to reach is about a week or so, a week and a half away. It's about, oh, 1,100 feet away from the lander. We'll get there, but there's always that wonderful serendipity factor of finding unexpected things along the way you just have to look at them because you may not come this way again.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the wonderful, serendipitous things that have been discovered. I'm going to list some of the rocks, and I want you to explain the significance of them for me. There's one that's called "White Boat." What significance is that?
HORKHEIMER: Well it looks like kind of a little boat shaped thing. It's different. It has an entirely different shape than the rocks that are surrounding it in the field. So it has a different history. And when we examine that, we want to find out what the history is of that? What makes it different from the others? And why is it there? There are all kinds of other rocks, too, that are really fascinating.
O'BRIEN: How about "Flakey Mimi."
HORKHEIMER: That's my favorite.
O'BRIEN: OK, it's your favorite. Why do you like it so much? And what's significant about that?
HORKHEIMER: Well, I used to have a weird cat named Mimi, so flaky Mimi just kind of fits into my program.
O'BRIEN: Jack, I'm learning more and more weird stuff about each and every minute.
All right, outside of the weird cat name Mimi, what's the significance of Flaky Mimi, the rock?
HORKHEIMER: Well, it has layers, like layers of flakes. And we know that when we see rocks with layers that they were -- the layers were deposited in a couple of different ways possibly, like it could be deposited by different ways of volcanic ash, creating different layers, or by sand. There's lots of sandstorms on Mars, different sandstorms building up layers, or it could be deposited not only by wind moving sand, but by water moving different layers of sand, sedimentary rock. So we have these different possible processes, weather processes going on that could create these different kinds of rock. We're seeing much different kinds of things that we expected to see, and it's going to create a much bigger, more interesting picture after all the examination and analysis has been completed.
O'BRIEN: Much analysis going on right now, not only with the Spirit rover, but also with Opportunity as well, on the other side of the planet.
Nice to see you, Jack, as always. Thanks a lot.
HORKHEIMER: It's my pleasure. Keep looking up.
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 February 17, 2004 - 09:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about space. The latest from mars now, where NASA's two rovers are reaching new heights in space exploration. Opportunity is digging for minerals that could indicate the presence of water. And Spirit has taken its longest trip on the Martian surface, 88 feet.
Joining us from Miami to talk about the activity on the Red Planet is Jack Horkheimer. He's the executive director of the Miami Planetarium.
Nice to see you again, Jack. Thanks for being with us.
JACK HORKHEIMER, EXEC. DIR., MIAMI PLANETARIUM: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let talk a little bit about the Spirit first. The longest run so far, 88 feet, but actually fell far short of what the hopes were, something like 168 feet were hoped for. What exactly happened there?
HORKHEIMER: Well, that wasn't really a big deal. It's kind of like when you take a trip with your family and think you're going to make it 800 miles in two days, and then you see things of interest along the way, and so you stop and see a few attractions. That's basically what happened. They stopped and found some interesting rocks along the way, took a little longer than a anticipated to examine them, and then went further.
The goal now at the edge of this crater we want to reach is about a week or so, a week and a half away. It's about, oh, 1,100 feet away from the lander. We'll get there, but there's always that wonderful serendipity factor of finding unexpected things along the way you just have to look at them because you may not come this way again.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the wonderful, serendipitous things that have been discovered. I'm going to list some of the rocks, and I want you to explain the significance of them for me. There's one that's called "White Boat." What significance is that?
HORKHEIMER: Well it looks like kind of a little boat shaped thing. It's different. It has an entirely different shape than the rocks that are surrounding it in the field. So it has a different history. And when we examine that, we want to find out what the history is of that? What makes it different from the others? And why is it there? There are all kinds of other rocks, too, that are really fascinating.
O'BRIEN: How about "Flakey Mimi."
HORKHEIMER: That's my favorite.
O'BRIEN: OK, it's your favorite. Why do you like it so much? And what's significant about that?
HORKHEIMER: Well, I used to have a weird cat named Mimi, so flaky Mimi just kind of fits into my program.
O'BRIEN: Jack, I'm learning more and more weird stuff about each and every minute.
All right, outside of the weird cat name Mimi, what's the significance of Flaky Mimi, the rock?
HORKHEIMER: Well, it has layers, like layers of flakes. And we know that when we see rocks with layers that they were -- the layers were deposited in a couple of different ways possibly, like it could be deposited by different ways of volcanic ash, creating different layers, or by sand. There's lots of sandstorms on Mars, different sandstorms building up layers, or it could be deposited not only by wind moving sand, but by water moving different layers of sand, sedimentary rock. So we have these different possible processes, weather processes going on that could create these different kinds of rock. We're seeing much different kinds of things that we expected to see, and it's going to create a much bigger, more interesting picture after all the examination and analysis has been completed.
O'BRIEN: Much analysis going on right now, not only with the Spirit rover, but also with Opportunity as well, on the other side of the planet.
Nice to see you, Jack, as always. Thanks a lot.
HORKHEIMER: It's my pleasure. Keep looking up.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
