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American Morning
Another Sign From Mars That Spirit Alive and Kicking
Aired February 09, 2004 - 09:18 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: Another sign from Mars that the Spirit rover, once ailing, is now alive and kicking. The rover has drilled into its first hole, a rock on the planet's surface, into a rock that NASA, in fact, has named Adirondack.
What kind of information can NASA scientists learn from this latest maneuver?
Well, Denton Ebel is assistant curator of meteorites at the Museum of Natural History.
He joins us once again.
Nice to see you.
DENTON EBEL, ASSISTANT CURATOR, METEORITES, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Well, it's good to be back, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
The sample that they've taken is relative small. It's two inches across in diameter. It's sonly something like three millimeters deep. So pretty tiny.
What are they hoping to find by drilling into this rock?
EBEL: Well, this RAT, rock abrasion tone -- we know a lot about rats in New York -- this was actually developed here by Honeybee Robotics in Manhattan. And it, they wore away the rock because what we found last time we went to Mars, the only other rover that's ever been on Mars, Pathfinder, that the rocks were covered with a dust, a very fine dust. And to get through this dust and surface layers, yes, they drilled down to a flat surface and they're getting a spectroscopic measurement of the composition of the rock itself, not the dust.
O'BRIEN: So what are they hoping -- so you move, you get rid of all the dust.
EBEL: Get rid of all the dust.
O'BRIEN: You go inside. What are they hoping to find? I mean obviously we've talked time and time again about water and how much water. But can they figure out when water was last on the planet?
EBEL: Well, this rock is an igneous rock. It's a rock made of fire, like a volcanic rock you might find in Hawaii or on the ocean floor. And so these kinds of rocks tell about the history of Mars, the volcanic history. And Mars has had active volcanoes quite recently in its history.
O'BRIEN: Why did they name it Adirondack? I mean I thought that was kind of strange. And how do they go about picking it? Does the rover just sort of go out and pick a rock that it's going to pick or do the scientists very carefully select?
EBEL: The science team has carefully studied everything the rover saw, including the infrared images of heat radiated by the rocks as they cool in the evening. And it chose this rock because this is the first time we've ever looked at a rock in this way. This is the first hole ever drilled in the Martian surface, a rock or anything like that. Actually, it's the first hole drilled in a rock on Mars. And this rock was chosen because it has a very flat surface. The Adirondacks, of course, are mountains in northern New York that are very similar in many ways to the highlands of the moon and perhaps the highlands of Mars. We don't know that yet.
O'BRIEN: Is the sense now that the Spirit rover, a hundred percent, it's back?
EBEL: A hundred percent minus. We hope it's...
O'BRIEN: Now, that's a scientific answer.
EBEL: We hope...
O'BRIEN: What does that mean?
EBEL: Well, there's been, there have been a few plans for the rover that have been modified to make sure everything is tip top.
O'BRIEN: They're not going to, obviously, get back physical data.
EBEL: We're not getting back any rocks.
O'BRIEN: But what happens -- what does the rover do next?
EBEL: Well, this rover is going to start heading out towards a crater that's nearby because the other rover, its twin on the other side of Mars -- and these are both near the equator of Mars, both rovers, where there's lots of solar power -- they, the other rover, Opportunity, is right now poised to begin a similar chemical analysis, drilling into the rock of an outcrop of layered rock which is very interesting and very mysterious. We don't know what's in that rock.
O'BRIEN: We will see. We don't know what's in lots of air on Mars.
Denton Ebel, nice to see you.
Thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it. EBEL: A pleasure.
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 9, 2004 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another sign from Mars that the Spirit rover, once ailing, is now alive and kicking. The rover has drilled into its first hole, a rock on the planet's surface, into a rock that NASA, in fact, has named Adirondack.
What kind of information can NASA scientists learn from this latest maneuver?
Well, Denton Ebel is assistant curator of meteorites at the Museum of Natural History.
He joins us once again.
Nice to see you.
DENTON EBEL, ASSISTANT CURATOR, METEORITES, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Well, it's good to be back, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
The sample that they've taken is relative small. It's two inches across in diameter. It's sonly something like three millimeters deep. So pretty tiny.
What are they hoping to find by drilling into this rock?
EBEL: Well, this RAT, rock abrasion tone -- we know a lot about rats in New York -- this was actually developed here by Honeybee Robotics in Manhattan. And it, they wore away the rock because what we found last time we went to Mars, the only other rover that's ever been on Mars, Pathfinder, that the rocks were covered with a dust, a very fine dust. And to get through this dust and surface layers, yes, they drilled down to a flat surface and they're getting a spectroscopic measurement of the composition of the rock itself, not the dust.
O'BRIEN: So what are they hoping -- so you move, you get rid of all the dust.
EBEL: Get rid of all the dust.
O'BRIEN: You go inside. What are they hoping to find? I mean obviously we've talked time and time again about water and how much water. But can they figure out when water was last on the planet?
EBEL: Well, this rock is an igneous rock. It's a rock made of fire, like a volcanic rock you might find in Hawaii or on the ocean floor. And so these kinds of rocks tell about the history of Mars, the volcanic history. And Mars has had active volcanoes quite recently in its history.
O'BRIEN: Why did they name it Adirondack? I mean I thought that was kind of strange. And how do they go about picking it? Does the rover just sort of go out and pick a rock that it's going to pick or do the scientists very carefully select?
EBEL: The science team has carefully studied everything the rover saw, including the infrared images of heat radiated by the rocks as they cool in the evening. And it chose this rock because this is the first time we've ever looked at a rock in this way. This is the first hole ever drilled in the Martian surface, a rock or anything like that. Actually, it's the first hole drilled in a rock on Mars. And this rock was chosen because it has a very flat surface. The Adirondacks, of course, are mountains in northern New York that are very similar in many ways to the highlands of the moon and perhaps the highlands of Mars. We don't know that yet.
O'BRIEN: Is the sense now that the Spirit rover, a hundred percent, it's back?
EBEL: A hundred percent minus. We hope it's...
O'BRIEN: Now, that's a scientific answer.
EBEL: We hope...
O'BRIEN: What does that mean?
EBEL: Well, there's been, there have been a few plans for the rover that have been modified to make sure everything is tip top.
O'BRIEN: They're not going to, obviously, get back physical data.
EBEL: We're not getting back any rocks.
O'BRIEN: But what happens -- what does the rover do next?
EBEL: Well, this rover is going to start heading out towards a crater that's nearby because the other rover, its twin on the other side of Mars -- and these are both near the equator of Mars, both rovers, where there's lots of solar power -- they, the other rover, Opportunity, is right now poised to begin a similar chemical analysis, drilling into the rock of an outcrop of layered rock which is very interesting and very mysterious. We don't know what's in that rock.
O'BRIEN: We will see. We don't know what's in lots of air on Mars.
Denton Ebel, nice to see you.
Thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it. EBEL: A pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
