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CNN Sunday Morning
Second Rover Lands on Mars
Aired January 25, 2004 - 08:01 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And we begin this hour 100 million miles in space. NASA's second Mars rover opportunity has landed on the other side of the Red Planet from its twin rover, Spirit.
Space correspondent Miles O'Brien is with NASA engineers at the jet propulsion lab in California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the second time in three weeks, NASA got a good bounce in an unforgiving place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on Mars, everybody.
O'BRIEN: Robotically, at least. After a journey of 300 million miles, the rover opportunity knocked on Mars' doorstep, hitting the ground only 15 miles from a bull's-eye. And within hours it was sending back proof it had arrived in a Mars we have never seen before.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: What a night.
(LAUGHTER)
O'KEEFE: I mean, as the old saying goes, it's far better to be lucky than good. But you know, the harder we work, the luckier we seem to get.
O'BRIEN: Opportunity is the identical twin of the crippled Spirit rover, but has landed in a very different place called the Meridiani Planum. Nearly free of dust and rocks, the plane brims with outcroppings and hematite, a semi precious mineral that could be a Rosetta stone in the hunt for ancient water, and thus life.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: We are going to be minerals streaming at us. We see outcrops directly there. There's at least two different geologic units, if not more, as well as the soils at the site. This is just target rich for geologic investigations.
O'BRIEN: The successful landing comes after yet another improbable and yet flawless arrival on Mars. Using a heat shield, parachute, breaking rockets and air bags, the rover slowed from 16,000 miles an hour to zero in less than six minutes. Then after bouncing along the surface, emerged from its cocoon, righted itself, and got down to business, taking pictures of its new home.
STEVE AQUYRUS, NASA SCIENTIST: I am flabbergasted. I'm astonished. I'm blown away. Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre alien landscape.
O'BRIEN: Opportunity's arrival comes as the engineering team works to revive the Spirit rover, which mysteriously conked out on Wednesday. The team now believes the problem is in the computer's flash memory. They've devised a way to bypass the memory so that Spirit will stop constantly rebooting and will go to sleep at night. They are increasingly optimistic it will be roving and researching in a few weeks.
ED WEILER, NASA: I came here prepared for a funeral, basically. And instead, in the last 48 hours, talk about a roller coaster ride. We resurrected one rover and we saw the birth of another today.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Engineers here were worried in a worst-case scenario they'd be fighting a two-front technical battle on Mars. Instead, now they're making plans for the possibility of having two rovers running around the clock.
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 25, 2004 - 08:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And we begin this hour 100 million miles in space. NASA's second Mars rover opportunity has landed on the other side of the Red Planet from its twin rover, Spirit.
Space correspondent Miles O'Brien is with NASA engineers at the jet propulsion lab in California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the second time in three weeks, NASA got a good bounce in an unforgiving place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on Mars, everybody.
O'BRIEN: Robotically, at least. After a journey of 300 million miles, the rover opportunity knocked on Mars' doorstep, hitting the ground only 15 miles from a bull's-eye. And within hours it was sending back proof it had arrived in a Mars we have never seen before.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: What a night.
(LAUGHTER)
O'KEEFE: I mean, as the old saying goes, it's far better to be lucky than good. But you know, the harder we work, the luckier we seem to get.
O'BRIEN: Opportunity is the identical twin of the crippled Spirit rover, but has landed in a very different place called the Meridiani Planum. Nearly free of dust and rocks, the plane brims with outcroppings and hematite, a semi precious mineral that could be a Rosetta stone in the hunt for ancient water, and thus life.
MATT GOLOMBEK, NASA SCIENTIST: We are going to be minerals streaming at us. We see outcrops directly there. There's at least two different geologic units, if not more, as well as the soils at the site. This is just target rich for geologic investigations.
O'BRIEN: The successful landing comes after yet another improbable and yet flawless arrival on Mars. Using a heat shield, parachute, breaking rockets and air bags, the rover slowed from 16,000 miles an hour to zero in less than six minutes. Then after bouncing along the surface, emerged from its cocoon, righted itself, and got down to business, taking pictures of its new home.
STEVE AQUYRUS, NASA SCIENTIST: I am flabbergasted. I'm astonished. I'm blown away. Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre alien landscape.
O'BRIEN: Opportunity's arrival comes as the engineering team works to revive the Spirit rover, which mysteriously conked out on Wednesday. The team now believes the problem is in the computer's flash memory. They've devised a way to bypass the memory so that Spirit will stop constantly rebooting and will go to sleep at night. They are increasingly optimistic it will be roving and researching in a few weeks.
ED WEILER, NASA: I came here prepared for a funeral, basically. And instead, in the last 48 hours, talk about a roller coaster ride. We resurrected one rover and we saw the birth of another today.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Engineers here were worried in a worst-case scenario they'd be fighting a two-front technical battle on Mars. Instead, now they're making plans for the possibility of having two rovers running around the clock.
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
