spacetoday.net: special section: Mars: "Rover roll-off to be delayed a few days
Posted: Thu, Jan 8 12:06 PM ET (1706 GMT)
Officials with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project said that the 'roll-off' of the rover Spirit from its lander will be delayed a few days to deal with some minor technical issues with the spacecraft. Roll-off of Spirit, originally planned for the beginning of next week, will now be delayed until no earlier than January 14. The extra time is needed to work on a few issues, such as retraction a portion of deflated airbag material that is in the way of where Spirit will move off the lander. Controllers are planning a 'lift and tuck' maneuver where one petal of the lander is raised slightly, allowing the airbag material to be retracted before the petal is lowered again. Scientists are using the time to continue their analysis of images from the lander, and some have concluded that the Gusev Crater region may not have been an ancient lakebed as previously thought. The gently rolling terrain and relatively coarse soil is not what scientists would have expected in a lakebed, one scientist noted, although the material may have been 'chewed up' by impacts."