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Overview of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover Mission to Gusev Crater: Landing Site to Backstay Rock in the Columbia HillsSpirit landed on the floor of Gusev Crater and conducted initial operations on soil covered, rock-strewn cratered plains underlain by olivine-bearing basalts. Plains surface rocks are covered by wind-blown dust and show evidence for surface enrichment of soluble species as vein and void-filling materials and coatings. The surface enrichment is the result of a minor amount of transport and deposition by aqueous processes. Layered granular deposits were discovered in the Columbia Hills, with outcrops that tend to dip conformably with the topography. The granular rocks are interpreted to be volcanic ash and/or impact ejecta deposits that have been modified by aqueous fluids during and/or after emplacement. Soils consist of basaltic deposits that are weakly cohesive, relatively poorly sorted, and covered by a veneer of wind blown dust. The soils have been homogenized by wind transport over at least the several kilometer length scale traversed by the rover. Mobilization of soluble species has occurred within at least two soil deposits examined. The presence of mono-layers of coarse sand on wind-blown bedforms, together with even spacing of granule-sized surface clasts, suggest that some of the soil surfaces encountered by Spirit have not been modified by wind for some time. On the other hand, dust deposits on the surface and rover deck have changed during the course of the mission. Detection of dust devils, monitoring of the dust opacity and lower boundary layer, and coordinated experiments with orbiters provided new insights into atmosphere-surface dynamics.
Document ID
20080026038
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Arvidson, R. E. (Washington Univ. Saint Louis, MO, United States)
Squyres, S. W, (Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Anderson, R. C. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Bell, J. F., III (Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Blaney, D. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Brueckner, J. (Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Chemie Mainz, Germany)
Cabrol, N. A. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Calvin, W. M. (Nevada Univ. Reno, NV, United States)
Carr, M. H. (Geological Survey Menlo Park, CA, United States)
Christensen, P. R. (Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Clark, B. C. (Lockheed Martin Corp. Littleton, CO, United States)
Crumpler, L. (Museum of Natural History Albuquerque, NM, United States)
Des Marais, D. J. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
deSouza, P. A., Jr. (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
d'Uston, C. (Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements Toulouse, France)
Economou, T. (Chicago Univ. Chicago, IL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2005
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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