QUESTION:
When can we expect to see the first picture from the surface of Mars and who
will be taking it, the lander camera or the rover? (Please give us PDT/EDT).

ANSWER from William Dias:
First we take some science images which are important for recording the
state of the magnetic targets as early as possible in the mission. These are
not downlinked right away. Then we take the ramp deploy pan to see which
direction we want to deploy the ramps, and downlink it immediately. The
resolution will be probably poor, but it will be interesting, including
rover, lander parts, airbags, and of course terrain. Then we take a
good-resolution 3-color pan of lander, rover, and terrain and send it right
after. The lander camera works nearly all day the first sol, and we deploy
the camera mast at sunset. The rover takes a lot less pictures, but we do
get pictures of the soil, and the lander the first sol. But they aren't
downlinked until very late on the first sol and could easily be delayed
until the second sol.

                            Acquire    See First Picture
                           (EDT/PDT)       (EDT/PDT)

Rover Ramp Deploy Pan     20:00/17:00     21:30/18:30
(B&W)

Mission Success Pan       20:20/17:20     22:00/19:00
(Color)

Pictures by Sojourner     00:15/21:15     01:45/22:45
(B&W)

Pictures by Sojourner     00:40/21:40   Perhaps on sol 2
(Color)                                    (7/7/97)

One caveat is, since the spacecraft has the ability to generate some
high-priority telemetry autonomously, planned image downlink can be
interrupted and the exact arrival time of each image cannot be forecasted.

--William Dias, Surface Mission Operations Planner