Daily Updates - March 15, 2004
Spirit Status at end of sol 70
Spirit began what would be a very busy sol 70, which ended at 3:47 a.m. PST March 15, by analyzing a soil target dubbed "Gobi 1" with the Moessbauer spectrometer. This was the first of 43 observations that Spirit would complete on sol 70, breaking the previous observation record of 31 observations in one sol.
After the successful Moessbauer integration, Spirit took panoramic camera images of the sky. Then the miniature thermal emission spectrometer analyzed rock and soil targets. Following this, Spirit turned its panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer to a range surface and atmospheric observations. Before the sol ended, Spirit also took microscopic images of the Moessbauer footprint left on the soil target and switched instruments to the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for a long integration starting early on sol 71 at the "Gobi 1" location.
Spirit will spend Sol 71, which will end at 4:26 a.m. PST March 16, completing the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer analysis, taking panoramic camera images and microscopic imager images of the area, and then driving 15 meters (49.2 feet) to a location dubbed "Serpent Dune" in the afternoon.
Spirit Daily Update Archive