spacetoday.net: Opportunity returns new images as Spirit condition improves

Posted: Tue, Jan 27, 2004, 10:12 AM ET (1512 GMT)
Mars Exploration Rover (NASA/JPL)

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity returned new images of its landing site on Monday while engineers made progress reviving its twin, Spirit, on the other side of the planet. Scientists on Monday released a "postcard" mosaic of 24 color images taken by Opportunity, showing details of its landing site, a small crater. The spacecraft itself is in good condition, and controllers plan to set up the rover's high-gain antenna on Tuesday to permit it to transmit data directly with Earth at high data rates. Meanwhile, project officials said Monday that they had made progress resolving the computer problems that have kept Spirit from operating normally since late last week. Engineers believe that a large number of data files stored on the rover's flash memory unit may have led to the recent problems. They plan to issue commands to erase those data files as part of efforts to revive the rover.