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Projects: Red Rover Goes to MarsStudent Astronaut Susini de Silva
Spirit Sol 7Saturday, January 10, 2004 Right now I'm right here in The Planetary Society, a place where you can see a lot of planetary stuff. Just when I walked in opening the door there was the panorama of Gusev Crater taken by Spirit! I met Louis Friedman in there. He's a person with a lot of enthusiasm for Mars and Space exploration. Everyone out here is quite friendly and welcoming. Actually this isn't what I've been imagining as The Planetary Society. But this place is very calm and relaxing and cool. After the lunch Emily (The Science & Technology Coordinator for The Planetary Society) drove Tomas and myself to JPL for a tour. We first went into our office cubicle and spent a very little time doing some web research. Then we browsed around the rest of the facility. We visited the Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) meeting room, Science Assessment room, and a place where they have a test rover of actual size. And of course to the gift shop where bought some souvenirs. This is getting cool!!! On our way we met several people who work on the project and we've been introduced to them as "the new pair of Student Astronauts". They all seemed such nice people and willing to help us a lot. Anyway there weren't many scientists around at that time of our tour. But when we returned to JPL at midnight it was already crowded. As soon as we returned we had to attend a Science Assessment meeting. They were having it on geology and there had been discussions about what'll be the best direction for the Rover to go. One of the Scientists mentioned that we have to "figure out the best way to get the most of a traverse" (a move across the surface). Yes, that's obviously important when you a have a very limited time to spend on Mars. It was really interesting to watch the scientists giving out their marvelous opinions. They had different opinions but they all wanted to build up single idea combining them all. We also were able to take look at an image of the landing site through 3D glasses. The meeting lasted for about an hour and then we had the chance to move around a bit and get introduced to the scientists over there. Although they're on a duty where have loads of responsibilities, it seemed that they too are simple people (specially with a good sense of humor). The meeting room consists of several different groups such as Atmospheric Science, Mineralogy, Geology, Long term planning, etc. We walked around each section listening to some of their discussions (mostly on the geology of the site - Gusev Crater.) When the meeting was over we came back to the Red Rover Goes to Mars office cubicle and here I am writing my fantastic journal of the day. Tomas had brought a beautifully painted fan to represent Spain and I brought a small-decorated Elephant, which is a main attraction of a famous parade held in Sri Lanka, to keep in our office. So I'm looking forward to a more exciting week ahead. There's obviously no doubt about that. Spirit Sol 8Sunday, January 11, 2004 Today Tomas and I arrived at JPL at 00:45. The high school teacher Joe Oliver was accompanying us today. This is the first time we met him and of course he is a very nice person. As usual we came to our office cubicle and before anything else we went straight into the Student Astronaut web site to take a look at our very first journals posted on there. Then we started with making a color image of the sundial and then moved on to some sundial image calibrating. At about 1:40 a.m. we went into the Science Assessment meeting room because a meeting was due around that time. But to our surprise there was no sign of getting a Science Assessment meeting started. So we kept hanging around the room for about 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile we walked up to each science group and listened to their discussions. Some discussions that I heard were based on the sequences, which might be activated after the egression. (That's when the rover gets its wheels on soil.) We also saw some very large images taken around the landing site. Anyway we decided to go back to the office and continue with the calibrating process, instead of just wandering around here. After a while we came back to check out whether anything has started yet. But again answer was "no". It really was a bit upsetting to know that there will be no Science Assessment meeting. But wait; there was unexpected good news. They have included a Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) meeting to today's schedule and that was supposed to start around 3:00 a.m. So we went straight to the SOWG meeting room at 2:56. And YES! They've started it. This was our first experience of a SOWG meeting. They discussed about what they're going to do after the egression. There were some very interesting arguments on several particular sequences. It seems that the Rover is going to egress in the next few days. That's great!! I just can't wait to see how thing are going to progress after the rover gets its wheels on Mars. Some of the most interesting instruments like the spectrometers and the microscopic imager could carry on their job on Martian rocks only after the egression. This meeting ended at about 3:36 a.m. and we got back to the office to complete the journals. After all I believe we had a fine day today. I'll be back for more fun tomorrow. Spirit Sol 9Monday, January 12, 2004 We arrived at JPL at 1:15 a.m. Today we're supposed to be working with Mr. K. J. Walsh. We started by calibrating color images of the Mars sundial, and it went absolutely fine. It was more interesting to work with color than with black n' whites. Then did some calibrating for several more sundial images taken through different panoramic camera filters. After playing a little with images it was time for a Science Assessment meeting. We were there at 1:25 a.m. and they've been discussing on what science activities should be taken place after egress. They had to be extremely responsible with this kind of stuff. It was emphasized by something that one of the scientists mentioned in midst of a discussion on a certain activity. He said, "Once we got this plan in, we're not going to modify it. So make sure you do the most appropriate!" They were also talking about what the next couple of SOWG meetings are going to be on. It was over after a while and we just roamed around the room just to check out what might be going on among each science group. Then we came back to the office and carried on with more calibrating. And K. J. showed us some cool magic with the software "Image J". We'd better try those when we have a free time. Then it was time to go back to a SOWG meeting. We got in at 4:24 a.m. It was already started. And at about 4:34 a.m. Steve Squyres announced they're going to end the Meeting! I could hardly believe it. We could only be there for 10 minutes, which definitely is not enough! Actually we're having a small trouble managing with the Mars time and the time for the next meeting is usually announced in Mars time. This is why we missed the meeting. However today's discussion on SOWG was also on planning the sequences for sols after egress. It's likely for them to continue this topic until the Rover egresses. So finally we got back to the RRGtM office to complete today's journals. We'll be leaving in 15 minutes. To conclude, I honestly have to say today wasn't all that fun for some reason. Perhaps it shows that science isn't always fun and exciting, and some days are just hard work! But it was pretty much better than a usual day at home. Looking forward to a great day ahead. Now you'd better go check out The Planetary Society web site for Mars Exploration Rovers and perhaps you'd catch up a lot more about what's going on at the moment. Spirit Sol 10Tuesday, January 13, 2004 Today we walked in at 4:30 a.m. Of course this is a little change in our shift time. The scientists work 9.5-hour shifts while we work 5.5-hour shifts. Usually we work at the beginning of that 9.5-hour shift. This time it has been squeezed in at the end. That's why we're starting in a sort of regular hour today. But soon we'll start at midnight once again. Already guessed why? OH·YES, it's Egress!!! The rover is possibly going to egress the day after tomorrow. I'm sure that's going to be so very cool and exiting. Today has been a pretty interesting day. We went into the SOWG meeting at 4:50 where they just started planning sol 13. After that we went back to the RRGTM office cubicle, spent a while working on the MarsDial processing, and came down to the Science Assessment meeting. There were a very few people in there at this late time in the shift. Most of them are very tired and have left for homes by this time (it was 7:30 am). We just passed a 12-hour separation between Mars (Gusev Crater) time and Earth time. [That is, when it was 5 am in Pasadena, it was 5 pm in Gusev Crater.] That's an interesting consequence when we talk about our time difference. Then we had an opportunity to take a look at cool new images from Mars. One image really was something to pay attention to, because it showed some strange geological features which we thought could have been created by wind. Anyway, everyone at the mission control is so exited about the egress that is supposed to take place the day after tomorrow. You must probably be aware that the egress was being delayed due to airbags standing in its way. But now they've successfully turned [the rover] by 120 degrees and have already cut off the final cable that connected the rover to the lander. Now the rover is free to walk off to Mars. I just can't wait for egress. It's likely to be my greatest day at JPL. Spirit Sol 11Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Today we started by attending a Science Context meeting, which started at about 12:10 Pacific Time. They discussed further more science planning for sol 13, and also displayed a summarized plan of what activity is likely to take place from sol 11 to sol 14. Anyway, the egress did not take place tonight but might happen on tomorrow night. Let's look forward to it. So after the egress they have to check out the IDD (Instrument Deployment Device) and then after that they may start driving. They would like to drive to some interesting places within the field of view such as the Sleepy Hollow, which is at the North West (about 200m away), the crater which lies to the North East of the lander, and the Northern Hill complex. They also talked about being able to look at some light and dark rocks lying on the path to these targets. The most interesting of today's work so far is the visit to the mission control. It was a great opportunity. That's a place where lots of engineers, not scientists, work. A person from NASA headquarters guided Tomas and me to the mission control. He explained to us what each section was doing. And he mentioned that the command for the rover to make its final turn for the egress has just been sent and now they're awaiting the signal that the turn was successful. He said that'd be received in an hour or so. The telecommunication control is completely done right in here. He showed us the people who are directly engaged in sending the commands to the rover. And then we were taken to the Pancam team room. This is where the Pancam images are colorized and combined to make gorgeous panoramas of the surroundings. Then we came back to the Science Assessment meeting room where we began wandering around in order to find something interesting to look at. We noticed one image on one of the computers had some colors drawn on some of the rocks. We just asked the scientist who was working on it why it was so. And he said they're trying to classify the rocks according to what they look like. For an example, some rocks are smooth surfaced and shaped up with sharp ridges at the top, while some are cracked up. Different effects of weathering might cause these different features. So when these two kinds are marked in two colors it's easy to spot out their patterns and distribution. So that it makes it easier for them to see what kind of weathering affected each area. This process will take time before it's finished. While wandering around in the Science Assessment meeting room we met three more students, and they said that they're here to work with the atmospheric group relevant to subjects like the temperature of the atmosphere near the surface. Spirit Sol 12Thursday, January 15, 2004 What should I say? We had the egress today. And it all went It was announced that the go ahead command was sent at 1:00 a.m. pacific time. Now we had to wait until the signal (the beep) that the egress was a success. And then we waited and waited and waited. Well it wasn't that long, probably 20 minutes or so, but to me it felt like the time is not going. Finally it did!!! At that very moment they displayed a video of how the egress of the actual rover must have happened using the modal rover inside JPL. This video clip actually showed the full process of the egress including the turnings the rover took. Then it was time to wait for the very first image. We were getting so nervous. Just imagine! These are going to be the first images that'll be taken after the rover is physically landed on Mars. So far, it was staying about 40cm above the surface. Of course after we got the first hazcam image, everyone around started clapping and cheering. And all the scientists and engineers were looking extremely delighted. Before the image was displayed to everyone, they played the song "Who let the dogs out?" And I think I saw some of the engineers and scientists slightly rocking to the rhythm. After displaying the first hazcam images there came another hazcam image, navcam image, and a mosaic image of the rover taken by the navcams from above. Each image filled up the surrounding with more cheers and clapping. Finally, we got the image that the rover has taken looking back at the lander. This one showed the wheel tracks. That proves that we've got the six wheels on Mars at last. This made the loudest cheering inside the room. The scientists and engineers started hugging and cheering. And the mission manager Jennifer Tropser was warmly congratulated with a bunch of flowers. There is a thing that Steve Squyres mentioned that made sense to me. As he said "This is a night that's significant for all of us." Of course it has been terrific!!! It took about an hour and a half to receive all data. The rover ended up about 80 cm away from the lander. It is believed that we're on a generally flat area. It's not going to drive right away but might take three or four days for the IDD (Instrument Deployment Device) check out. Anyway the principal investigator for the science instrument package presented a briefing of what they should be doing now. Some short term planning for the next 2 weeks after egress was presented. The scientists may now start characterizing the geological diversity of the site using all tools on board. Actually after the IDD deployment they might continue with several things like taking pancam images of the Rock Abrasion Tool and taking several Microscopic images. However it is likely that they may choose the pyramid shaped, smooth surfaced rock right in front of the rover as its first rock target. Then they may drive ahead towards the Sleepy Hollow to take some measurements on soil. About an hour ago there was a press conference where the mission managers praised the whole mission team. After the press conference we left back to the office to complete the journals. Now we'll have to go down for another Science Assessment meeting. I'm sure that's going to be very interesting. After all Spirit is unbelievably a success so far and today I guess is one of the most important points. I'm still so very excited about this and I feel Tomas and I are very much lucky to be here today. Spirit Sol 13Friday, January 16, 2004 Yesterday (15th January) Tomas and I went for a TV show called "Homework Hotline"; a show hosted by K.J. (one of our teachers) and did a live show! I've done one live TV show in Sri Lanka and this is my second one. We had to talk about The Planetary Society, the Red Rover Goes to Mars project, and the Mars Exploration Rover and about our experience in JPL during the egress of the rover. Tomas and I had to point out where each instrument is located and introduce them. Then we moved on to geology, because the Mars Exploration Rover mission is really a geology mission. (The rovers are mainly looking for geological features that might hint about any past water existence). So K.J did some explanation about how weathering creates different types of landscapes. He also made an interesting discussion on the how the geological features that we see on the Spirit panorama must have occurred. Then we helped K.J. with a small experiment to identify carbonate minerals. Identifying carbonates is important when we search for clues of water because carbonates can be made when carbon dioxide interacts with water. As we know the Mars atmosphere contains a lot of carbon dioxide. So if we found carbonates out there on Mars it might suggest that water existed. We also took a large a 3D panorama and a normal one taken by Navcams of the rover and K.J explained the science of 3D. That was fun! Abigail, the Student Astronaut from Washington D.C. arrived today and she also did a recording for "Homework Hotline". On Saturday Abigail, Shih-Han, Tomas and I will be having another program called "Passport to Knowledge" at JPL. First thing today was a Science Context meeting. They showed a brief schedule of what's going to take place during the next few sols. They discussed dates for the rover "stand down." That means it won't have much activity while Opportunity is landing. They had further discussions on interesting targets for the rover. One of the scientists talked about the Pancam spectroscopy. Another person presented a characterization of rock around the rover. This is the same colored characterization that I mentioned in one of my earlier journals. They have already deployed the IDD and we've got an image of it taken through front Hazcam. They have placed it on a certain soil target and they might use Microscopic Imager, Mossbauer spectrometer and APXS spectrometer (Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer) on the soil during the upcoming sols. Today we also saw some of first Pancam images that were taken after egress. It showed up several interesting rocks with holes filled with dust. Of course it would be better if you could sweep off the dust and try some measurements on those. There is a brush in RAT (Rock Abrasion Tool), but this alone might not be able to remove such a dust deposition. So they might sometimes do grinding as well. Anyway we're going to make a sundial animation today and we just came back from the Pancam room after taking some advise from Jim Bell. On our way back we just stepped into 5th floor to grab some ice cream! And it's free, thanks to NASA. It's fun to have some ice cream at JPL. I have to finish the journal now and get back to Science Assessment meeting. Today was a very interesting day. We'll meet the new Student Astronauts tomorrow. Spirit Sol 14Saturday, January 17, 2004 Today is the last day Tomas and I will be working in JPL. And today is the first day for the new Student Astronauts; Abby and Shih-Han. They're both very friendly but unfortunately today is the last day we'll see them. Abby brought a beautiful quilt to represent USA and Shih-Han brought a nice three-color glazed ware to represent Taiwan. As the first thing we went to the Science Assessment meeting room although there wasn't any meeting at the time. We hung around a bit and looked at the new images, and showed Abby and Shih-Han around. Then we came back to the office to hand over the MarsDial software to Abby and Shih-Han. They caught on to it easily. Then at 06:37 PST there was a Science Down Link Assessment meeting and it ended at 07:25 PST. By now they've got more Hazcam images of the IDD (Instrument Deployment Device) so that it's easier for them to plan the driving. Anyway they're thinking about going to the pyramid-shaped rock right in front which is called "Adirondack". They think it's interesting to take measurements on it. But they're still discussing where to set the stand down which might probably be on 21st sol. Of course it has to be a place that you can do a lot of research on. Some of them think Sleepy Hollow is interesting. Well it really is, as it also has a fine thick layer of soil out there. But it's a little hard to get over because in between where they stand now and Sleepy Hollow there is a small crater-like feature. So they'd have to drive around there. Today they announced the very first measurements of the Moessbauer Spectrometer. As you know this instrument was expected to be a little problematic, but fortunately it is reported that it still works perfect. That's good news. At the meeting they showed the presence of iron ions that was measured using graphs. They also have an idea to study the ripples on the surface that show dark and light sides. But this came up while they were discussing the plan for the sol 15. However there hasn't been an experiment on a rock so far. Perhaps they'll choose "Adirondack" for this. As Steve Squyres said today, the first interaction with a rock has to be a very careful one. At the end of the meeting we returned to the office and Tomas and I made a cool animation of the movement of the shadow cast by the gnomon on sundial. Then we started writing our last journal. In one hours time we'll be going down to the Von Karman auditorium for a TV show called "Passport to Knowledge". I'll be leaving US in 13 hours. I wonder if I'll ever forget this experience. I just can't imagine why time runs so fast inside JPL. I mean we've been working here for 10 days, but it feels like only two days! All the 10 shifts for Tomas and I were around midnight. That's because we had to work according to Mars Time! I'm quite adjusted to this Martian day by now. But oops! I think I'd better get back to Earth soon. Otherwise I can imagine myself going to school at 8:00 a.m. on Mars Time!!! Anyway I'd like say a big "thank you" to everyone at The Planetary Society and JPL. They all have been very nice and helpful. So I wish best of luck for Abby and Shih-Han! (Thumbs up!!) You'll be hearing from them during the upcoming days. I'm sure they're going to have an excellent time over here. |
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