199 Seeing Mars With New Eyes: Active Missions, Science Results, and Geoscience Education

Wednesday, 10 November 2004
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS FROM THE MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION

Paper number: 199-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been conducting geologic exploration of the martian surface since January, 2004. Spirit landed at Gusev Crater, and for the first 160 sols of its mission it explored the basalt-covered plains of the crater floor. After a traverse of over 3 km, Spirit arrived at the Columbia Hills, where it will search for evidence of ancient aqueous activity.

Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum, where it has found evidence for substantial ancient aqueous activity in the form of thick evaporitic deposits and hematite-rich concretions. Exploration of Endurance Crater by Opportunity has produced the first detailed description of a stratigraphic section on Mars.

This presentation will summarize the scientific results of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, including the most recent data from both rovers.