PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
July 5, 1997
12:00 Noon Pacific Daylight Time
After receiving hundreds of new images of a boulder-strewn outflow channel known as Ares Vallis, NASA's Mars Pathfinder flight team spent the rest of Sol 1 - the equivalent of one day on Mars - rearranging an airbag that was covering the edge of the rover's petal so that the hearty, 23-pound vehicle can safely roll off its ramp later this afternoon.

The rover team decided last night to conduct further airbag retraction after studying the first set of black-and-white images to be returned via Pathfinder's high-gain antenna. A new software sequence was prepared and tested prior to transmission at 7:08 p.m. PDT. The command instructed the lander to pull the obstructed petal up about 45 degrees, further retract the airbag underneath the petal, then lay the petal down again. Data later in the evening indicated that the maneuver had been successful in clearing the airbag from the edge of the rover's petal.

Before Earth set on Mars at about 10:30 p.m. PDT, telecommunications engineers reported that Sojourner, which is programmed to communicate with the lander as frequently as every 10 minutes, was not "completing full sentences" in its transmissions to the lander. Dr. Jacob Matijevic, rover team leader, said at a 10 a.m. PDT press briefing today that the problem is most likely a software synchronization problem between the rover and lander. The team will conduct a brief communications session at 1 p.m. PDT to reset some of the modem parameters on the rover.

Meanwhile, the team was still waiting to learn if a sent of commands set last night to deploy the second ramp and unlatch the rover had been carried out. They expected confirmation one way or the other during the next high-gain antenna downlink session at 3:20 p.m. PDT today. Once the ramp has been unfurled, the rover will stand up to its full height of 1-foot tall and roll off the forward ramp. The rover team reported today that the front ramp appears to be the safest exit route because there are fewer rocks at the end of the ramp. Sojourner will not be deployed until about 7:40 p.m. and will spend about five minutes driving off its ramp.

Scientists spent several hours last night comparing the landing site to Viking images of the region. Dr. Peter Smith, principal investigator on the lander camera team, said the lander is about 32 kilometers (20 miles) from a large mountain peak and within about 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) of the rim of a crater believed to be at least several miles in diameter. Dr. Matthew Golombek, Mars Pathfinder project scientist, added that two rocks in the immediate vicinity of the lander had been singled out as the first targets for the rover's travels, based on their varying colors and shapes, which may suggest different origins and compositions.

Earth rise over Mars - which brings Earth into the proper alignment for communications with the Pathfinder lander and rover - began at 10:08 a.m. PDT today. The operations team has about 11 hours in which to conduct surface operations during this second day of Mars exploration. A press briefing to update the day's events will be held at 5 p.m. PDT and a final, wrap-up briefing will be held at 9 p.m. PDT. Both will be carried on NASA TV, which is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MGz and audio of 6.8 MHz.

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