windprofile_sol82.jpg

This set of images shows the Pathfinder wind socks on the morning of Sol 82 (September 25). The top frames show the upper and middle sock and the bottom frames show the middle and lower socks. Movement of the lower and middle sock is apparent. Deflections of the three wind socks are used to estimate characteristics of the wind speed boundary layer profile.

windsock_sol80_th.jpg

This set of images shows the Pathfinder upper wind sock during two time periods on the morning of Sol 80 (September 23). The interval between frames within each sequence is one second. There is no obvious movement of the sock, indicating little or no wind at this elevation (about 1 meter above the surface). At other times during the mission, deflections of this and two lower wind socks have been used to estimate characteristics of the wind speed boundary layer profile.

windsock_sol79_th.jpg

This sequence of images shows the Pathfinder upper wind sock on the morning of Sol 79 (September 22). The interval between frames is seven seconds. As in the images posted on the web for Sol 73, there is no obvious movement of the sock, indicating little or no wind at this elevation (about 1 meter above the surface). At other times during the mission, deflections of this and two lower wind socks have been used to estimate characteristics of the wind speed boundary layer profile.

windsock_sol73.jpg

This sequence of images shows the Pathfinder upper wind sock on the morning of Sol 73 (September 16). The interval between frames is seven seconds. There is no obvious movement of the sock, indicating little or no wind at this elevation (about 1 meter above the surface). At other times during the mission, deflections of this and two lower wind socks have been used to estimate characteristics of the wind speed boundary layer profile.

MARS PATHFINDER MISSION STATUS
26 September 1997, 3:00 a.m. PDT

The Earth rose over Mars this morning at 4:00 p.m. PDT and the Sun rose at 6:30 p.m. PDT.

The data received during our 2.5 hour transmit session indicated that the spacecraft and rover are in good health. We received less data than expected from the deep space station located in Canberra Australia due to bad weather. Although we expected to drive the rover today, we were not able to do so due to critical Mars Global Surveyor operations which occurred at the same time and required extra DSN support.

So, we contacted the spacecraft after it woke up at 3:00 p.m. PDT, made sure it was healthy and then verified that the expected super resolution imaging data and ASI/MET measurements were being collected.

We played the rover wakeup song Slud by Jive of Clay, reminding us of what the area near our landing site was like 4.5 billion years ago. Earth set on Mars will be at 4:45 am and the Sun will set at 6:30 a.m. PDT on September 26th.

The spacecraft will sleep from 5:17 a.m. and until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow PDT. We should receive data from the spacecraft from between 10:00 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. this time tomorrow. We are planning for the rover to drive towards toward Mermaid Dune.

For further information on the Mars Pathfinder Mission, please call our Mission Status Report line at 1-800-391-6654.