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NASA Readies Rover to Explore Martian Surface
David McAlary
Washington
The U.S. Mars rover has made its first movement more than a week after landing.
Mission controllers say it is ready to crawl onto the red planet's soil late
Wednesday or early Thursday.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California used an explosive charge
to cut the last of three restraining cables and commanded the Spirit rover to
back up 25 centimeters on its landing platform.
They also began turning the six-wheeled vehicle toward the exit path that it
will follow over the side of the lander.
"Spirit is a rover!" said Chris Lewicki, one of the flight directors
for the Spirit mission. "The engineering team is elated that we are driving
finally. We have cut our ties loose and we are ready to rove."
Engineers must turn the rover another 75 degrees before it drives three meters
off the lander onto Martian soil. The turns are required because the preferred
pathway down a front ramp is partially blocked by airbags that cushioned the
landing.
Mission scientists will be seeking evidence of past water on the red planet's
surface, a sign it might have been hospitable to life.
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