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Mars Scientists Home in on Opportunity's Location
Pasadena (AFP) Jan 25, 2004 Opportunity, the second of two roving US Mars probes, transmitted its first images of the Martian surface Sunday as NASA scientists tried to resurrect its crippled twin. Opportunity touched down at 9:05 pm Saturday (0505 GMT) in an area of the planet known as the Meridiani Planum, the US space agency said. "It does look like we landed about 24 kilometers downrange from the center of the target. We are still a little bit uncertain on that," said Richard Cook, deputy manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project. "I think we're going to have a good place for science." The Meridium Planum is a zone of grey hematite, an iron oxide. Scientists plan to use the robot's instruments to determine whether the grey hematite layer comes from sediments of a former ocean, from volcanic deposits altered by hot water or from other ancient environmental conditions.
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