Rover Spirit gets bogged down but finds steam-formed sulfates

William Atkins
Friday, 04 December 2009 20:46

Science - Space

The NASA Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was driving across a crusty surface on Mars one day when it fell through and got stuck. When it tried to drive out its wheels flew up some soft soil under the crust. What it found scientists call "supremely interesting"!


Spirit was rovering in an area called Troy, within a larger area called Columbia Hills.

It was driving through a dark, crusty surface, along the edge of a small crater, which suddenly broke away, caused by a patch of loose soil.

When it tried to move backward its left-front wheel tossed out some light, fluffy soil originally beneath the crust.

Columbia Hills on Mars is a range of low altitude hills inside of the Gusev crater. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit landed about two miles (three kilometers) from the hills in 2004.

The range was named, on February 2, 2004, in memory of the seven-member crew of the NASA space shuttle Columbia, who died on February 1, 2003 while returning from their mission in space.

The peaks of Columbia Hills were each named after the seven astronauts that perished in the disaster over Texas that destroyed the Columbia space shuttle

The 12-2-2009 NASA media brief “Sandtrapped Rover Makes a Big Discovery” quotes Dr. Raymond  "Ray" E. Arvidson (of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri).

Page two discusses the discovery of sulfates on Mars from the perspective of Dr. Arvidson, and why it is important to eventually learning the watery past of the planet.