MER-A Spirit Rover

Launch data: Designation  27827 / 03027A Launch date  10 Jun 2003 - 17:58:47 UT Launch site  CC, SLC17A Launch vehicle  Delta 7925-9.5 (D298) Mission  Mars Exploration Rover Heliocentric orbit Perihelion / Aphelion   A.U. Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor  JPL Operator   Platform   Mass at launch  1062 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape   Dimensions (m)   Solar array   Stabilization   DC power   Design lifetime

5 Dec 2002: A Mars Exploration Rover being prepared for launch.

Mission details:

• The Boeing Delta 7925 reached a 170 km parking orbit; the second stage made a second burn to a 163 x 4762 km x 28.5 deg orbit and separated from the PAM-D third stage. Its Star 48 solid motor fired to put the Rover on an escape trajectory, separating at 1835 UTC. The Rover will enter a 1.042 x 1.550 AU x 0.26 deg orbit around the Sun.
• MER-A consists of the 174 kg Spirit rover, the 365 kg MER-2 lander, the 198 kg backshell and 90 kg heatshield which encapsulate lander and rover during Mars atmosphere entry, and the 183 kg Cruise stage which carries 52 kg of propellant, for a total launch mass of 1062 kg.
• The landing of MER-A "Spirit" near Gusev crater on Mars occurred around 0426 UTC on Jan 4, 2004.
• The cruise stage separated at 0405 UTC and the spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere at 0420 UTC at 5.4 km/s. (for comparison, Martian escape velocity at this altitude is around 4.93 km/s). Intended entry angle was 11.5 degrees, which would give a vacuum periapsis around 7 km above the surface.
• By 0425 UTC the parachute was deployed; 20 seconds later the heatshield was jettisoned. Next the backshell (attached to the parachute) separated from the lander attached to a cable. About a hundred metres up, the airbags inflated, the retrorockets fired to stop the descent, and the parachute-backshell system was jettisoned. The airbag-enclosed lander hit the surface at around 0426 UTC and bounced multiple times, with the signal detected on Earth at 0436 UTC and then cutting off. Signal was reacquired at 0452 UTC (corresponding to a signal sent at 0443 UTC by the lander) confirmed that the landing was complete and the lander was the correct way up. Next steps were airbag deflation, petal opening and solar array deploy. The first images from the surface were received at JPL at 0730 UTC, and the rover rolled off the lander onto the surface on Jan 15.
  Light time from Mars to Earth at the time of landing was 9 min 28s.
  Location of the MER landings:

                      (Areocentric)        (IAU Areographic)
      Spirit          14.57S     175.47E   14.93S  184.53W 
      Opportunity      1.95S     354.47E    1.98S    5.53W
  

• The Spirit rover, exploring Gusev crater, entered safemode on Jan 20, 2004 because of a file system problem in the vehicle's flash memory. Controllers are repairing the problem and a full recovery is now expected; Spirit successfully returned a new surface image on Jan 28. Spirit's file system was reformatted on Feb 4, 2004 and it has now resumed its exploration of the Gusev region.
• Jan 2010: The Mars Rover team has abandoned attempts to move the Spirit rover from its sand-trap location at 'Home Plate' in the Gusev Crater site. Spirit became stuck on 2009 May 7 after five years exploring the Gusev area. It will continue to make scientific observations from its now-final resting place. The second rover, Opportunity, continues its drive south from Victoria to Endeavour craters and is approaching a small crater called Concepcion.