Rover Takes Close Look at the Martian Surface

NASA’s Spirit rover extended its mechanical arm overnight Thursday, deploying a microscope for the first close-up look at the Martian surface.

The microscope, which has about the same resolution as a geologist’s hand magnifying glass, showed a finely powdered surface that seemed to be held together by unknown forces.

The instrument can distinguish objects about the size of a strand of hair or a grain of salt.

The rover will spend the next day or two using the rest of its suite of instruments to examine the soil near the lander before setting out to explore the surface of Gusev Crater, said researchers from Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“Our first job is to reach out and touch the surface of Mars,” said JPL’s Eric Baumgartner, lead engineer for the arm.

Spirit will not look at the “magic carpet,” a thin, five-inch-square layer of soil displaced when its air bags were deflated, because the team does not want to risk getting the rover tangled in the collapsed bags.

Researchers had wondered what held the soil together, but geologist Rob Sullivan of Cornell University said they should be able to get similar information by observing how Spirit’s wheels interact with the soil.