2008-04-30  Sol 1532-1538: Spirit's Tau measurements of atmospheric dust have remained steady, but solar array input has dropped a bit to 235 watt-hours per sol. Spirit still has enough energy to squeeze in Mössbauer studies of iron-bearing minerals at a time of year when the rover's handlers expected Spirit to be concerned only with survival. At present, the rover's target of scientific interest is a soil exposure nicknamed after Arthur C. Harmon, a former Tuskegee airman. Spirit conducted 8 more hours of Mössbauer integration, for a total of 12 hours. Scientists hope the rover will be able to collect 36 more hours' worth of data from the same target. Meanwhile, Spirit continued to acquire panoramic-camera images, using all 13 color filters, of the "Bonestell panorama," informally named in honor of famed space artist Chesley Bonestell.

 2008-03-26  Sol 1478: Opportunity spent 12 hours acquiring data from Gilbert with the Mössbauer spectrometer. The rover completed a survey at high Sun with the panoramic camera and went into a mini-deep sleep.

Sol 1479: Opportunity spent 12 hours acquiring data from Gilbert with the Mössbauer spectrometer. The rover took thumbnail images of the sky for calibration purposes with the panoramic camera and went into a mini-deep sleep.

Sol 1480: Opportunity spent 5 hours acquiring data from Gilbert with the Mössbauer spectrometer and took full-color images, using all 13 filters of the panoramic camera, of the backslope to the left of the Gilbert area. The rover acquired images of the rock target dubbed "Lyell Oxford" and surveyed the horizon with the panoramic camera. The rover went into a deep sleep.

Sol 1481: Opportunity spent 7 hours acquiring data from Gilbert with the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer and took images of Lyell Oxford with the panoramic camera. The rover took six movie frames spaced at regular intervals in search of clouds with the navigation camera and went into a mini-deep sleep.

Sol 1482: Opportunity took a microscopic image of the hole ground into Gilbert with the rock abrasion tool and completed a survey of the grinding bit on the tool. Opportunity spent 8 hours integrating data from Gilbert with the Mössbauer spectrometer and went into a mini-deep sleep.

Sol 1483 (March 26, 2008): Opportunity spent 7 hours integrating data from Gilbert with the Mössbauer spectrometer and went into a deep sleep.

 2008-03-20  Sol 1471-1477: Opportunity has finished grinding into the surface and acquiring microscopic images of a rock target informally named "Gilbert", at the bottom of the alcove inside "Victoria Crater" known as "Duck Bay". The rover is in the middle of a campaign to study the composition of the exposed interior of the rock using both the Mössbauer and alpha-particle X-ray spectrometers.

 2007-04-14  Sol 1145: Opportunity was scheduled to touch the ground, the second of two "dark streak" soil targets named "Alicante" with its Mössbauer spectrometer. He continues with this measurments the next four sols.

 2007-04-09  Sol 1161: Spirit acquired data using the Moessbauer spectrometer from a target known as "Muriel Coben" and a rock called "Elise Harney".

 2007-04-03  Sol 1155: Spirit unstowed the robotic arm, placed the Mössbauer spectrometer on Elizabeth Mahon, and acquired data overnight.

 2007-03-23  Sol 1144: Other planned activities included studies of Torquas using the Moessbauer spectrometer.

 2007-02-16  Sol 1110: Plans called for a "rover tai-chi," which involves taking images of the contact ring of the Moessbauer spectrometer with the front hazard avoidance camera before placing the instrument on a target, and for acquiring panoramic camera images of Bellingshausen.

 2007-02-05  Sol 1100: Spirit studied Mount Darwin with the Mössbauer spectrometer.

 2007-01-20  Sol 1083-1084: Plans also called for continued work on Riquelme3, during which Spirit was to acquire additional data about iron composition with the Moessbauer spectrometer.

 2006-05-09  Moessbauer MER data upto sol 630 has been released

 2005-09-08  MIMOS Martian spectra/calibration data are available: http://iacgu32.chemie.uni-mainz.de/mer/

 2004-12-16  The discovery of strong evidence that Mars was once awash in potentially life-supporting water has been named as the Breakthrough of the Year by the journal Science and its publisher, AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

 2004-12-13   This spectrum, taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's Moessbauer spectrometer, shows the presence of an iron-bearing mineral called goethite in a rock called "Clovis" in the "Columbia Hills" of Mars. Goethite contains water in the form of hydroxyl as a part of its structure. By identifying this mineral, the examination of Clovis produced strong evidence for past water activity in the area that Spirit is exploring.

 2004-06-26     These spectra show evidence for the mineral hematite in the rock dubbed "Pot of Gold," located at Gusev Crater. The data was taken from the surface of the rock with the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's Moessbauer spectrometer on sols 161 and 163 (June 16 and 18, 2004). The top red line is the spectrum for Pot of Gold, and the bottom blue line is for a typical basaltic, or volcanic, rock in Gusev Crater. The two large peaks in the center represent non-hematite, iron-containing minerals, while the smaller set of six peaks (two are hidden in the larger peaks) in the top spectrum is the signature of hematite. Hematite, which is found on Earth, can be formed in three different ways: in standing water; in small amounts of hot fluids (hydrothermal processes); and in volcanic rock. Scientists are planning further observations of this and other rocks in the area, which they hope will yield more insight into the hematite's origins.

 2004-04-14     This illustration shows that the rock dubbed "Bounce" near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing region at Meridiani Planum is not made up of the same minerals as surrounding soil. Spectra from three soil samples taken outside of "Eagle Crater" are compared to that of Bounce (bottom). The dashed white line in the center of the spectra indicates where the "fingerprint" for triple-oxidized iron (Fe 3+) occurs. While the soil samples possess this feature, Bounce does not. The spectrum of Bounce rock contains signature for mineral pyroxene (Fe2+). The results suggest that Bounce did not originate in the plains of Meridiani Planum. These spectra were taken by the rover's Moessbauer spectrometer. Measurements of Bounce were made on sol 67.

 2004-03-26     This figure shows spectra taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Mössbauer spectrometer at various spots in "Eagle Crater." From top to bottom, the spectra represent soil measurements taken from the center of the crater and out to the rim. The top spectrum taken on sol 56 near the center of the crater shows a basaltic mineral composition and only minor amounts of hematite. Basalts are volcanic minerals and hematite is an iron-bearing mineral often formed in water. Moving closer to the rim, the spectra show increasing amounts of hematite with the "Punaluu" site containing the highest amounts seen to date on Mars. Only minor basaltic components are seen in this sample. The corresponding microscopic image of Punaluu shows a high density of "blueberries," indicating that these sphere-like grains are responsible for the observed high levels of hematite.

 2004-03-18     This graph shows two spectra of outcrop regions near the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site. The blue line shows data for a region dubbed "Berry Bowl," which contains a handful of the sphere-like grains dubbed "blueberries." The yellow line represents an area called "Empty" next to Berry Bowl that is devoid of berries. Berry Bowl's spectrum still shows typical outcrop characteristics, but also exhibits an intense hematite signature, seen as a "magnetic sextet." Hematite is an iron-bearing mineral often formed in water. These spectra were taken by the rover's Moessbauer spectrometer on the 46th (Empty) and 48th (Berry Bowl) martian days, or sols, of its mission.

 2004-03-02     This spectrum, taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's Moessbauer spectrometer, shows the presence of an iron-bearing mineral called jarosite in the collection of rocks dubbed "El Capitan." "El Capitan" is located within the outcrop that lines the inner edge of the small crater where Opportunity landed. The pair of yellow peaks specifically indicates a jarosite phase, which contains water in the form of hydroxyl as a part of its structure. These data suggest water-driven processes exist on Mars. Three other phases are also identified in this spectrum: a magnetic phase (blue), attributed to an iron-oxide mineral; a silicate phase (green), indicative of minerals containing double-ionized iron (Fe 2+); and a third phase (red) of minerals with triple-ionized iron (Fe 3+).

 2004-02-04  a href="merpics/merbsoil.jpg">   This spectrum of the soil at the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site, Meridiani Planum, shows the presence of the shiny green mineral called olivine also seen at the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's landing site, Gusev Crater. Based on this data, scientists believe the soil at Meridiani is made-up of in part of finely grained basalt, a type of volcanic rock. The spectrum was captured by Opportunity's Mossbauer spectrometer.

 2004-02-02     This image taken at Meridiani Planum, Mars, by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the rover's Mossbauer spectrometer, located on its instrument deployment device, or "arm." The image was acquired on the ninth martian day or sol of the rover's mission.

 2004-01-30     This spectrum - the first taken of a rock on another planet - reveals the different iron-containing minerals that makeup the martian rock dubbed Adirondack. It shows that Adirondack is a type of volcanic rock known as basalt. Specifically, the rock is what is called olivine basalt because in addition to magnetite and pyroxene, two key ingredients of basalt, it contains a mineral called olivine. This data was acquired by Spirit's Mossbauer spectrometer before the rover developed communication problems with Earth on the 18th martian day, or sol, of its mission.

 2004-01-20     This graph or spectrum captured by the Mossbauer spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the presence of three different iron-bearing minerals in the soil at the rover's landing site. One of these minerals has been identified as olivine, a shiny green rock commonly found in lava on Earth. The other two have yet to be pinned down. Scientists were puzzled by the discovery of olivine because it implies the soil consists at least partially of ground up rocks that have not been weathered or chemically altered. The black line in this graph represents the original data; the three colored regions denote individual minerals and add up to equal the black line.
The Mossbauer spectrometer uses two pieces of radioactive cobalt-57, each about the size of pencil erasers, to determine with a high degree of accuracy the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals in martian rocks and soil. It is located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or "arm."

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