NASA assigns uphill task to Mars Rover

Briefing reporters at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) jet propulsion laboratory, Golombek said the eventual aim was for Sojourner, as the little six-wheeled rover is known, to climb a hill about 60 feet high.

It may seem like a small climb, but for the rover it presents an arduous challenge that will test it severely, Golombek said.

Sojourner, which is about the size of a household microwave oven and packed with sophisticated scientific instruments, will have to travel about 100 metres to the crest of the hill, negotiating boulders several times its size on the way. Moving at slightly less than one centimetre per second, and stopping every one-quarter of a turn of its wheels to make sure it is still in contact with its mother ship, the Sagan Lander, the rover’s journey will be slow and tedious. It will probably take more than a month to reach the top of the hill.

“But once we get to the top, we’ll be able to see a whole new vista of Mars we have never seen before, and from an angle looking down, not up,” said Golombek. Pathfinder, which landed on Mars on July 4, ended up in a slight depression on the Martian surface.

During the primary mission, which covered the first 30 days on the planet and was completed this week, the lander and rover sent back twice as much data as expected, Golombek said.

Mission manager Richard Cook said NASA considered the mission “100 per cent successful”. The mission also set records on the earthbound Internet as Pathfinder web page received 556 million hits during the first 30 days.