Today is a working day on Mars. Both the Imager for Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner Rover have their work cutout for them today.
First, the Imager will be taking what the Mars Pathfinder team affectionately calls the "monster panorama." It will image the entire 360 degree view using both "eyes" and its red filter. The use of spectral filters enables geologists to get a good idea of the composition of rocks and soil.
The resulting stereo image will also be an important planning tool for Sojourner controllers since they will be able to see in 3 dimensions and plan for the upcoming activities accordingly. The rover driver will be able to put on his stereo goggles and plan the route the rover will be taking to get to the first designated target rock.
This rock, now named "Barnacle Bill" has interesting features that Mars Pathfinder scientists and geologists are eager to see close-up. Today the rover will make a 20 degree turn and back up to this rock in order to place its Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) there.
Good news coming out of Mars Pathfinder Mission Control: the data rate at which the lander communicates back to Earth has been increased to 8 kb/sec, an unprecedented communication rate this early in a mission. This will allow more data to be received back here on Earth, and more commands to be sent up to Mars.
For more information, please visit our website at http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov.