Mars Tribute Marks Memories of Shepard's Flight

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-133 May 4, 2011

Mars Tribute Marks Memories of Shepard's Flight

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-133&cid=release_2011-133

The team exploring Mars via NASA's Opportunity rover for the past seven years has informally
named a Martian crater for the Mercury spacecraft that astronaut Alan Shepard christened
Freedom 7. On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted Freedom 7 in America's first human spaceflight.

The team is using Opportunity this week to acquire images covering a cluster of small, relatively
young craters along the rover's route toward a long-term destination. The cluster's largest crater,
spanning about 25 meters (82 feet), is the one called "Freedom 7." The diameter of Freedom 7
crater, about 25 meters (82 feet), happens to be equivalent to the height of the Redstone rocket
that launched Shepard's flight.

"Many of the people currently involved with the robotic investigations of Mars were first inspired
by the astronauts of the Mercury Project who paved the way for the exploration of our solar
system," said Scott McLennan of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who is this
week's long-term planning leader for the rover science team. Shepard's flight was the first of six
Project Mercury missions piloted by solo astronauts.

An image of Freedom 7 crater taken this week is online at:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13988.

Rover team member James Rice of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., said,
"The first 50 years of American manned spaceflight have been built upon immeasurable
courage, dedication, sacrifice, vision, patriotism, teamwork and good old-fashioned hard work,
all terms that embody and define the United States and her people. Alan Shepard's brave and
historic 15-minute flight in Freedom 7 put America in space, and then a scant eight years later,
Americans were standing upon the surface of the moon." Shepard himself would later walk on
the moon when he commanded the Apollo 14 mission in early 1971, less than 10 years after his
Freedom 7 flight. He died on July 21, 1998.

By taking advantage of seeing many craters of diverse ages during drives toward major
destinations, the Opportunity mission is documenting how impact craters change with time. The
cluster that includes Freedom 7 crater formed after sand ripples in the area last migrated, which
is estimated to be about 200,000 years ago.

"This cluster has about eight craters, and they're all the same age," said Matt Golombek, rover
team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "They're from an
impactor that broke up in the atmosphere, which is quite common."

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April
2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important
discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for
supporting microbial life. Spirit has not communicated with Earth since March 2010. Opportunity
remains active. It has driven 28.6 kilometers (17.8 miles) total on Mars, including 1.9 kilometers
(1.2 miles) since leaving "Santa Maria" crater on March 24, 2011, after studying that crater for
three months.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

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