NASA scientists said Monday that they hope Mars rover Opportunity would finish digging a trench on the Red Planet today, so they could have an early look at what is below the surface of the soil.  

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here said the rover is digging a trench with alternating forward and backward spinning of its right front wheel. Inspections of the resulting hole are planned for Tuesday and the morning of Wednesday.

Opportunity spent much of Sunday making a thorough "before" examination of the spot selected for digging a ditch. In preparation for digging, the rover examined the trenching site with its microscopic imager, its Moessbauer spectrometer and, overnight, its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

The rover completed upward-looking observations before, during and after Mars Global Surveyor flew overhead looking down.

On the other side of the planet, Opportunity's twin rover Spirit went for its longest trip yet on the surface of Mars, traveling 88 feet (about 27 meters). The distance is longer than the previous travel record of 70 feet (about 21 meters), though short of the 164 feet (50 meters) NASA hoped it would cover on its way to a crater known as "Bonneville" to examine rocks and soil for evidence of water existence.

Spirit did not cover the full distance because it spent more time than initially planned studying rocks and soil along the way, said mission manager Jim Erickson.

NASA scientists also revised their estimate of the distance to the "Bonneville" crater, saying it is about 1,150 feet (about 351 meters) from Spirit's landing place. The robot still has about 800feet (about 214 meters) to go to reach the crater.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2004)