Slashdot Mirror

2106 GMT (4:06 p.m. EST)
"Spirit is still serious but we are moving toward guarded condition now," rover project manager Pete Theisinger reports. "I think we got a patient well on the way to recovery." In the past day, engineers have determined that Spirit's flash memory hardware is OK. A leading theory today is that a portion of the rover's software simply couldn't cope with all that was happening on Wednesday when the trouble began.

Source

0506 GMT (12:06 a.m. EST)
After a short loss of signal from the rover, a strong signal is now being received as Opportunity arrives on Mars!

0508 GMT (12:08 a.m. EST)
A good signal is still being received! Unlike the Spirit landing where signal was lost immediately after touchdown, Opportunity continues to talk to Earth.

0508 GMT (12:08 a.m. EST)
Complete joy and relief in Mission Control as Opportunity has landed at Meridiani Planum.

0510 GMT (12:11 a.m. EST)
Former Vice President Al Gore is in Mission Control.

We vicariously travel 300 million miles and spend $400+ million dollars to hit a speck of dust with an 11,000+ MPH bullet to see if, just maybe, we can find a Martian... and then one shows up in mission control!

Zoiks!

Congrats NASA!

I'd like to see a Mars Patrol game where you guide rovers through troublesome landings and flash RAM and software glitches to take pictures of the (possible) life on mars ala Pokemon Snap.

The game could degenerate into shooting martians and hopping over holes pretty quick and it would still be good.

You can read all about it at: Spaceflight Now -

Here is the link to the real story. The one given in the /. acticle is getting pushed down spaceflight's page.

"We made good progress overnight and the rover has been upgraded from critical to serious. We have a working hypothesis we are pursuing that is consistent with many of the observables and consistent with operations that we performed on the vehicle last night. It involves the flash memory on the vehicle and the software used to communicate with that memory."

True we're not the only nation out there. But there aren't a lot of other nations with the proven ability to get into space and do anything there.

OK, so NASA uses the term Lunar. Then again, they are arguably the last holdout of the short sleeve dress shirt and tie look. I guess it sounds a little too sci-fi to me to use the term Lunar for anything not already on the moon.

Comparing investment in the moon to investing in Columbus's voyage sure makes it seem way long term. Most people seem to like quarterly results, the patient will wait for yearly returns. This seems quite a bit longer.

We will go to the moon, and Mars, and the stars, for many of the same reasons that Colombus went to America. Out of greed, for one. There are riches for the taking out there. Out of lust for land and power, for another. Malcontents have always wanted to leave the confines of civilized areas and strike out on their own in a frontier. Out of a desire to see new things, and to be the first to reach a place. Those who bet on the frontier rarely lost. If most people aren't daring enough to invest early, well, more power and wealth will come to those who do dare.

As project officials reported at the end of today's news conference, Mission Control received a radio signal from Spirit just before 12 noon EST. This simple message from the rover confirms it had received a transmission from Earth, and encourages engineers since it proves that Spirit is still alive and functioning.

Spirit status updates are here: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly .html

This morning, flight controllers sent a low-data-rate signal to Spirit on the assumption the computer believed it had run into a problem and had loaded fault-protection routines. What may have been a brief response was received. If that data turn out to be valid, it would indicate Spirit is still alive, giving engineers hope they might be able to recover from whatever has gone wrong.

Well, the stated reason for not servicing Hubble is part of a larger decision that all future Shuttle missions will go to the ISS. Although Bush's initiative seems to be a factor, it seems the primary reason for this is safety, due to a recommendation from the CAIB that subsequent Shuttle missions have some way to retrieve the astronauts if the Shuttle was unable to land.

Ancient Martian pyramid found! Couple this with the face on Mars, and it's clear that life exists or existed on the red planet.

"This is a 360-degree view," said Michael Malin, a Spirit science team member and president of Malin Space Science Systems. "This is multiple thousands of pixels high and many tens of thousands of pixels wide. In fact, being shown here is something that we assembled at one half the resolution and one quarter the number of pixels because the sheer number of pixels was slowing down our machine in getting it ready for you today. We felt it as better to get it out and we'll show you a little later on, maybe in the next couple of days, a better view of it. This view in itself will jam any download you ever tried to perform."

Because mission engineers had tested the same setup (airbag position, rover position) and found that the orignal exit ramp had a chance that the rover's solar panel would get caught on the airbag. They decided to opt for the safest route, and turned the rover around and out through the second exit ramp.

Spaceflightnow.com has all the details.

-Cyc

There is also information from SpaceFlightNow here and here.

Here's a photo of the landing platform it just rolled off of.

From the cited article: 'Data from the Spirit rover shows it completed this morning's drive off the lander at 3:41 a.m. EST. Confirmation was received on Earth just before 5 a.m. EST, verifying that Spirit had performed the 10-foot voyage on its own.

The move took approximately 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 2.6 feet away from the lander egress ramp, officials report.

"It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team," says flight director Chris Lewicki.'

There is also information from SpaceFlightNow here and here.

Here's a photo of the landing platform it just rolled off of.

From the cited article: 'Data from the Spirit rover shows it completed this morning's drive off the lander at 3:41 a.m. EST. Confirmation was received on Earth just before 5 a.m. EST, verifying that Spirit had performed the 10-foot voyage on its own.

The move took approximately 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 2.6 feet away from the lander egress ramp, officials report.

"It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team," says flight director Chris Lewicki.'

There is also information from SpaceFlightNow here and here.

Here's a photo of the landing platform it just rolled off of.

From the cited article: 'Data from the Spirit rover shows it completed this morning's drive off the lander at 3:41 a.m. EST. Confirmation was received on Earth just before 5 a.m. EST, verifying that Spirit had performed the 10-foot voyage on its own.

The move took approximately 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 2.6 feet away from the lander egress ramp, officials report.

"It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team," says flight director Chris Lewicki.'

There is also information from SpaceFlightNow here and here.

Here's a photo of the landing platform it just rolled off of.

From the cited article: 'Data from the Spirit rover shows it completed this morning's drive off the lander at 3:41 a.m. EST. Confirmation was received on Earth just before 5 a.m. EST, verifying that Spirit had performed the 10-foot voyage on its own.

The move took approximately 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover about 2.6 feet away from the lander egress ramp, officials report.

"It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team," says flight director Chris Lewicki.'

The United States would then rely on Russian, Japanese and European rockets to get to and from the station for the next three years, until the CEV was operational.

These Japanese rockets?

The United States would then rely on Russian, Japanese and European rockets to get to and from the station for the next three years, until the CEV was operational.

These Japanese rockets?

I think what the mission manager said summed it up pretty good: "brave, not stupid". Spaceflight.now

Spaceflight Now also maintains good coverage and often posts the latest news even before the JPL weenies do.

Other space news sources (like Spaceflight Now) mention the fact that the leakage was already known late last year, dec 29 IIRC. Maybe your parent knew that. Then again, that still makes it less than half a month.

Try $400 Million for Spirit Rover. You're quoting the cost of 2 Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Opporunitty is to land the 24th on the other side of Mars. Don't worry, there are 3 ramps Spirit can go down. Only one is blocked, and perhaps only temporarily.
THINK POSITIVELY. I read that positive thinking people outlive others, if you're interested in being around a while to see the fruits of Mars exploration.

here. They have links to other news sites. In particular, the UPI article has a mention about a presidential commission to review Nasa's plans. Interesting...

I am not particularly happy with the statement that all other Nasa programs that do not support the new effort are to be scrapped. Indeed. Perhaps this whole proposal can be amended to include a peer review of top scientists in reign in some of this...

Uh, that's assuming the Beagle 2 was actually programmed properly. Seeing as how these experts are able to overlook stupid mistakes like mixing units of measurement and forgetting to set the clock on their expensive probes, I wouldn't bet on the Beagle 2 landing close to it's target site.

OTOH, maybe the Beagle 2 went to another planet. In that case there really is no chance of seeing pictures of the crash site!

High-Res Panoramic

As mentioned before, there are a lot more images if you look here

Which desktop (windows, kde, gnome, mac) is shown in this image?

The leftmost titlebar button resembles MacOS9, but the rightmost buttons don't.
(The image appears washed-out because it's a photo of a canvas.)

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

Image 1 Screencap

Image 2 NASA Folks looking at image

Image 3 360' shot

Image 4 NASA Folks looking at 360'

Image 5 panorama

Image 5 Large larger panorama

Image 6 first image before contact

and if you havent noticed already just change # on the URL for the latest:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image # .html

Oh yeah, and I second the fact that NASA-TV should have made this a big event but:

a. What cable provider has NASA TV anymore, I think the general american public lost their space spirit (no pun intended) after the first few apollo missions.

b. Ok, so hypathetically, if it were a big event like, say, the first moon mission, and it failed horribly, that really wouldnt help the american general public moral, now would it.

I'm sure the CNN bit tomorrow will suffice for most people and as for those interested, check out this site for tons of images and some beautiful animations and video clips.

A bigger version of the parent image.

here

here

Cleaned up link: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image1.h tml

here

Latest images here

Click here for an official images! I've mirrored it in my directory too...the official one is called firstimage1.jpg, but it's obvious because it's much higher-quality than the screenshot I grabbed earlier...

Real first image here

...just relayed from the Rover through a Mars Odyssey uplink can be found here!

Aha, the first pictures are here

lazy link: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040104image1.h tml

The Canberra tracking station in Australia is locked on to the spacecraft's signal, which is 10 bits per second.

wow, 10 whole bits per second. Maybe this one got there because we stopped transmitting the evil bit?

Tm

Watching on NASATV was a bit trying on the nerves. It went from "Holy shit, we have signal!" to "Oh shit, we don't have signal... try to remain calm" for ten mins, followed by "Woooooo! We found it again!"

I've been trying to watch Nasa TV but it won't connect. There's a text-only site that has been updating every few minutes with new info here:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.htm l

Check out the live mission updates on Spaceflight Now:

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

I watched it on NASA TV, too. It was quite an exciting ride through entry and landing. We have the second rover landing to look forward to on January 24.