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Mars Rover Rolls And Turns
hcg50a writes "MSNBC reports that overnight, 'the golfcart-sized rover cut the final cord tying it to the landing platform that it came in on 10 days ago, then backed up about 10 inches (25 centimeters) and turned 45 degrees. These were the first maneuvers planned in preparation for having Spirit roll 10 feet (3 meters) down a ramp onto the Martian surface on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.' The NASA Mars rover website has complete animations from numerous cameras of the 45-degree turn. Driver training was never this cool!"
In this story http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040113reconstr uction.html
It says that the atmosphere was much thinner than expected, because of a dust storm. NASA changed the chute to deploy earlier because of this, but even with this adjustment the chute opened a mile lower than expected. As far as I know Beagle's chute deployment was never adjusted for the thinner atmosphere, so maybe that explains why they haven't heard from it
Well, they have to do several other things at the same time.
Firstly, going through engineering logs sent from the lander/rover. Every move, every action has to be verified and checked to make sure all went to plan. You can't just rely on a camera for that. You need sensor feedback, etc.
Secondly, they have to survey the area to pick out possible travel routes and areas of interest.
Remember, before they landed they had a -general- idea of where the lander was going to end up, but could only verify and pinpoint it after it landed, with extensive imagery and surveying.
The URL to add to your apt.sources file is aptsource.spirit.downloads.nasa.gov. To grab the latest image updates, just issue this at the command line: apt-get update nasa-spirit-images
This is a complete fake. Neither host nor domain exist, nor is the information sufficient to populate a sources.list (the file isn't even called apt.sources), and the apt-get update command doesn't accept a package name, either.
sigh
For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
Mars Exploration Rover Highlights (AXCH).
Viz runs on Unix, Linux, or Windows according to the site, so it could be any number of GUIs.
True, and here it states that it uses QT from trolltech and open inventor from SGI. Many government organizations use IRIX so there is probably a strong possibility they are running IRIX. Government contracts currently make up most of SGI's revenue. I have seen many military computer systems running IRIX for things like large scale battle simulation.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
An "oops" is really big when you are talking a project costing in the realm of $400 million and taking years to prep. As other posters mentioned, they want to expend all options on the platform, before moving. If you screw something up there is not only no second chances, but you are talking serious money and serious time to get to try it again. There is just no such thing as being too careful when you've got that much on the line.
And before anyone says; it's unlikely that just tilting the panels will shift it as it'll be held in place electrostatically. Also, there aren't any "wipers" - more possible failures and the dust is likely to scratch the panels if wiped.
And finally; the data gathered in those 90 days will take years to process and study anyway.
Unless it could fly with an RTG (Radio-isotope Thermal Generator), which adds to the weight and danger at launch, there isn't really much that NASA can do.
The blacked out bits are because the panoramic camera can't "see" that part of the rover.
To use an analogy, if you're standing up and looking straight ahead, you can't see your shoes.
Unless you're Ronald McDonald, of course.
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As some of the other posters have remarked, the major problems are:
- Battery chemistry: the upcoming Martian winter features both short days (less light for the panels) and low temperatures (affecting the battery's performance. In addition, the batteries start to give out after many charge cycles.
- Dust on the panels: over time, dust builds op on the panels, making them less efficient. And there aren't any wiper to take to dust off.
- Weather: dust and wind will gradually damage the rover.
Note that the above has already been mentioned. However, an idea that I haven't heard yet is continued limited operation: The Voyager probes lost most of their nifty features along the way (see here for some details):First the science boom wouldn't deploy properly, then the primary radio receiver failed, leaving NASA with a backup receiver that also was a bit flakey, and along the way more things started to go awry (like to camera-platform movement started to become really limited at a certain point).
Nonetheless, the Voyagers are still used as science intruments: currently, they are taking measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field, plasma, and charged particle environment while searching for the heliopause. They function as mankind's most distant sensors in this respect.
In fact, this kind of limited operation isn't strange to NASA: many probes first serve an extended mission after the primary mission has ended, and then limited operation may continue until the probe fails altogether (e.g. ca. 2015 for the Voyagers).
So in fact, when Spirit isn't able to drive anymore, we may still use its camera and other instruments to gather as much data on the surrounding soil as possible. Still later, when available power has dwindled to such an extent that even the advanced camera's can't be used anymore, we could still use the temperature sensors. Finally, when the high gain antenna fails, the mission might be over altogether, or they might still use the low gain antenna, until, finally, Spirit reaches the end of its agony and dies a slow electronic death.
I do agree fully with the parent on that we should organize a Q&A on this. How do we set this in motion?
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1150x895 and 2.7 MB with a 0.18 correction for the tilt of the rover. http://test.muc.edu/spirit_pano.mov
So MoFoQ sez:
"...and the $600 toilet seat..."
It wasn't a "toilet seat" like you have in your bathroom. It was a fiberglass enclosure for a chemical toilet unit installed in an ORION C-3 aircraft. The seat was an integral part of the enclosure.
It cost ~US$600 due to the fact that there were less than 50 needed and as such, were essntially handmade by skilled craftsmenn/women.
It was more cost effective to have them handmade, rather than set up a factory assembly line or some other automated set up.
There are many valid examples of govt waste in spending. This is NOT one of them.
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I saw a special on the news on this, where they were using an identical mars rover here on earth, and trying to get it to drive off a cliff. They were doing this somewhere near CalTech/JPL I believe. Anyway, the rover has a bunch of sensors that detect dangerous situations, and it will not respond to the commands if they would put the rover in jeopardy. So basically, they were not able to drive the rover off a cliff, no matter how hard they tried.
Actually, it has some RTGs, but they're little bitty ones with an aggregate heat output of maybe 6 watts; they're used to help keep the heavily-insulated electronics box warm, although there is an electric heater to suppliment them.
:)
(Not to mention the heat from that mighty 20 Mhz radiation-hardened PPC running the thing.