Mars Rovers Update

BoldAC writes "CNN is reporting that engineers will upload a software hack to decrease the recent power drain plaguing the rover Opportunity. The hack works by reducing the power supply to a poorly functioning switch." p3tersen writes "Opportunity has photographed a blue martian sunset (it's blue because of the optical scattering properties of dust in the martian atmosphere). In other news, the rovers are beginning to experience power supply problems due to the accumulation of dust on their solar panels."

Comments

Solar problems

[LotsaCaffeine]

NASA should have installed wiper blades on the solar panels.

Re:Solar problems

[ModernViking]

First, my credentials. I have worked on the field trials of the FIDO rover. It is the science test bed for the MER rovers that has been tested in various parts of the western United States over the past 6 years.

There have been many ideas tested for the solar panels, including removable plastic coverings, wiper blades, etc. None of them have proven practical. The dust on Mars is extremely fine and electrostatically charged. It sticks to the panels , and every other surface, amazingly well. Figuring out a way to remove Martian dust from surfaces is a field that a lot of thought and experiment has gone into, without discovering any feasible solutions, so far.

During the Pathfinder Mission in 1997, it was found that, by driving the rover over 'large' rocks (large for the rover), some of the larger dust can be shaken off. This is, as I've heard from members of the engineering team, something they intend to try with the MER rovers when needed. It doesn't make a huge improvement, on the order of a couple percent, but every little bit helps.

Re:Solar problems

[Anonymous Coward]

How is the motor supposed to pull the correct wire (you wouldn't use thread)? Ten different motors?
A simple set of 10 mechanical gears made of plastic and stacked in a row would do this. The driving gear jumps from first to last as needed. My printer does something similar to this everyday to a precission of 720 dpi so...

What do you do with the tear-off once you pull it?
Cut the wire between the plastic sheet and the gears that rolled the wire. No need to have 10 cutting devices, since only one wire will get rolled at a time.

Don't forget that you have to pack all of this onto the rover and fold up the panels.
Implement one of these in each fixed panel, not in the panels as a whole.

All of this stuff takes up weight and adds complexity
Sending 2 probes to Mars and getting scientific data back is waaaaay more complex than this. And the weight... it adds a little more $$ for fuel, but the result is a _much_ longer lifetime.

Re:Solar problems

[IgnoramusMaximus]

A vibrator? Might work although probably could be destructive...

Hmm, after another 15 minutes of mental effort: a thin brush on an arm mounted to the side of the camera mast. You lower the (very thin and light single file brush) with a small step motor to the horizontal position and then you rotate the camera mast to create a sweeping motion on the panels. You could brush the 2 side panels that way, since if you planned for it, there would be no portruding gear to get in the way of the brush (all such gear would be back of the mast).

And so on...

I am really flabbergasted why there is absolutely no provision for any sort of cleaning (even a partial one) on the rovers. Its not like this wasnt expected. I smell some sort of hidden agenda in shortening the life of the rovers.

Re:Java problems?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem was probably caused by some incompatibility in the Java system

Repeat after me.

There is NO Java on the rovers. Java is used on the ground to process the results.

Idiot. Enough has been posted on this site about where Java is being used.

This just in from Saturn

[blamanj]

A nice photo from the Cassini mission.

Re:This just in from Saturn

[deglr6328]

Don't mod the above off-topic, it's still about space! I submitted this story yesterday and it was rejected :( so here is probably the only place you're going to see it and it's really interesting imho! Cassini is entering the final phase of its 7 year journey to saturn and starting now will be sending back images and other measurements at a "rapid and steady pace". In a few months Cassini will enter orbit around Saturn after performing what should be a spectacular ring plane crossing.

Seasonal changes

[Dan East]

The blurb fails to mention that seasonal changes on mars are resulting in less sunlight per sol. That is one of the main power issues.

Dan East

Re:Fan

[RetroGeek]

Doesn't one of their robot arms have a brush device for brushing off rocks?

The ONE robot arm cannot articulate to a position to reach the panels (it is mounted underneath). Also, the brush is made of wire. Not something you would want rubbing against a solar panel.

The Martian Dust

[Chris Tucker]

The big problem is that the dust is so fine, it'd be very difficult to wipe it off with anything akin to a windshield wiper. You might remove the dust, but the grit would scratch the glass, eventually causing enough opacity that the panels would eventually be rendered useless.

One thought I had was to gradually apply a charge to the solar panels and then suddenly apply an opposite charge, causing the dust to be repelled from the surface, to be carried away by the Martian winds.

I've no idea if it would actually work or not, but it seemed an elegant solution that didn't require any moving parts.

Re:Planning Ahead

[toast0]

How does testing the software determine the heater is going to malfunction?

Given CNN's lack of technical depth, for all we know it could be a command to the rover to tell it not to turn on the heater anymore. Either way, they designed the rovers so they can fix them while they're in space, which is pretty good.

Given the limited amount of storage on the rover, it's a higher priority to make sure the upgrade process works, and that it is possible to fix stuff with software, than to make the rover fix stuff automagically.

agreed

[SweetAndSourJesus]

I'm sure a bunch of half-baked ideas from random yahoos would get them much further than anything their silly engineers could come up with.

Re:Java problems?

[nehril]

this is slightly OT, but "real-time" in engineering circles does not mean "really fast." it means that there is a guaranteed response from the system within an specified actual time frame.

i.e. I need a real-time OS & software stack if my rocket control algorithm needs the data from, say, a serial port altimiter within the next 20 milliseconds or else. if you cant get the data within the specified timeframe then the results are useless. the system will not accept requests that it cannot "guarantee" to fulfil from a system resource standpoint. (you have to watch your multitasking, swapping and other kernel-level tasks to achieve this)

so you could have a 20 mhz "real-time" system, as long as it's response was guaranteed by the OS within parameters for what you are doing (and you would program with those guaranteed response times in mind.) Conversely, a 20 Ghz system may not qualify for real time, if the OS pre-empts your rocket control task and decides to swap for a few milliseconds too long, or context switches to another thread just when you needed to adjust a control surface...

when you hear about people hacking linux for real-time work, they are not making it go faster (though that's always nice), they're making it work predictable.

Re:Planning Ahead

[dellis78741]

The updates include improved driving software, something that only evolves after some hands-on time on Mars itself. The patch to strangle the errant heater is pretty drastic - it shuts down some primary circuits including the internal clock, which has the -side- effect of cutting off power to the heater overnight. The rover will wake up the next day only when it starts to get some sunlight on its' solar cells - not by an alarm clock as it does now. The heater will still run once the rover wakes up the next day.

Re:mainly because people are ignorant

[Anonymous Coward]

RTGs are designed to survive rocket explosions, and even re-entry. They're basically armored warm bricks; the plutonium is present in the form of dioxide ceramic.

In 1968, a SNAP 19-B2 RTG landed in the Pacific after its launch vehicle failed to reach orbit and was destroyed. They fished it out and re-used it on a later mission. Apollo 13's lunar module also had an RTG which re-entered and landed, intact, in the Pacific. No nuclear material was released.

The Challenger explosion generated pressures well under 2000 psi. The theoretical worst case for a hydrogen-oxygen explosion is 2075 psi, with a reflected peak pressure of 5300 psi. RTGs are designed and tested at 19,600 psi.

Shuttle explosions won't cause a release of nuclear material from an RTG. They're not only designed for such failures, they've been tested to survive them, both in the lab and in real life failures.