Second Opportunity For Mars Rover

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Second Opportunity For Mars Rover

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 9, 2004 @08:17AM from the vicarious-participation dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Mars Opportunity rover faces a challenging survey around the rim of the stadium-sized Endurance Crater. In addition to what was previously described as the critical choice to go into the steep crater at the risk of not being able to get back out, this "most spectacular view we've seen of the Martian surface" may aid in answering how deep an ancient sea or lake might have been and how long it lasted. Endurance Crater appears much older and thus may pre-date arrival of significant standing water."

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Better Panorama by inio · 2004-05-09 08:19 · Score: 5, Informative

A much better (and much larger) version of the panorama has been available at the NASA site for days.
For those of you not aware by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-09 08:22 · Score: 5, Informative

a summary of the Mars Rover mission can be found here
The plane by roalt · 2004-05-09 08:44 · Score: 5, Informative
According to the article, the following plan will opportunity follow:
1. Make a round on the edge of the Endurance Crater to make measurements and see how steep the crater is.
2. If (with little risk) opportunity can drive in it and back out, it will do so before doing the following points, otherwise, do the following points first before moving into Endurance.
3. Examine the area around the heatshield, to check both the heatshield useful for future missions and to look in the deep hole the heatshield made into mars.
4. Examine some other place it passed before (but then did not have enough time) to check the composition of a rock that is different than others.
Re:Hmm by josh3736 · 2004-05-09 08:58 · Score: 3, Informative

Just how much battery power is there to last it?

Theoretically unlimited -- ah the joys of solar power! :)
Re:interesting formations by ImTwoSlick · 2004-05-09 09:00 · Score: 5, Informative

Is it created by wind? Or maybe water?
Most definately wind. Those are essentially small sand dunes. A small body of water doesn't have enough surface area to get wave formations like that.
Re:Hmm by TheTimoo · 2004-05-09 10:44 · Score: 5, Informative

No, from what I've read, the Mars Rover has no way of cleaning it's solar panels, which means dust will settle on it and eventually render them useless for producing power.

--
"Be careful or be roadkill" - Calvin