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Mars Rovers on New Missions
mycro writes "According to CNN, the Mars rovers are on a brand new mission. Because the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers are in such great condition and 'keep going and going', NASA will be using them for a longer period of time to study water, rocks, and formations on Mars." An anonymous reader writes "Today NASA has given its Opportunity rover a green light to enter the steep Endurance crater. Looking at deeper martian bedrock layers is considered now a rich enough science payoff to weigh favorably against the real chance that the rover cannot get back out of the crater."
They make it sound like the rover is undergoing a massive risk, and doing something utterly untoward, by entering the crater - this is nothing new in science - the majority of space probes are designed for limited function, and not to survive their missions, witness voyager and the like.
Could someone please explain to me what exactly would cause a rover that cost $400 million to develop and deploy to fail after several months? I'm not trying to start a ruckus. Perhaps I should've kept up more but I honestly wonder what causes these rovers to cease functioning. It seems like the expectations for home robotics kits greatly exceed those of the Mars rovers. Hopefully someone can explain it.
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Looking at deeper martian bedrock layers is considered now a rich enough science payoff
In my humble opinion, the geological data that might be extracted fom such a deep crater is more than worth it. Just think, potentially millions of years of Martian history, and who knows, maybe even a fossil or two? Wouldn't that be sweet?
Way to go NASA, for considering the bigger picture in the face of losing such a wonderfully resilient craft. Although, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that a manned mission could someday retrieve the rover, and bring it all the way back to the Smithsonian.
bash: rtfm: command not found
oh it's so frustrating to watch. Its like on horror movies...
.. awww see now you are stuck with scary martians
Don't go there. oh oh
It's really exciting science. I am still marveling at the fact that we can see actual pictures of the surface of Mars, from millions of kilometers away, as if we are looking at someone's holiday snapshots... I do wish, however, that NASA (or ESA) would turn all this ingenuity someday to an area that is even less explored than the surface of Mars or the Moon - our deep sea. Every time a mission goes out there, new species are discovered. The pay-off that may be generated by having a good look at our seas may be much greater than that of space exploration. Some of the reagents we use in the lab are derived from sea animals and have enabled us to gain deep insight into molecular biology. And I should think that the technical challenges of deep sea exploration should be worthy of the best NASA engineers' skills. Come on, guys, down is the way to go, not up :)
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Because the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers are in such great condition and 'keep going and going'
Must be those energizer batteries they put into the rovers.
If only NASA had fitted the tyre grips used by James Bond in 'Die Another Day', it is not as if they cost a lot .
The article made the joke before I did.
Two interplanetary Energizer bunnies
Guess next time I should RTFA
Guess it's better to go out in a blaze of glory than to fade away, I guess.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
I actually wonder if the only real danger as the story posts constits of never getting out of the crater, but actually also to make a safe journey downward without stumbling, falling and bursting? (Then you've a wreckage without any scientific data to make it payoff)
--
Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
NASA hopes both rovers will remain functional until at least September.
As people we often take everything for granted. Unfortunately it's just too difficult to constantly be amazed by everything around us (take a moment to think about how a computer works, it's fucking amazing). But this article really does show this isn't the present but the future. We have rovers on another fucking planet.
I remember thinking that the rovers wouldn't land successfully. But now they have and they're roaming around another planet. I'm sorry, but that's just amazing to me. And the above quote just reminded me.
yeah, and i hope NASA/JPL will make a nice
CD-rom or DVD rom for that matter with all the
pictures and animations for 5.99$ (excluding
shipping)
this is a great example of how to involve the ...
general public into science. CERN and all the
other terra-cost$$$ project should take this
mars mission as a prime example of how to present
there "work"
Heh, they risk it won't ever get out of the crater? Now what a pity would that be.
They shouldn't pack it into the rocket and keep it on earth because here it wouldn't be put at risk of getting damaged.
Okay, sarcasm aside: What reason would there be for Opportunity ever (before its technical death) to leave the crater? The surroundings are well examined and there's a strong doubt anything more interesting will be found outside the crater, and after all the probes are there not to PERFORM as much examinations and tests as possible but to FIND interesting things. You can ride around in circles and examine the same rock over and over for years finding nothing new, or you can move on into new, maybe more dangerous terrain, but find what you seek in matter of hours. Are we trying to make a progress or just to beat the time record?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The question is, why didn't NASA incorporate this into the design of the rovers. They have such high tech equipment encompassed such as hazard avoidance cameras, mechanical senses etc, outlined here that it seems obvious that the rover should be able to get out of craters. After all, Mars is full of them, the terrain is very rocky and unstable.
Yes, I agree, in a way.
But don't forget the other perspective: we're totally insignificant next to the size of the universe. Even if we go populate every planet in our solar system tomorrow, or conduct experiments on the sun, it won't amount to a hill of beans in the great scheme of things. This things seem big to us, because we're so small.
It's because Nasa forgot to install windscreen wipers and windolene spray. The solar panels get covered in dust because it's really really dusty on mars. There's nobody around with a feather duster either.
Eventually, the solar panels get covered in a layer of dust and that means the rovers can't see where they are going and fall of the edge of craters or bump into big rocks like Yogi.
If a rover falls on it's back, it can't right itself again because NASA forgot to install a robotic arm that could flip the rover back onto it's wheels.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Going down in the crater will decrease the rover's daily income of sunlight, won't it.. granted maybe only a few seconds. But those seconds will add up to shave that lifespan down quite a bit.
meh
-- ac at home
What's this WE bullshit, Aussie? MY taxes paid for it, not yours!
self cleaning glass?
I know there's no rain on mars, but perhaps any high winds, plus this type of glass, might extend the usefulness of the PV panels. Of course, I also don't know how much this new type of glass would degrade the electrical conversion rates with the panels either.
Not using an RTG was almost certainly not because of nuclear fears. NASA isn't afraid to use an RTG.
It's most likely because of cost.
Honestly, I think a solar cell is a better match anyway. Because the unit is going to stop working anyway due to the conditions. Despite what you said, preventing component failure is not a trivial thing.
Second, the units had to be small and light. These vehicles have to move around. They have to haul that RTG around with them all the time. Making it heaver would make it less agile, less able to climb hills.
But I think the major reason it isn't there is the "flip-over factor". Honestly, it is very likely these things will end up either trapped by rocks or flipped over. These are some of the first self-driving rovers, so I'm sure the suspicion they would screw up is high.
Since the units are likely going to be immobile within a few months anyway, why do we need a power source that last years?
If NASA ever feels they can make a rover that can likely drive around for years, I'm sure they'll consider a more permanent power source.
I cant get the image of beagleII kicking back in a lawn chair, sucking down some tropical drink, and chidding the two working rovers. Cant you just hear beagle asking, "Off on another run through the rocks old chap? They are a bloody long way off. Cut the line and come have a drink."
It would seem that the batteries in these rovers have lasted much longer than was originally expected - in a matter of maginitude.
Does anyone know what the science might be behind the battery longetivity? To me, the science of that is equally, if not more, interesting than what might be on the planet itself.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Actually, I would love to see some scenes of some of the more "tense" situations as they happened in the control room.. like how they recovered Spirit, and the discussions of whether to enter Endurance. I am sure there are many memorable discussions taking place there.
When this wraps up, I would love to see NASA do a really good documentary on this stellar success and release it in such a way that insures that the information they have created will never be forgotten. ( meaning open-source release, so that hopefully centuries from now, the information we create today will be just as readable then as it is now. )
If I could have exactly what I wanted, NASA would release this on media designed to last for centuries... maybe pyrex glass disks and gold. The best we have. With this opportunity to spread the costs over a wide audience, in my mind, its worth it. To me, NASA's achievement here is the most significant thing Man has ever done. Personally, I think this effort needs to be documented in the most robust ways possible for future generations to reflect back on.
This is one movie collection I am looking very forward to getting.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
You can get that now for free. I've been using NASA's Maestro program since Spirit landed. You get EVERY raw feed from the probes (pics before processing, out of focus, ones with the wheels in the way, etc). It's very cool. Try it out.
It is already being planned. For whatever reason public squeamishness about nuclear powered planetary probes has abated since it reached a peak with the Galileo and Cassini launches. A good thing for exploration.
an ill wind that blows no good
If it DOES fall down it will break it's old distance record of 88 feet :)
I was thinking of converting to paganism, but where the hell can you find sacrificial virgins these days?
Just think of all the children that could have been fed with this $400 million. :( Or all the landmines that could be removed. Instead, we get playtoys for stupid white men. Micheal Moore needs to do his next expose on "science".
Ok, do you think we get anything useful from the rovers?
Ok, should we stop spending $30+ billion a year on movies? (box office ~10, DVD and video sales and rentals 22+) How about what we spend on sports tickets for multi-millionaire athletes? Nah, a healthy psyche needs its recreation, right? So why isn't a productive scientific pursuit accepted in the same manner? Curiosity... the thirst to see 'what is beyond that hill' is part of a healthy psyche.
How about focusing on how much Americans waste on truly useless trash, such as junk food. And I won't even bring up they then spend weight-loss measures...
-Robert
Slashdot makes me sad sometimes. ;)
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mars/program.html
i t. html
-- this is a good bio of the rovers.
and why would nasa make people pay for the pictures when they already offer ALL of the pics the rovers take for free?
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spir