Mars Rover Stuck in a Dune

Bamfarooni writes "The NASA Mars rover Opportunity has gotten stuck in a dune, buried up to the hubs of the wheels. While they haven't given up yet, it doesn't look good for the little guy who's now 359 days into the extended mission." From the article: "The Mars machinery had been cruising southward across the open parking lot-like landscape of Meridiani Planum, full of larger and larger ripples of soil. Opportunity has been en route to its next stopover, Erebus crater, nestled inside an even larger crater known as Terra Nova."

Comments

Job well done

[witchman]

Too bad if it's permanently stuck, but what an amazing success for this mission, which has gone on far longer that it was planned for. I hope the NASA engineers get the recognition they deserver for this job well done.

Re:Job well done

[Rei]

When the Mars Rovers start launching 25K kg to LEO, you can start making that comparison. We're not even talking about remotely comparable classes of vehicles.

You know how new, large jet engines can cost millions of dollars, even though they're mass-produced? Picture an engine that dwarfs your typical jet engine in terms of complexity (in order to get such extreme performance - a single SSME no larger than a 747's engine could propel a 747 at 4 Gs, and still manages to be one of the most efficient rocket engines), and is not mass-manufactured, and you start to get an idea of what is involved here. Real rocket engines (we're just talking about the engines here - the rest of the craft is incredibly difficult, too!), as opposed to little joyride engines that use a heavy tank of nitrous and tube full of rubber, deal with some of the hottest (hotter than the boiling point of lead), most corrosive (high temperature hydrogen-rich thermodynamically imbalanced mixtures corrode things very easily), high vibration, very high thrust, and yet very maneuverable (for gimballing) environments that humans have ever produced. And to make it reusable? A truly incredible feat.

And to think that the fuel is LH (just barely above absolute zero - the temperature alone makes metals brittle - and hydrogen itself severely embrittles metals and leaks through almost anything), while the oxidizer is LOX (one of the most corrosive oxidizers you can get apart from LF). You need to not only contain them (and prevent ice from forming on these frigid structures without adding much weight at all), but to build your tanks with such a bare-minimum-thickness that if you were to turn many rockets upside down when full, they'd rupture due to the taper. These tanks need to be somewhat pressurized (although most pressure needs to be added in the turbopumps - amazing devices on their own). Every last pipe (and there are *many* of them), every last joint, must be as weak as possible, but still welded/attached security, uncorrodable, not allow ice buildup, not melt, and not be vibrated loose. And then, the structure overall is collossal - the whole thing needs to be built this way.

We haven't even gotten into reentry and the problems of being in space for a long time. It's really incredible that we can get off this rock at all; the term "rocket science" being used to mean "highly difficult problems" is quite apt.

Dear NASA & JPL

[computerme]

If any NASA or JPL people are reading this thread I have one thing to say:

Mission _very_ accomplished.

The human race knows infinitely more of our red neighbor thanks to your hard work.

THANK YOU!

Re:Dear NASA & JPL

[ajnsue]

I just linked to the pictures on the marsrover website. Gives you chills. /.'ers get into raving discussions about technology thats obsoleted in a few months. And somewhere, somebody is DRIVING A FREAKIN VEHICLE AROUND ON ANOTHER PLANET, TAKING PICTURES! ...geez i feel so insignificant, I need a hug.

Re:Dear NASA

[east coast]

If you had let Xzibit and West Coast Customs pimp out the Rover with 20 inch rims you would have avoided this problem.

Yeah, but the only thing they would have done to the drive train was put another quart of motor oil in a 25 year old Ford engine with 320,000 miles...

We'z gonna fix yo bucket!

Learn to drive in snow

[classicvw]

Now they need somebody from upper midwest, or upper New York to show them how to get out. I have been in worse than that, and they are 6 wheel drive.

Re:Humor?

[Kaamoss]

I couldn't agree more. Even if they can't get Rover up and running again, which I'm sure they will, it's had a good run and garnered a wealth of new information for us. It's essential purpose has been served so regardless of the outcome it's still a good thing.

Re:Change type of vehicle?

[stlhawkeye]

Considering the Martian soil is practially all sand (at least where they like to land) wouldn't it be better to use hovercrafts there? there's plenty of atmospheric gasses (CO2 mostly) and i think this doesn't get all that affected by dust.

Somebody else mentioned treads as well. I'm guessing these things were considered and discarded due to the extra complexity, weight, and power requirements of those modes of locomotion.

Re:Summary is a little too sensational

[scpotter]

What Bamfarooni meant by "it doesn't look good for the little guy" is "I know the /. editors will pick the most sensationalized submission, hopefully no one submitted 'rover stuck in martian quicksand' yet"

Re:More info

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

Perhaps the rover is going backwards?

Re:Southern Drivers

[robertjw]

...haven't had the pleasure of learning to drive in deep snow without 4WD and chains.

Actually, they probably should have hired Californians with experience driving 4WD vehicles across SAND since they got stuck in a dune. Maybe somebody who has experience in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Driving in snow is very different than driving in sand, I've done both. Plus, the rover appears to be a six wheel drive.

Re:More info

[Dun Malg]

I wonder why the soil is caking on the wheels? I would think that even ultra fine sand wouldn't do that unless there was some form of moisture. Try playing with some ultra-fine powder, like flour, powdered clay, or wood ash. It tends to "cake up" when compressed also when dry. Same thing.

Re:It's okay, it was powered by Windows XP...

[MisterBates]

Don't you get it? This is /., the more you complain about the redundancy of a joke, the more the joke is used. Therefore, I, for one, welcome our new redundant-joke-telling overlords!!

Re:Dear NASA

[gstoddart]

Not if you live in Nashville, TN the rage here is to get a crap ride, throw on some 24 inch rims and tires that actually raise the car. I saw this one guy had more ground clearance in his buick then I had in my Explorer.

ROFLMAO -- by now you'd think I would be used to the fact that you shouldn't ever underestimate the stupidity of people and the strange stuff they'll do.

I retract my previous obvservation. :-P

Cheers (and thanks for the laugh)

Re:Southern Drivers

[Afrosheen]

Yeah, there are 2 problems with places where it rarely rains, when it rains.

1. The US has chosen the worse possible grade of asphalt (blacktop) for the majority of streets and parts of highways. Europe uses a much safer grade which uses larger rocks in the mix, therefore giving your tires more to grab onto in the wet. Ask Germany how well this works.

2. In densely populated areas, you get alot of junk cars on the roads leaking oils and fluids. This, combined with heaps of rubber, bakes into the road surface. First rain, all that stuff liquifies and rides on the surface of the water. It really is slicker than ice and any insurance company will tell you, the first hour after it begins to rain is the most dangerous time to drive.

I live in Dallas, and people are equally stupid here when it rains. Nobody turns their headlights on when it's misting in the daytime, and everyone thinks they're driving magical cars that brake even better in rain than in dry conditions. You can count on all the major highways and interconnects getting fucked up every single time it rains.