Slashdot Mirror
Mars Rover Opportunity Still Stuck In a Dune
Maddog Batty writes "The mars rover Opportunity, which has been stuck in a sand dune since the end of April, is still going nowhere after wheel spinning attempts were made to free the probe. It did manage to move a very short distance as can be seen in the difference between these two images. Before this attempt the NASA JPL team were playing in their own sandpit trying to replicate the conditions on Mars. (older coverage)"
Hey, I'm really interested to see this. I didn't know it was still stuck. This IS news.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
All those things are things that are to be expected.
Just because a story contains the word "still" doesn't mean it's not news. If the president's plane still hasn't arrived, that's worth reporting. I don't know about you, but this is, to me and the people reading over my shoulder, the most interesting stories on the front page today.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
The problem is that every pound probably costs an extra $10 million.
If you have ever walked on a beach with fluffy, fine-grain sand, you would notice the inherent difficulty in traversing even the dry variety. Since the entire traction surface can be moved by the rover, it could easily end up accidentially digging itself into a small ditch, from which removal could be difficult. Given the rover's weight, wet sand would actually provide superior traction than dry sand due to the stronger cohesion (for lack of a better word) between the grains.
;)
Then again, we're geeks. None of us should have first-hand experiences with this "sand" thing
Alternatively, we can send up another rover. It's way cheaper than getting a human being all the way to Mars alive. And we don't have to worry about bringing it back.
So yeah, when you say that "the 2 things holding us back are price and safety," those aren't two little things. They're the whole ball game. For the price of sending a human to Mars we could send scores, perhaps hundreds, of rovers, with zero risk to human life. No, we don't learn as much, but it means that when we do finally send humans they go fully prepared.
I think the soil should be moist in order to get firmer when cool (mostly due to condensation I imagine).
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
This is why we should send people to Mars.
1. People can can stuck also in various ways.
2. A slightly more expensive rover could also have a shovel arm. Even a juiced up Swiss Army Rover is far less costly than a human mission.
3. A lost rover is far less of a problem than a lost astronaut.
4. These rovers have already "finished" their designed mission. This is all bonus time. Humans have to go home when their water and food runs out.
Table-ized A.I.
Ummm... the rover has already far exceeded its design lifetime, so there was no money wasted here... they've already achieved more than what they spent it on in the first place.
Moron. Can't hesitate to knock NASA, can we?