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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)"
The rover is still stuck.
Wait, I'm getting a newsflash right now... The rover is still stuck.
Oh, wait, here's another update... The rover is still stuck.
More on this as it develops.
Millions of dollars launched into space, only to get stuck in a Martian sand dune.
I'm in between insightful sigs right now...
In other news, the sky is still blue, water is still wet, and heat is still hot. Just letting you know that nothing has changed.
At least it's doing better than Spirit, which last I heard was sliding inexorably into an ominious pit of sand, where it will be slowly digested over a thousand years.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Maybe an underground water source? From those 2 pictures, the sand looks like wet beach sand.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
According to JPL's site the latest move was not an attempt to *free* the rover.
"Opportunity rotated its wheels on sol 463 for the first time since the rover dug itself into a sand dune more than two weeks earlier. The wheels made about two and a half rotations, as commanded, and the results were a good match for what was expected from tests on Earth. In the loose footing, the rover advanced 2.8 centimeters (1.1 inch) forward, 4.8 millimeters (0.19 inch) sideways and 4.6 millimeters (0.18 inch) downward. After further analysis of the results, the rover team will decide whether to repeat the same careful movement again on sol 465."
... and furthermore
The rover managers have successfully tested methods for extracting Opportunity from the sand. Principal investigator Steve Squyres has said all along that it will be a slow process:
http://athena.cornell.edu/news/mubss/
Opportunity didn't move for two weeks because JPL is being properly conservative and haven't tried until they understood the situation. The first small movement command was given on May 14, and Opportunity moved about the way they expected.
o rtunityAll.html#sol464
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opp
In other news, a team of NASA's best psychologists is scheduled to hold a meeting where they will determine how to best break the news to Spirit that her brother may be nearing the end of his life.
Mission planners at NASA are concerned about the consequences this could have. While they still want Spirit to remain functional and capable of scientific discovery, they are aware of the moral issues involved and have decided against keeping the news from her, fearing a backlash from the MCLU (Mars Civil Liberties Union).
NASA administrator Michael Griffin released a statement saying the team is carefully weighing the choices and will continue striving to preserve Spirit's technical functionality and psychological stability. Should Spirit become too depressed over the impending demise of her brother and refuse to cooperate, there is talk of calling in a special favor from a nearby resident to cheer her back up. Apparantly Spirit has recently become infatuated with a local hunk named Marvin.
>Before this attempt the NASA JPL team were playing in their own sandpit trying to replicate the conditions on Mars.
Okay, so I gather that the sand was to simulate martian soil conditions, and the radio-operated vehicle simulated the rover's movements. But what was the significance of the tanning lotion and beach umbrella? :P
It always seemed to me that a good way to avoid getting robotic vehicles stuck would be to have thin, strong arms that go up and out, like cranes, and can simply extend down to lift the body of the robot out of whatever's sticking it. It's a bit of extra stuff, but it makes for an unstickable robot.
I thought about this when I was considering how to make an autonomous RC car that could cross the country without interference. It has to be able to get out of a lot of different things.
Anyone know of links to ways robots unstick themselves?
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
NASA is just practicing to be on http://www.carstuckgirls.com/
I still have this question: if they do manage to get it free, how long until it just gets stuck again?
From the pictures it looks like Opportunity is entering a Martian dune sea, which will offer many more opportunities (npi) to get stuck once more. Do they have a plan to identify/avoid soft spots like this one in the future?
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
Nasa: Hello, my rover is stuck in a dune.
AAA: Where is the dune?
Nasa: On mars.
AAA: What is the make and model of the vehicle?
Nasa: It's a rover.
AAA: What color?
Nasa: Grey.
AAA: What is the license plate?
Nasa: It does not have a license plate.
AAA: I'm sorry, if you don't have a license plate, we can't send out a tow truck. [click].
Fight Spammers!
We should use this as a reason to send a human to mars. The primamry mission will be to get oppritunity out of the dune, using a mars tow buggy. Then if theres time, they'll play some martian golf. The'll need to watch out for those sand traps though.
All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
The drive that you are seeing in these images that supposedly did not get the rover out of the dune is in reality a short test drive performed on Sol 463. The response from the rover was roughly what was expected by the MER engineers as you can read on the JPL site.
Considering that the wheels spun the equivalent of a 60 meter drive when they got stuck in the first place. (according to Dr. Albert Haldemann, Deputy Project Scientist for MER) they anticipate a fair amount of driving/spinning to get out. Also obviously if thier testing at JPL was wrong they did not want to worsen the situation to the point of no return on thier first try.
... then the ground will be coldere and firmer.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Now taking bets at when a Rancor will devour it!
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
This is why we should send people to Mars. While more expensive and potentially dangerous, we won't have to deal with bonehead stuff like this.
Sorry, you haven't convinced me.
The rovers, IIRC, have exceeded their planned mission length. The original mission was justified on a 90 sol duration basis, although more was hoped for. Opportunity got stuck on sol 446. Your hypothetical astronauts wouldn't have been able to deal with this "boneheaded stuff" because they'd have been on a very expensive return trip months ago.
If anything, the success of the rovers have really reduced my enthusiasm for a manned Mars mission, at least any time soon. I think it should happen eventually, but there's a lot to be learned from robotic missions, both scientifically and from an engineering standpoint. Engineering failures on robotics missions provide us with an opportunity to learn at a much lower cost, both financial and human, than manned missions. A later manned mission will be both safer, cheaper, and better focused scientifically on things humans can uniquely do.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Hey, long time reader first time poster, but NASA's 'recreation' of a sandpit sure makes it look simple to forge the mars surface eh? eh? see where i'm going with this?
Movies at wohba.com... http://wohba.com/2005/05/diggin-out.html
--- gr8s-n-ppppp
And I'm stuck in this sand dune. (Spins wheels fruitlessly) and my solar collectors are getting dusty again. And I have this terrible pain down the diodes in my right side...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Or maybe it is stuck in fine, granular and very dry sand which would perhaps be even worse than wet sand.
Every time you try to move, the sand is quickly displaced so the vehicle stays put.
Its a shame they can't use the trick from Ice cold in Alex where they put it in reverse (lowest gear) and move it using the starting handle as not to displace the sand too quickly.
Of course, this would rely on:
A) Opportunity having a starting handle.
B) A friendly passing Martian offering to wind it.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
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?
the sand is likely VERY fine sand, and fine sands have a tendency to behave much like fluids.
I concede that the cost of sending people to Mars and keeping them alive is high. And we're still a little "fuzzy" on how to do it. But.
1) How much time went into designing the rover and what-not.
2) How much info have we gained over MONTHS of use?
3) How much can saidd rover actually accomplish.
4) How many different rovers will we send to accomplish what a person (or team) can do in one shot.
5) A person can do a lot more a lot quicker than the rover. Example, want to dig a hole? Use a shovel and maybe pick-axe. In a very short time you can get a couple meters down as opposed to waiting for our rover to spin its wheels just to see a few cm.
I'm not saying we shouldn't use these drones for now. They're an obvious stepping stone to learn what we need to. But at some point we have to say "These things are only doing so much. Let's send some people there."
I think we should start looking into the sending of people more seriously, instead of some people (that I know) whine and moan that it's not worth their tax dollars.
...but at least Opportunity herself is keeping in touch through her LiveJournal blog.