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Mars Rover Opportunity Working Free
VernonNemitz writes "As previously reported, the Mars rover Opportunity ran into more sand (or finer material) than it was designed to handle. While initial attempts to escape may not have accomplished much, the most recent efforts seem to imply that the plucky machine is going to succeed at getting away."
The true star of Star Wars?
Clamped by Martians.
I guess moving 7.4 centimetres is better than nothing :) It's good they didn't give up on the rover... I'd like to say they've really gotten their moneys worth with these guys, but it's hard to measure the economic payback of the whole "mars exploration" thing... it's more of a long-term investment.
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
This is the obligatory middle so they can post a story tomorrow about how it is totally stuck again.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
This is great news... The rovers have been going on WAAY beyond their intended lifespan... Maybe we all can learn from the excellent design/descipline that the Engineers used to create these wonders!
"I guess ... 7.4 centimetres is better than nothing"
Yeah, that's what your girlfriend said!!!
how did they do it?
It was easy, they just had to tell it that it could see R2D2 at the local cinema.
lexbaby
"Be Brave, Be Loyal, Be True." -- Hawkeye Pierce
Am I the only one who thinks NASA / JPL needs to outsource the next rovers to a Monster Garage* build team?
*Monster Garage is a reality show on The Discovery Channel in which a team of professional and hobbyist mechanics build a vehicle related contraption in 5 days.
SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Observing 'Reef' - sol 477-482, May 17, 2005
Spirit remains in excellent health. On sols 477, 478 and 479 (May 7 to May 9, 2005), Spirit made observations with remote-sensing instruments and analyzed soil targets with its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Mössbauer spectrometer. Spirit then performed a short drive to a target called "Keel," on the outcrop called "Jibsheet." On sol 481, Spirit was able to begin observing a target called "Reef," using the microscopic imager and performing a 16-hour integration with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. On sol 482 (May 12), Spirit continued work on Reef with instruments on the robotic arm, and performed a 21-hour integration with the Mössbauer spectrometer.
Spirit's total odometry as of May 12, 2005, is 4,341.19 meters (2.70 miles).
Spirit Update Archive
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Progress Inch-by-Inch for Opportunity - sol 465-466, May 17, 2005
On Opportunity's first three drives to get out of the sand trap, the rover has advanced a total of 7.4 centimeters (2.9 inches) in getting off the dune. Each of the first two drives -- one on sol 463 and one on sol 465 -- turned the wheels about two and a half rotations, enough to drive two meters (7 feet) if there were no slippage. Images from the hazard-avoidance cameras taken during the drives show that some of caked powder adhering to wheels between cleats had come off. The team was encouraged by the results, and decided go ahead with a 4-meter (13-foot) commanded drive for sol 466.
Sol-by- sol summaries:
Sol 465 (May 15, 2005): Opportunity rotated its wheels in a series of 10 steps, each step enough to roll 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) if there were no slippage. The wheels are slipping a great deal in the sand of the dune, but the rover advanced better than anticipated from simulated tests, covering 1.9 centimeters (0.7 inch). The rover used its panoramic camera for observations of the sky and dunes.
Sol 466 (May 16, 2005): Results from the sol 465 drive were good (some wheel cleats are clean and the rover is making forward progress), so the team commanded a drive that, if there were no slippage, would roll 4 meters (13 feet), consisting of ten 40-centimeter (16 inch) steps. Opportunity gained an additional 2.7 centimeters (1.1 inch). The panoramic camera made more observations of the atmosphere and dunes.
This is a shinning example that meticulous work and systematic thinking eventually gets the job done, even if it sounds boring and even if a "quick fix" seems really sexy
Good Job NASA.
They should have packed a trunk monkey on the rover. Even if he could only hold his breath for 30 seconds, he would have plenty of time to pull the rover out and still be able to squeegie the solar panels clean.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Of the story "The Little Engine That Could".
"I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!
Kinda makes me want to cheer our little martian rover on. "Come on buddy! Just a little bit more! Come on!"
Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
So, the fact it is still stuck, remains stuck, and might get free is news? Is it a really slow news day, or are we bringing back the free beer friday of the dot com era? I just wanna know, cause I got a great hat that houses 2 beers I wanna bring back too!
Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
So we can expect Opportunity to move approximately 5.8 inches next? Talk about baby steps.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Just do like Homer and drive off with the clamp/boot still attached to the tire.
Eventually of course, something will happen to make a rover unusable, but it is interesting that the rovers have lasted this long.
dtach - A tiny program that emulates the detach feat
Maybe it's becuse it's a Friday afternoon following a long week... but wouldn't it be fun to sneak up to Mars and plays some jokes on the JPL guys? Wait for them to go to bed each night and move the rover 10 feet.
Is it time to go home yet?
Oh great! There goes the economy! If they're working free it's going to lower the bar on wages for the rest of us! How's a guy supposed to afford a gold-plated Ferrari when the rovers are working free?
maybe extraterrestrial robots should go with a vast assortment of tools and materials - you never know what you'll run into untill you get there and the ground teams seem quit adept adept at coming up with solutions - provided they have the tools and materials, like a general purpose arm (make that TWO arms, in case one breaks the other can fix it) and a storage locker full of duc[t,k] tape.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Customer: "help, im stuck in a sand dune"
OnStar: "ok, you seem to be off our GPS grid for some reason, can you tell me where you are?"
Customer: "mars"
OnStar: "......."
Customer: "hello?"
OnStar: "just, uh, keep spinning your tires..."
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
It is a terrible shame when quite unbelievable stuff goes on, and is treated as mundane.
To me, being born before the space race, man on the moon etc., this is still fascinating. Why current the current generation is interested in the slightest, I don't know.
What all these guys are doing was totally unthinkable 20 years ago.
Lets hope we will get another 20 years when the next generation filter through.
So you say.
You may disagree with how the government spends your money, but at least NASA has to work for its pay.
This differs greatly from welfare, where you get paid for not working.
Wake me up when welfare recipients contribute half the science NASA does.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
7.4 cm is approximately 2.9 inches.
Well it's a robot. It should work for free. Especially if its solar powered.
Uh-oh, I bet R2D2 is gearing up for a bitch slap!
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
...would be better, he could probably get the same hobbyists to build a Mars Rover out of household items - AND carry an egg without breaking it - in the 30 minutes of The Great Egg Race.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Hey zplork, looks like that funny car has a problem again.
What, solar panels dirty again? We just cleaned them last week!
Naw, it's stuck in the sand.
Fuggit - let AAA* take car of it!
(*AAA - Aries Automobile Association).
www.eFax.com are spammers
Trying to make fun of someone on slashdot by mentioning he has a girlfriend?
I think you should reconcider this course of action...
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMY3R5TI8E_index_0.html
Of course this isn't newsworthy on US-centric slashdot.
watch that mutha burn silicon !!!!!!!
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
No, the rover team included Trekkies who knew they were communicating between Mars and Earth over an open channel, so they used standard code to describe time units in case Khan was listening. In accordance with Starfleet regs and all.
I'm curious to find out what they got stuck in. If it is finer than sand, I would call it dust, or powder. It would interesting to know.
Well, we could do medical experiments on foster kids, without bothering to have anyone looking out for their wellbeing. Maybe the poor could contribute to science that way...
Oh, wait. They already do.
Who else read that and thought "Wait, it was getting paid before?"
Tluin natha Linux xxizzuss uriu olt bwael mon'tun.
"35 million miles to get here, and now I can't even move eight bloody centimeters out of a sand pit. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cause I don't."
They forgot the HiLift jack!
Actually, I think it's being held onto by JFK and Marilyn Monroe. They are just off camera and it's their little joke after being banished to Mars by a conspiracy of Free Masons. This is the most fun they've had since JFK went limp in 1995 and they had to stop boinking.
Sounds like the John Varley novel "Red Thunder", in which a magic power source removes any weight concerns WRT spaceflight payloads, and the first people on Mars are able to take along an actual hopped-up pickup truck to cruise around the dunes of mars.
6. Audible Alarm (not shown)
-from a Cuisinart product owner's manual.
A Martian rover that has completed an initial test move, but where NASA can't be 100% sure how successful it was yet - all they know is that the wheels look less caked than they did - is not really much of an update. We do need more information, for this to be a story.
On the flip-side, Slashdot is predominantly tech nerds, and a tech story (however limited) IS going to appeal to more people than ANY of the other science stories in the news, no matter what the relative merits.
That isn't a criticism of Slashdot - I'm part of that tech audience, even though I do have interest in other science stories - it is merely the reality on the ground. Slashdot is going to post stories with a solid appeal to the core audience, and nobody can fault it for doing so.
I would LIKE to start a parallel news service, with sections on different scientific fields, that emphasised the NON-tech scientific achievements, as I'm sure there's an audience for something like that. I don't have the kind of money to start such a venture, though. Unlike many of the news blogs out there, I believe it would be possible to have quality stories that paid for themselves. Slashdot is hardly perfect, but has a provably large audience and demonstrates the potential you can reach IF you can get something people want.
What would other people think of such a scheme?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Same joke in the last Mars rover post...
Nothing's new under the... mars?
Please note that the last report is from May 16. That is four whole days ago. There are some images of three days ago. I guess they haven't made any substantial progress in the past days. To me it seems that they did go backwards a little, but there are also signs that some of the wheels are digging in. And they are still not out of the track. I wonder if they will ever manage to get out of them. It seems to me that the top layer of the sand was actually a little stronger than the stuff below it, and I wonder whether they will be able to get on top of it again. I guess that there is still a substantial chance that Opportunity will not get out, and that this is going to be the resting place of the rover. And mind you, that does not mean the end of science work. There is still much to learn from the daily remote sensing operations. And of course, they will make every attempt to get the rover moving again. Time is on their side.
Man, I fret when I lose $5 but we (US citizens) almost lost a multi-billion dollar rover!
Anyways, good job to the guys at nasa, hopefully your efforts wont be in vain.
I have a dream!
...
And operational wheels
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Thank God, because I heard that NASA's AAA coverage was not renewed by congress.
For good measure we should also outlaw investments because that is also getting paid for not working.
In fact, we should outlaw being rich in general because rich people don't earn their money by working (they "earn" their money by using their control of major economic resources to their financial advantage).
I remember seeing some science show about this rover and the exhaustive efforts that they went through to design and test the wheels in various conditions.
Perhaps I'm simplifying it, but for all the money the spent on the wheels, they could have designed them to have inflatable monster-mudder style blades, like tractor tires have, to pop out of the surface when needed, such as has been the case recently????
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
"... Opportunity's first three drives to get out of the sand trap..."
They should probably try a sand-wedge instead of a driver; or maybe just take a drop, accept the penalty stroke(s) and get on with the mission?
Could we please play through?
I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...
Neither, it seems. We will have to add another one... "Free as in Mars Rover".
NASA should have just taken a two-stroke penalty.
Does anyone else picture the rover beside a freeway with a sign?
except you earn money by gambling your hard earned money into the whole deal. you give them money to use, if they make a profit... you get more back...
Movies made by a crazy person
http://www.youtube.com/marginalpro
Not nearly enough though.
If we got enough volunteers (or poor people with no choice) for medical experiments, we could have made enough progress to develop cures (or vaccinations) against things like AIDS, and make a serious dent in the cancer fatality figures.
I am not talking about morality about what we should or should not do, just the facts.
I've got the movies up on my ADSL line at
front hazcam
rear hazcam
Higher bandwidth mirrors would be most appreciated
Thad Beier
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
If the machine is that plucky, it deserves a better name!
Sounds like the John Varley novel "Red Thunder", in which a magic power source removes any weight concerns WRT spaceflight payloads, and the first people on Mars are able to take along an actual hopped-up pickup truck to cruise around the dunes of mars.
Not having read it, did this pickup not have an ICE, or was the requisite oxygen magically supplied on Mars as well?
Awesome science news site already exists. www.eurekalert.org. Granted it is more geared towards research but it has a ton of great stuff. A lot of it is up there before it's covered by the popular press.
/pbz
kybred
You know, they also call that slave labor.
It sounds like "Ah hell, just gun it!"
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
They gutted the drivetrain in favor of a fuel cell and four independent electric motors in the hubs. Then they went off-roadin'!
6. Audible Alarm (not shown)
-from a Cuisinart product owner's manual.
Now someone from JPL has to go to Mars to pay the fine, or risk being toed.