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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."
It's amazing to see the news (and especially slashdot) making such a big deal over the dune. The only reason that it took so long was because the NASA team, cautious as they were, were spending their time recreating possible scenarios in an oversized sandbox with an Opportunity replica, and trying them out. If you follow the mission, the scientists never sounded particularly concerned.
;)
Following missions in detail, by the way, is a good way to get an idea of how overcautious these people generally are, even on missions where stuff ends up going wrong. Getting a craft to Mars and making it function there isn't easy, and following a mission (and craft design) in depth really pushes that home.
Plus, lets not forget that Mars is protected by a Galactic Ghoul that ate 4 out of 5 Soviet craft launched at it.
I believe Bird-Person can arrange that.
Not necessarily - a raid 1 (mirror) disk is much more reliable than a single disk, and it's exactly double the components - you're spreading the risk. By having two independant robot arms, each one is as likely to fail as having just one, but you still have a working arm. What you're talking about is double the complexity in a single system - I'm talking about fault tolerant redundancy.
Actually the whole point of my suggestion is just to have a more flexible platform for the ground team to work up solutions with, whatever form it might take. They seem to be pretty good at it, often going beyond the design limitations. Think of what they can accomplish with designed in freedom to reconfigure the mission while it's in progress??
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
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.
excellent design/discipline? seems pretty easy to me:
Step 1: Create a good product with an intended lifespan of 2 years
Step 2: Tell everyone that you've created a good product with an intended lifespan of 3 months
Step 3: Receive accolades for going on "WAAY" beyond said product's intended lifespan.
Actually, I believe both missions together cost only $800 million.
A mere pittance...especially when you consider all the "techno-wood*" that has been generated so far. God know how many geekitos and geekitas have been conceived since mission start.
*Techno-wood is copyleft 2005 NoseBag. Use it at your own peril. I did.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
It already struck a hole-in-one when it landed exacly inside Eagly Crater. Principal Investigator Steven Squyres was quoted as saying something like not even Tiger Woods could ever be expected to make that shot.
karma capped
i'm not sure overcautious is the word i'd say given the fact the fucking thing is on mars they NEED to be extremely cautious.
how many sysadmins can honestly say they've never fucked something up on a remote box? now when you fuck up a box in a colo it may well cost you a couple-hundred dollars and/or hours of travel time to fix so you take care!
now imagine your box is somewhere you CAN'T go and fix it and has all sorts of mechanical parts to fuck up. you are going to be extrodinerally carefull.
do you really think the rovers would have lasted this long if driven with a gung-ho attitude?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register