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."

Comments

Its been ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Clamped by Martians.

That's nice

[chris09876]

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.

Re:That's nice

[Rei]

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. ;)

Re:That's nice

[Fear the Clam]

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.

And I suppose that making all of those "rumm rummm" noises was science too, hmm?

Re:That's nice

[petermgreen]

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?

Re:Ahhh come on!!!

[StratoChief66]

This is the obligatory middle so they can post a story tomorrow about how it is totally stuck again.

Kudos to NASA and team!

[guyfromindia]

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!

Re:Kudos to NASA and team!

[Peldor]

Actually it turns out there was a confusion in the units.

The specifications committee set a working lifespan of 100 days, and the design team thought they meant fortnights.

Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

"I guess ... 7.4 centimetres is better than nothing"

Yeah, that's what your girlfriend said!!!

Re:Yeah

[NanoGator]

"Yeah, that's what your girlfriend said!!!"

Nailing a dude's gf is cool, but what she said about you was pretty cold.

Monster Garage needs to build the next rover

[green pizza]

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.

Re:Monster Garage needs to build the next rover

[rdwald]

Am I the only one who thinks NASA / JPL needs to outsource the next rovers to a Monster Garage build team?

Yes.

Re:Monster Garage needs to build the next rover

[eln]

Either that or send a small solar-powered tow truck along with every rover. Of course, the towtruck would probably break the rover loading it up, and then bill NASA directly because their rover insurance company refuses to honor the roadside assistance section of their policy because the tow truck wasn't owned by an authorized wrecking company.

See, this is why the folks at NASA get the big bucks, they have to deal with all of this crap.

Update: Spirit and Opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Update: Spirit and Opportunity

[dr_dank]

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.

With any luck, it'll make par and really show that Tiger Woods a thing or two.

Re:Update: Spirit and Opportunity

[snake_dad]

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.

Good Job

[AT-SkyWalker]

When this first happened I remember I read somewhere that the NASA engineers outlined their trouble shooting approach by indicating that they will try to duplicate the situation here on earth and will study every maneuver before performing anything on the real thing on Mars so they won't have to resort to forceful trial and error maneuvering

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.

This never shoulda happened

[nizo]

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.

Practicle Joke

[lbmouse]

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?

"hello, OnStar"

[visionsofmcskill]

Onstar: "hello, onstar"

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..."

Hackneyed

[Skiron]

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.

Re:Yea, more money wasted.

[susano_otter]

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.

AAA

[wowbagger]

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).

Re:make robots very flexible

[jd]

Doubling the components more than doubles the probability of a fault developing, so that's really a Bad Idea, although it sounds good at first. What would be better would be a way for system components to repair themselves (therefore making spare parts unnecessary), and for components to be over spec by enough of a margin that potential situations are within the design tolerences, rather than so close to the limits.

Re:make robots very flexible

[jd]

Yes, fault tolerence through that kind of redundancy (similar to a scheme Sir Clive Sinclair proposed, about 20 years ago) would certainly improve reliability. As demonstrated by Sir Clive, such a design is practical and workable, and I would agree with you that using it would produce a more flexible, more reliable device.

Sir Clive's "Great Idea" was to use wafer-scale integration to produce massive redundancy of any given electronic component, and then use filesystem/networking techniques for marking bad regions and routing round them. What you'd end up with is a chip that could take massive punishment and survive physical destruction of even large portions of the surface.

That would cover electronic systems, and mechanical systems could be duplicated with some sort of tie-in. For example, if joint A on robot arm A fails, and arm B is physically linked, then you can use joint A on arm B as a stand-by.

If, then, joint B on arm B failed, you could still use joint B on arm A, for the same reason, giving you fail-over at the component level, not the device level.

That would be something that NASA should definitely explore, and schemes like it, as ways to improve the flexibility and durability of the hardware it launches.

Re:Phew

[NoseBag]

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.