Slashdot Mirror
Mars Rovers Moving After Winter Hibernation
jcasman writes to mention an article at Astronomy.com discussing the now on-the-move Mars rovers, which have been effectively in hibernation over the long Martian winter. Spirit has been stationary in the Columbia Hills area, just barely powered up and taking the finest panoramic shot of the planet to date. On the other side of the world, Opportunity has been skulking around the Victoria crater. Scientists have been getting to know the area before attempting to send Opportunity into the geographical feature itself. "Opportunity now is traversing Victoria's rim, and mission scientists are naming features they find after places visited by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew during the first circumnavigation of Earth. (Victoria Crater itself is named after the lone ship that completed Magellan's quest.) [Steve Squyres of Cornell University] and his team are committed to driving Opportunity into the crater eventually, if they're sure the rover will be safe -- in other words, that they can get it out again. Squyres is confident they can, and he thinks it will be sooner rather than later."
jcasman writes to mention an article at Astronomy.com discussing the now on-the-move Mars rovers, which have been effectively in hibernation over the long Martian winter.
I knew it. This is just more evidence of the vast bear conspiracy that's mauling our government from the inside out.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Opportunity now is traversing Victoria's rim,
Best Windows Freeware
>>Opportunity now is traversing Victoria's rim
anyone else find that strangely erotic?
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
... that after the first attempt to move the rover without success, they pointed the camera down and realized that the little guy was propped up on four cinder blocks...
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Considering that these rovers were initally spec'ed for a 90 day mission, the fact that they are still going after 3 years is something worth celebrating.
Here's that finest panoramic shot in Quicktime VR format: http://www.fotoausflug.de/en-mars.html
Leeme alone! It's too early to get up yet!
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
Machine's
Hello world.
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
I'll agree. Though as I understand it (and I may be wrong), at least part of the reason that the rovers were spec'ed for 90 days was that NASA believed that the solar panels would end up covered in dust and be unable to generate power. Conveniently enough, there appears to be a nice breeze which is blowing dust off the solar panels so that they can continue to work.
I wonder what might happen when they drive the rover into the crater. If the end up driving it somewhere where this isn't much of a wind, will the solar panels get covered in dust and stop working?
Also--raging personal opinion based on no facts whatsoever--I think NASA low-balled on purpose. It's easier to ask for money to "extend the mission" than it is to ask for the money in the first place. If NASA had asked for the money to run two rovers around Mars for three years, they'd've been shot down. But once you have the rover on the surface and it's running, it's easier to go and say, "Hey, we've already spent this money and the equipment is still working so can we have more money to keep it running?"
It's a good way to deal with government bureaucracy...
I can only get my XP Pro to wake up out of hibernate mode about 30% of the time...
They see me rollin
They hatin'
I don't know why they are so cautious about going into Victoria crater. The bot is already on borrowed time and they've been thru the process with Endurance crater. The crater walls look similar to Endurance's. Go for it, people. So what if there is a risk of not getting out; there is not much around besides the crater anyhow unless you drive another 7 miles or so. If you wait too long the bot will bust before you ever drill a single wall/rock in that crater.
Table-ized A.I.
Recently a search took me to a Sprit status report from about sol 60 which described the rover as "almost middle aged"
It might be that this "aging" was judged in part by the output of the solar panels. The winds or whatever that keep the panels clean probably don't do a complete job. They probably slowed the initial buildup so that middle age in terms of output arrived later, i.e. day 60 instead of day 45. Beyond that, we know it eventually leveled off, with the solar panels remaining usable at some level pretty much constantly for the last few years.It's a lot colder on those distant Jovian and Saturnian moons and the amount of sunlight would not be enough to charge the alreay too cold batteries.
We would need a new design.
-- Posted from my parent's basement
but couldn't you image how cool a robotic boat surfing a methane sea on some moon would be?
The Huygens (spell?) probe had a chance to land on a likely lake. The area just happened to be dry at the time but was suspected to be a lake-bed or at least a flood plane. Bummer. It was even designed to float. Maybe next time...
Table-ized A.I.
Karnal
I think the wind issue is likely.
Regarding the low-balling: The 90 day mission time and the driving distance goal were based on the performance of the previous Pathfinder mission. That one lasted about 3 times as long as it was supposed to before what was probably an electrical failure ended the mission. During that time, they also monitored the gradually decreasing power as the solar cells dirtied. Based on the data and improvements to the rovers, they made their estimates.
90 days (and 600 meters driving, and I think X number of observations) was actually the requirement for them to be able to call the mission a success. The mission budget included a 90 day operating extension if everything looked good at that point. Furthermore, there was a 180 day extended mission (with slightly reduced staff) if they were still rolling well after 6 months. Effectively, they needed 90 days, they built them to last 180 days, and were hoping for 360.
When 1 year passed, they actually had get a special budget allocation from Congress to keep running. 2 years later, most of the team has moved on to other projects and a lot of the tasks have been automated, but they're still running with a purpose.
The rover team has repeatedly expressed pleasant flabbergastation at their performance. They're probably more surprised than the rest of the world. I know it's going to be tough for them when the rovers finally do kick the bucket, or harder yet, are abandoned to focus resources on newer projects like MSL.
Conveniently enough, there appears to be a nice breeze which is blowing dust off the solar panels
Actually, they think it is whirl-winds because the "cleaning" seem to happen suddenly (power increase the next day).
into the crater. If the end up driving it somewhere where this isn't much of a wind, will the solar panels get covered in dust and stop working?
Actually, I think the first detected cleaning was *in* Endurance crater. They speculated that being inside the crater created water vapor condensation on the solar panels, making it easier for movement or wind to push it off. There are even images of frost on the rover. But in the end, nobody knows for sure, other than the cleaning comes and goes.
Table-ized A.I.
Its what powers most of our probes.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Unfortunately, dust kicked up elsewhere can travel long distances in the atmosphere before landing.