Spirit and Opportunity Are Back Online

PinkyGigglebrain sends us news that the Mars rovers have survived the dust storms that have swept the surface of Mars for the last 6 weeks. How well they survived remains to be seen. Due to a combination of dust still suspended in the atmosphere and dust on the rovers' solar panels, they are only producing about half the power they normally would. The article is a little sparse on the exact health of the rovers but it's good to know they are still with us.

Comments

Don't mess around with the Register...

[Anonymous Coward]

So the site didn't get too many details? Just go to the NASA page... Convienient NASA website

These are hardy/lucky little machines!

[Sneakernets]

I'm so glad these machines made it, I was seriously concerned if we would get any more information from these rovers. From what I heard, it would have been many months for replacements to arrive, and that would only be if there would be replacements at all.

Go, Spirit and Opportunity!

Amazing

[fishthegeek]

I used to think that there was just NO WAY that R2D2 could take the kind of crap he took and still survive... who'd of thought. Those robots are completely amazing to me. Designed for a 90 day mission, and here we are at over 13 times that number of days. The best part of the mission is all of the fantastic images they have sent. Check them out here

Re:Amazing

[MouseR]

Designed for a 90 day mission, and here we are at over 13 times that number of days

Well, the S.S. Minnow's crew was out only for a 3 hour tour and see how long they lasted on that island?

Re:Amazing

[Kjella]

Well, they were never designed to be worn out after three months, they were supposed to be out of power because of dust build-up. The reason they could pass that limit is the surprising discovery that there's enough wind to clear the panels, not some feat of engineering. Still, you have to be impressed by the overengineering done in every part of the construction to let it go so far beyond the expected scope.

I don't really get the comparison with R2D2 though, these robots are completely sealed up robots that have taken no kind of "beating", yes they've driven in hostile climate but it's all on the outside with no nasty tumbles. The way R2D2 was getting beat up he probably got all kinds of impact shock, dirt and grime in its system which would almost certainly rendered it unfunctional. To say nothing of C3PO which was torn apart several times...

Re:Amazing

[Tablizer]

I used to think that there was just NO WAY that R2D2 could take the kind of crap he took and still survive... who'd of thought. Those robots are completely amazing to me.

The Force is with them.

Ideas for next time?

[Wilson_6500]

I suppose if we send another rover to Mars, they might--out of optimism--include a way for the solar panels to free themselves of dust? I know they supposedly didn't expect the rovers to last for quite this long, but it seems like being proactive about this sort of thing really wouldn't hurt for the next time around. I imagine it'd have to be a pretty low-energy method for doing so, and if it's really fine dust it might be a tough job. Maybe piezoeletrically vibrating the panels, if they're set at an angle, would work.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[scoot80]

I think getting an extra arm with a dust wiping cloth would be a good idea too. Maybe two arms - one that sprays Windex, and the other one to polish. Might be a little energy inefficient, but quicker.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[Kjella]

If they had a good method, they would have implemented it last time. If it wasn't practical or important enough for a three month mission where it was the clearly limiting factor, why would it be when they can run four years plus without them?

Re:Ideas for next time?

[isotope123]

The Phoenix lander is going to the pole, so it isn't expected to survive long enough for dust on the panels to be a problem. The mision is 90 days. Once winter comes, the probe will be frozen in carbon dioxide ice, which will pretty much kill it. I believe they plan to try to talk to it again when summer comes the next martian year, just in case it survives though. The next Mars Rover, the MSL is planned for launch in September 09 and will be powered by a RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator). Same as what the Voyager probes used and they are still going 30 years later.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[Tablizer]

The next Mars lander Phoenix launched last month. It will arrive in May next year. Although it's not a "rover" it does have solar panels for power. I believe there is no way to clean the solar panels of dust. So, in short, no, lesson not learned.

You have to understand how it works. They are given a fixed budget and specific goals. They cannot blow the budget just because something *might* outlast the design goals. Plus, Phoenix is expected to be completely buried in water or CO2 ice by mid-winter with nothing to keep the electronics warm, meaning they are fairly likely to develop micro-fractures. Further, there is less value in trying to extend the lifetime of stationary probes because the area to sample stays the same.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[Tablizer]

The problem isn't necessarily dust on the panels, but dust in the atmosphere.

It's both actually. The dust in the atmosphere appears to be settling on the rovers as it settles from the sky. Spirit's microscope became fogged with dust during the storm because of this and they are taking images to assess the damage and to use as reference images to attempt to digitally correct the distortion caused by the dust. I've read that both rovers are currently performing tests of most their instruments to assess dust pollution. If they know the extent of the pollution they can correct for some of it by subtracting out the changes. However, this reduces total sensitivity.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[evanbd]

The issue was complicated. First, they weren't sure what the effect of dust storms would be. They got lucky; the storms seem to clean the panels more than they add dust. Second, they evaluated a number of different options for panel cleaning -- wipers, peel-away plastic covers, electrostatic devices, etc. The conclusion was there were a number of options, any of which would probably work for a while. However, it was decided that any of the options would take the place in space / weight of approximately one instrument. They decided that they'd rather have better info for a shorter time, especially given that the dust storms might turn out to clean the panels and let the rovers keep going without any cleaning system at all. So, they opted for instrumentation over longevity, and lucked out and got both.

Re:Ideas for next time?

[Dunbal]

I've never been satisfactorily explained why you can't wipe dust off of a panel of glass?

They sent the damned thing to mars - you'd think they'd be able to adapt a wiper to work on it.

      Why on earth is everyone trying to wipe dust off the panels? THE ROVERS ARE STILL WORKING DESPITE THE DUST. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. You're just adding another level of complexity, and another system that can break (and take the rest of the robot with it).

Simple Advice

[VernonNemitz]

WAIT. Eventually a Martian dust-devil will pass over a rover, and after this "cleaning event" occurs, THEN is the time to start significant operations again.

More-convenient Mars Rovers page

[AySz88]

Here's the actual mission site that has more than just multimedia: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html The mission status update page is particularly helpful: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Re:More-convenient Mars Rovers page

[confused one]

You do realize they measure progress in feet per day? Yeah, Mars is smaller than Earth, but it's not THAT small.

Hundreds Of Years Later...

[Anonymous Coward]

...someone deciphers the alien lettering scrawled in the dust on Opportunity's solar panel as reading "wash me."

March On Little Soldiers

[DynaSoar]

I don't think it's at all improper to anthromorphize the little widgets and turn them into heroes. We need all the heroes we can get. Just as we'll need to expand our definition of life so we know it when we find it, we need to expand our definition of worth as individuals so we know them when we create them. I think we'll find we create them in our minds, and so already have.

I say, point them at each other and let them try to meet up. It's probably an impossible task and they'll probably die trying. But they'll die trying, and that's what heroes often do. It would serve to make us think along those lines about ourselves. We need more heroes, and heroes start out as just one of us. If they'll just try, it will give people reason to hope and to dream. We need those more than we need the science that results from the effort.

And who knows? They might just make it, or at least look like they might. Imagine the effect on people. Some would probably even start to call for a Mars mission to rescue the heroes and bring them home. I think that's at least as good a reason to go as any other.

Re:March On Little Soldiers

[jon287]

I like your sentiment, but the real heroes work at NASA. These men and women almost certainly had a rough entry into adulthood at the hands of the ignorant doofuses who populate our schools only to be greeted, upon arrival, by a space program in decline, budgets cut to fund foreign wars, and a general "who cares about space, been there done that..oooh Paris got arrested!!" attitude from the public.

What did these people do? They took their limited budget and did their thing on another PLANET, and took us along for the ride!

I smile every time I hear mention of the rovers on tv or see the images. Its like a giant "up yours" to all of the worthless, dog-fighting "football stars" and useless "celebrities" of the world from geeks everywhere.

Roll on NASA engineers. Roll on rovers. You are my heroes.