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Opportunity Takes a Dip Into Victoria Crater
Muad'Dave writes "From the NASA News Release 'Today, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater for the first time. It radioed home information via a relay by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, reporting its activities for the day. Opportunity drove far enough in — about four meters (13 feet) — to get all six wheels past the crater rim. Then it backed uphill for about three meters (10 feet). The driving commands for the day included a precaution for the rover to stop driving if its wheels were slipping more than 40 percent. Slippage exceeded that amount on the last step of the drive, so Opportunity stopped with its front pair of wheels still inside the crater.' This marks the beginning of perhaps the greatest 'Opportunity' for new discoveries on Mars."
That is really awesome. However, am I the only person who thinks that title sounds dirty?
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
6WD, in this case. It's a 6x6. (I think all wheels are powered...)
'Sensible' is a curse word.
This marks the beginning of perhaps the greatest 'Opportunity' for new discoveries on Mars.
Reminds me of the old joke about a mysterious hole being found, experts are looking into it.
That aside, I wonder what they're really expecting to find at the bottom of this crater. Any material from the blast which formed it should be available outside the crater for a large radius. Down in the crater are they expecting to examine strata to search for traces of water, life, indications of Mars earlier life? I suspect most of this, like the debris of the meteorite would be easily found outside the crater without the risk of entering it. I'm afraid once Opportunity enters the crater that's the last of it's exploring days, roaming the surface of Mars and its only Crater News Network from now on.
to the astonishment of NASA a titleist was found at the bottom of the crater
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The Rovers have exceeded all expectations, and I suspect that the engineers are probably thinking "How much longer can these buggers last." From that, one can easily see why all concerned might feel that if they wait and proceed more cautiously, the Rovers might just become inoperative anyways. What's the old Neil Young song; "Better to burn out than fade away".
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Calm down, lance that boil, and let the pressure out. You don't get anywhere in live without taking risks, and you can't always be concerned with laying a fatone. A man who knows what he wants and chasez it is more likely to succeed that someone who does nothing. Just in case, make contingencies (as I'm sure NASA is doing) and try to keep things synchronized.
- Chris
I would. I think we'll find life where we find water -- near the poles. What irritates me is that we're still sending probes that aren't mobile or don't at least have a mobile component. The Phoenix Mars Lander that blasted off last month (this month?) is a static probe. Why couldn't they at least have a smaller version of the rovers that could run out and bring back samples to be worked on by the probe? Anything that just sits there seems not just boring but underutilized to me. What if the lander continued to function for, say, three years beyond it's life expectancy? What would we do with it? Dig up more of the same dirt and run the same tests over and over?
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***