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Mars Rover's Epic Trek For the Crater Endeavor
Smivs writes "The BBC reports that NASA is to send its Mars rover Opportunity on a two-year trek to try to reach a crater called Endeavour.
The robot will have to move about 11km to get to its new target — a distance that would double what it has already achieved on the planet.
Endeavour is much bigger than anything investigated to date, and will allow a broader range of rocks to be studied. Detailed satellite imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help pick out the best route ahead; and new software recently uploaded to Opportunity will enable the rover to make its own decisions about how best to negotiate large rocks in its path. Opportunity has just emerged from the 800m-wide Victoria Crater. Endeavour, by comparison, is 22km across."
That's about 11,000 inches, right? Shouldn't take that long.
Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
Godspeed, Opportunity!
Remember that Opportunity and Spirit are on their 5th year on the Martian surface. Their mission were initially planned to last no more than 3 months. Bravo!
Opportunity saw its first electrical spike in one of its motors recently - the same problem that has basically crippled Spirit.
This was described (8 paragraphs down) in this press release. That's why they got out of Victoria Crater post haste.
Of course, the terrain in Meridiani Planum is much more navigable than Gustav Crater, so even if they do lose a motor, they may still be able to make progress.
studying ... rocks!
ok, maybe only studying ... rocks ... rocks.
If you get an ... opportunity.
Allright I stop, I'm killing myself.
Do not trust this signature.
Wasn't Opporunity half-designed by kids as well? Props to NASA for getting our money's worth out of this thing. Talk about the little engine that could.
A human would take no more than a few hours to get there, on foot, much less with some vehicle. And would be able to do much more and diverse probings and experiments. And let's not forget that in those 2 years, the rover has a very high likelihood to break down.
So while human exploration of Mars may be expensive, it is probably much cheaper when comparing results.
I know the /. crowd has a strong, somewhat irrational animosity towards manned exploration. So I'll burn some karma, big deal :o)
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
That's 18.52 haads - http://www.erblist.com/abg/weightsmeasures.html
Don't they have a problem with dust collecting on the solar cells? Don't they wish they would have thought of a way to keep them really clean?
They were right - the revolution did not get televised. It was posted on YouTube instead. All in 120 characters. SLOOSH!
Since the standard conversion formula is to (X * 2) +30 all you have to do is (X / 2) -30 for US measurements.
That equals -24.5 so they've already been there and passed it!
Must've been a guy controlling the rover...we never ask directions.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Mars: the newest frontier.
These are the voyages of the rover Opportunity.
Its two-year mission: to explore strange new craters; to seek out new life and new land formations;
to boldly go where no robot has gone before!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I know that NASA are a bunch of good people, and I know that there are very good reasons for why they do things the way they do.
But PLEASE!!! 2 years to go 11 km? I know that the Rover will stop every now and then to check out soil samples etc, but 2 years???
I'm thinking of a radio controlled 4wd you can get from a serious hobby shop that'll do at least 1km between charges!
I suppose what I'm saying is that future rovers should be designed for as many possible contingencies (like long distant travel for example). Maybe they could even take pics of Martian landscapes set for human vision too.
That would be nice.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
"new software recently uploaded to Opportunity will enable the rover to make its own decisions about how best to negotiate large rocks in its path"
What is the origin of that? I can speculate:
1) English origin: Very polite. You just don't go around the corner, you politely ask under what conditions it is allowed. "I beg your pardon, dear corner. Would it be inconvenient to you if we continue our way as indicated by you?
2) American origin: Don't take anything for granted. You may be sued by a corner before you know it. Call your lawyer. He'll do the negotiations. Oh boy, I hope he is tough, as this corner hasn't moved his position since I started talking to and yelling at it.
Bert
It's hard to believe these rovers have lasted as long as they have. Before, they had to plan in days in case anything went wrong, but now they're planning in years. These rovers have far exceeded all expectations and I wish the teams and rovers best of luck getting there.
to endeavor unto endeavor.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Both candidates say they are going to slash budget. When NASA's is cut, they'll dump their older projects.
The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!
...to the Endeavour crater.
- Yes indeed, if it's a fast rover.
- Fast rover? You've never heard of the Opportunity?
- No, should I have?
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I think they should make a point of taking a full panoramic image every 10m or so. That way we can add that to the current data on mars and create a *really* nice VR version of that area. Being able to "walk" the same path as Opportunity in VR seems like it is a worthy PR and artistic goal and certainly wouldn't hurt the science of the mission either.
Wow, Mars rovers use Gentoo! :p
*tomato*
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
So what? Even ignoring the fact that it's not as good, you still need humans to control what the rover does. And that control is more effective when the human is nearby rather than several minutes away on another planet.
They should give the next one wings or a para-sail or something.
I thought Opportunity was due to have a bum wheel, like that of Spirit. They've discovered voltage spike patterns that match that of Spirit's wheel before it croaked. This would suggest that Oppy can only go about another mile before the wheel gives. While flat territory may not be a signif problem, Oppy has had problems getting stuck in sand dunes in its area even with good wheels. Getting out of sand traps with a stuck wheel is going to be an interesting challenge.
Table-ized A.I.
"Speed" is not really the bottleneck. The 4 bottlenecks are generally:
1. Bandwidth: If you move and study fast, then it creates more images and data to send back home. At the distance to Mars, bandwidth is slow and expensive.
2. Spectrometer speed: The spectrometers take at least a day to do their readings on rocks and soils most of the time. A more powerful spectrometer that's faster would require more power.
3. Human analysis. Operators and scientists like to study the images and data before deciding on new targets.
4. Safety. If you move too fast or hastily, you may encounter jams that you cannot get out of. Nobody cares if you wreck your Jeep in Arizona deserts, but to wreck a 700 million dollar probe is another thing.
Table-ized A.I.