Rovers on Mars

Is the Opportunity Rover stuck in that crater, or did it get out?

Out.

Anyone want to take bets on how long these things keep going?

I wonder if they will outlast the interest of the scientists to keep studying things they find. Maybe NASA will donate control of the rovers to a couple of Universities somewhere?

Also, I keep waiting for a NOVA show on the Rover missions sometime, but I haven't seen one yet. Does anyone know if there are any TV science documentaries or DVD's being produced on this adventure?

Not I. BUt, I don't really 'do' TV.

I would do TV, DVD, a Movie, or even a stage play with a slide show.

There are a couple of MPG movies on NASA's site, but they are small and grainy.

Endurance Crater's Dazzling Dunes (false-color)
08/06/2004
Opportunity

Cresting enticingly are dunes on the floor of Endurance Crater. The mission team had to resist the temptation, as the dunes proved to be too slippery for the rover to drive on.

As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity crept farther into "Endurance Crater," the dune field on the crater floor appeared even more dramatic. This false-color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera shows that the dune crests accumulated more dust than the flanks of the dunes and the flat surfaces between them. Also evident is a "blue" tint on the flat surfaces as compared to the dune flanks. This results from the presence of the hematite-containing spherules ("blueberries") that accumulate on the flat surfaces.

Sinuous tendrils of sand less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) high extend from the main dune field toward the rover. Scientists wanted to send the rover down to one of these tendrils in an effort to learn more about the characteristics of the dunes. Dunes are a common feature across the surface of Mars, and knowledge gleaned from investigating the Endurance dunes close-up may have applied to similar dunes elsewhere. Rover drivers discovered that the slippery slope that led to the dunes was not firm enough to ensure a successful drive back out of the crater, and the dune field may have been a true sand trap, so Opportunity ultimately did not cruise around too close to the dunes.

Unbelieveable these two rovers keep going and going.

must be relatives of the Duracell Bunny

Twin Mars rovers in instrument mix-up

NASA's Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit are identical twins - so alike that they even fooled NASA. Researchers have discovered that they sent the robots to Mars with an instrument meant for Opportunity inside Spirit and vice versa. While the bungle does not undermine the main scientific conclusions drawn from the data collected by the rovers, it is an embarrassing slip-up for a space agency that once lost a Mars spacecraft because engineers mixed up metric and imperial units.

The rovers made near-perfect touchdowns on the surface of Mars in January last year, and their mission has been considered an unqualified success. Spirit and Opportunity provided the first irrefutable evidence that there was once liquid water on the surface of the Red Planet and are still roaming long after their scheduled 90-day mission.

But something was worrying Ralf Gellert of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. Gellert runs an instrument on the rovers called the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS), which analyses the chemical composition of rocks. Opportunity had found higher concentrations of certain elements in the soil at its Meridiani Planum landing site than Spirit had at the Gusev Crater, but on a windswept Mars the concentrations should have evened out all over the planet.

Gellert published the data last year (Science, vol 306, p 1746). "No one really asked about the differences," he recalls. "I thought about it very, very heavily, but I couldn't come up with a solution."

"The bungle does not undermine the main scientific conclusions. This is a lucky case where the data makes more sense now""Now the reason for this is obvious," Gellert told New Scientist. "We found proof that we unintentionally swapped both instruments." Spirit is carrying the spectrometer destined for Opportunity, while Opportunity is in possession of Spirit's.

Although their designs are identical, each instrument is unique because of quirks in the materials they are made from. So before the rovers were launched, each instrument was calibrated using known rock samples. The measurements from each rover are then processed using the calibration files, but because of the mix-up, researchers were using the wrong ones. As a result, small errors have crept into the APXS results, affecting measurements of sodium, magnesium and aluminium abundance.

Fortunately, now that the goof-up has been spotted, it is easily fixed by reanalysing the raw data with the right calibration. Corrected values for the first year's data will be available soon, says Steve Squyres, the chief scientist for the rovers. The corrections are very small because the instruments are so similar, he says. "None of our substantive scientific conclusions are affected." Gellert is relieved: "This turns out to be a lucky case where the data makes more sense now."

Squyres is "not embarrassed at all" about the slip-up with the rovers. "It was an easy mistake to make," he says. "It happened during some very busy and stressful times." He also says it is not fair to compare it to past mishaps (see Box) because the spacecraft suffered no damage. "There isn't going to be an investigation. We know when it happened," he says. "There was a point when both of them were sitting on the same bench, and that has to have been it."

They need somebody that's removed from the stress to evaluate the meters from the inches and rover a from rover b.

One would think folks as smart as they obviously are would be more careful.

Dust Devil saves rover ... it just keeps getting better and better.

Maybe they should drive Spirit all the way around the planet until it meets up with Opportunity. Then they can clean each other and go climb Olympus Mons.

These rovers are going to end up being like mechanical rip van winkle's. They're gonna go dead eventually, but then wake up again periodically every few years whenever a dust devil or severe frost comes by and cleans off the solar panels. If the solar panels keep getting cleaned by natural events, I wonder what the projected lifespan of the rovers would be?

Water on Mars...



A little April fool's joke from APOD

I have always heard of it; now we have photographic evidence.

Mars Rover Has Mission Extended

NASA announced today that it will extend the mission of the Mars rovers for another 18 months through September 2006. The rovers have been considered an overwhelming success thus far, bringing back new data about the mysterious red planet.

NASA spokesman Ghassem Asrar said in a released statement, 'We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in excellent position to continue their adventures. The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life.'

Maybe they're afraid that if they park the rovers they might get a ticket and that's not in the budget.

I love it when NASA makes these sweeping mission statements. Especially because they are probably more surprised at the rovers successes than we are. Ican see next years budget requests

MARS ROVER BUDGET

1 Bottle Windex and squeegie--------------5.59 $

Handling and delivery -----------------------10 skazzilion $

The Price is Right$
The cost of American exploration of space is very costly but necessary. They could manage the money better, but it must be where we're headed. Would'nt it be nice if America wasn't the only country with deep pockets when it came to space tech.

If we keep learning more about space, it will become politically incorrect to say: "Aliens from Outer Space", and instead, "Visitors from the Planets".

Once we perfect space travel or make it as practical as taking a nuclear submarine under the ice cap of the North Pole, our scientist will probable have a good idea how to create a better environment on Mars. It will be after my time, but when we start building Outpost, Cities should we decide who lives on Mars and who stays?

We've gotta think about this stuff. What if a planet identical in size to Earth were to come in and displace us from orbit? We would need to build a big space ship to run humans to the new planet in order to survive as a species.

Into the Next World: a moving experience
We would need to build a big space ship to run humans to the new planet in order to survive as a species.

Technically Edgar, If a large body were to strike with enough energy to dislodge the earth there would be few people to transfer! It will probable happen, in the future, but that man could survive and plan his escape might make the plot of a good SiFi novel. Your right, we do have to think about this stuff! Can I use that?