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Mars Rovers Moving After Winter Hibernation

Posted by Zonk on Fri Mar 16, 2007 05:06 PM
from the kicking-the-dust-off dept.
Mars NASA Space Science
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."
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  • The #1 Threat to America (Score:4, Funny)

    by User 956 (568564) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:07PM (#18381179) Homepage
    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.

  • I need a cigarette (Score:5, Funny)

    by L. VeGas (580015) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:14PM (#18381233) Homepage Journal
    Thanks, Slashdot.

    Opportunity has been skulking around the Victoria crater.

    Opportunity now is traversing Victoria's rim, ... ... driving Opportunity into the crater ... ... they can get it out again
    You just made my Friday.

    • Re:I need a cigarette (Score:4, Funny)

      by regularstranger (1074000) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:22PM (#18381301)
      You know you're a nerd when you use an interplanetary probe to investigate your lady.
      • You know you're a nerd when you use an interplanetary probe to investigate your lady.

        Double nerdpoints if it feels better than live touching.
               
    • "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.) Magellan ruled out Victoria Piehole, Victoria Analcherry and Victoria CowboyNeal before deciding on the latter.

    • Thanks, L Vegas.

      "You just made my Friday."
      And you just made my weekend...

      The mars rovers produce imagery so vivid, I think I can touch it! :P

  • strangely erotic (Score:4, Funny)

    by mattkime (8466) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:16PM (#18381263)
    >>Opportunity now is traversing Victoria's rim

    anyone else find that strangely erotic?

  • NASA reports... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dedazo (737510) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:24PM (#18381317) Journal
    ... 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...

  • McMurdo Panorama (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2007, @05:40PM (#18381463)
    Here's that finest panoramic shot in Quicktime VR format: http://www.fotoausflug.de/en-mars.html [fotoausflug.de]
  • Leeme alone! It's too early to get up yet!
  • Is it just me or does it look like there is a mining raod leading to a city in the background of the pictures?
    • I was wondering what that groove (road) was myself. When stuck in Tyrone, you can see two Rover wheel tracks. But in the last panorama, only one - maybe spirit was so happy after getting unstuck, it started celebrating by playing some Snoop Dog and flipping the switches to ride on one side.
      • thats a load off,.. For a minute there I was thinking that a mobile science lab was set up by the martian population to investigate what the rover was doing while in it's hibernation. I was afraid it powered down, the martion set up cammand post alpha and we were about to see first hand what a martian probe really looked like
  • Man's first words on another world:

    That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

    Machine's

    Hello world.
    • Machine's [first words]: Hello World

      More likely: Error in updater. Press 'C' to continue: __
         
    • Sorry to nitpick, but it was: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"
        • and If I also recall correctly, recent review of the tapes suggested that he did in fact say it correctly, but there was some kind of error in transmission.

  • They must be running Windows XP: Space Edition (Score:4, Funny)

    by bluemonq (812827) * on Friday March 16 2007, @06:07PM (#18381667)
    I can only get my XP Pro to wake up out of hibernate mode about 30% of the time...
    • I can only get my XP Pro to wake up out of hibernate mode about 30% of the time...

      Just type "install linux" and it will be up and going in no time.
           
  • They see me rollin
    They hatin'

  • Too Cautious (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tablizer (95088) on Friday March 16 2007, @06:10PM (#18381717) Homepage Journal
    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.

    • Re:Too Cautious (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Kjella (173770) on Friday March 16 2007, @07:35PM (#18382253) Homepage
      Because short of finding life on Mars, the rovers are more important than exploring yet another crater. Every so often the press lacks a good article, and they end up giving NASA some good press, "birthdays", going into hibernation, coming out of hibernation, anything. Right now milking that record for everything it's worth is probably the smartest thing they can do. After all, they must have run out of primary targets, secondary targets and tertiary targets by now, they're just making it up as they go along. They can cruise along the flattest plains they can find until something eventually breaks, and it'll still be a huge success. "Mars rovers record run over because NASA drove it stuck in a crater" is just about the only "WTF can't you do this right?" mistake they can make at this point.

      • Re:Too Cautious (Score:4, Informative)

        by WalksOnDirt (704461) on Friday March 16 2007, @08:04PM (#18382437)
        Victoria isn't just "yet another crater". There are no other reachable opportunities that are close to as interesting.

        I'm pretty sure I saw a quote a while back saying they would go in even if they didn't think the rover could get back out, as long as they thought it would still be operational after the descent. They do want to examine the rim first, since they may well not get another chance, and they need to find a safe way down.
    • The bot is already on borrowed time and they've been thru the process with Endurance crater.

      So in your opinion your car/truck is on borrowed time when it runs out of warranty? After all that's a pretty fair comparison. Nobody on the rover teams said the rovers wouldn't keep working, they only planned on a mission duration. The automakers don't say your car will drop dead after three years or 36000 miles; that's just the duration they plan to "support" it. And like the rover teams' extension, most if not al

    • Re:WDFD! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by imaginaryelf (862886) on Friday March 16 2007, @05:36PM (#18381421)
      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.

      • 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.

        Recently a search took me to a Sprit status report from about sol 60 which described the rover as "almost middle aged"

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Gertlex (722812)

          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.

          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.

      • Re:WDFD! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by R3d M3rcury (871886) on Friday March 16 2007, @06:01PM (#18381623) Journal
        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...

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by karnal (22275)

          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?
          Another thought would be: If there isn't much of a wind, is there any dust being kicked up?

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by lgftsa (617184)
            Unfortunately, dust kicked up elsewhere can travel long distances in the atmosphere before landing.

        • Re:WDFD! (Score:4, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2007, @07:14PM (#18382163)
          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.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Tablizer (95088)
          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
        • If you were go back to the start of the mission and tell Squyers and his team that the rovers - both of them - would still be chugging along after this long, they would have thought you a lunatic. No one, particularly the ones involved, hoped or expected the rovers to continue functioning, let alone moving and providing loads of data for over three years.

          They didn't ask for a three-year mission because, at the time, they didn't think it possible; or at least, they couldn't guarantee it on any reasonable
        • 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?

          Take a look at a photo of Victoria Crater [nasa.gov], taken by the HiRISE [arizona.edu] camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter (look close and you can actually see Opportunity sitting atop a ridge overlooking Duck Bay). Notice the sand dunes in the bottom of the crater. Aeolian features like these aren't probable in the absence o

        • Conveniently enough, there appears to be a nice breeze which is blowing dust off the solar panels so that they can continue to work.

          Either that or the Martians have found a new god and are worshiping it with Windex.

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