Slashdot Log In
Spirit Outlasts Viking 2 Lander
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Aug 12, 2007 07:41 PM
from the in-for-the-long-haul dept.
from the in-for-the-long-haul dept.
ScottMaxwell writes "Spirit, the Mars rover designed for a 90-day mission, has now outlasted the Viking 2 lander. Viking 2 survived until its 1281st sol (Martian day); Spirit is now on sol 1282 and counting. Assuming both rovers continue to weather the ongoing dust storms, Spirit's sister, Opportunity, will reach the same age in a few weeks. They aren't breathing down the neck of the all-time record just yet, though — the Viking 1 lander lasted 2245 sols on the surface of Mars; Spirit and Opportunity won't break that record for another 2.7 Earth years."
Related Stories
[+]
Mars Rovers Threatened By Dust Storms 145 comments
mrcgran writes "Space.com is reporting a new potentially deadly weather condition threatening the Mars rovers: 'The first and largest dusty squall has reduced direct sunlight to Mars' surface by nearly 99 percent, an unprecedented threat for the solar-powered rovers. If the storm keeps up and thickens with even more dust, officials fear the rovers' batteries may empty and silence the robotic explorers forever. "This thing has been breaking records the past few days. The sun is 100 times fainter than normal. We're hoping for a big break in the storm soon, but that's just a hope." '"
[+]
The Dusty Concern for the Mission to Mars 174 comments
eldavojohn writes "Astronauts sent to the red planet may find much of their job involving the task of dusting off their equipment and suits. The president says we're going there but the dusty planet has some obstacles and uncertainties for engineers because we don't have a sample of Martian dust. Is it toxic? Will it conduct electricity and short circuits? Will astronauts suffer from the triboelectric effect? How large is the average grain? Will humans be allergic to it? Will sinuses jeopardize a mission? Will a dust storm stop a take off and return flight? So many uncertainties from something as simple as dust but one thing is clear — we need samples!"
[+]
Huge Martian Dust Storm Threatens Rovers 164 comments
Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that a severe ongoing dust storm on the Red Planet has blocked 99 percent of the direct sunlight that powers the Opportunity rover. If these conditions persist for too long, it could finally bring an end to the marathon mission of this robot geologist, and perhaps of its partner Spirit as well. 'Before the dust storms began blocking sunlight last month, Opportunity's solar panels had been producing about 700 watt hours of electricity per day, enough to light a 100-watt bulb for seven hours. When dust in the air reduced the panels' daily output to less than 400 watt hours, the rover team suspended driving and most observations, including use of the robotic arm, cameras and spectrometers to study the site where Opportunity is located ... A possible outcome of this storm is that one or both rovers could be damaged permanently or even disabled. Engineers will assess the capability of each rover after the storm clears.'"
[+]
Top Ten Discoveries of the Mars Rovers 176 comments
eldavojohn writes "Space.com brings us the top ten discoveries of the Martian rovers that landed there in 2004. They were expected to last three months but, as Slashdot has covered time and time again, they have lasted over three years. From minor discoveries about the formation of Mars to images of atmospheric phenomena, to final and definitive proof of a Mars with water, these two robots have definitely reserved themselves a place in the history books. Pending a dust storm, they may not even be done with their mission yet."
[+]
Mars Phoenix Probe Successfully Launched 78 comments
necro81 writes "The Mars Phoenix lander, built from the ashes of two earlier Mars missions, successfully launched atop a Delta II rocket from Canaveral this morning. The mission takes the 350-kg lander to northern latitudes (comparable to Greenland or Siberia) to investigate subsurface ice for the chemical precursors of life. The lander should arrive on Mars on May 25, 2008. 'NASA has never attempted to land a spacecraft on Mars at such a high northern latitude. A lander intended for the red planet's South Pole went silent immediately upon arrival in 1999. That failure, combined with the loss of the companion Mars orbiter, prompted NASA to cancel a 2001 lander mission. The parts from that scrapped mission were used for Phoenix, thus its name, which alludes to the mythological bird that rises from its own ashes.'"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Nuclear powered (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nuclear powered (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Delete *.* (Score:2, Interesting)
That seems to happen too often in space flight. Everyone remembers the metric conversion, but there is also the "cook battery" command on a recent Mars orbiter death (fortunately, it lasted almost 10 years before the error), and then the Tit
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, if they gave each command to a terrestrial version of the hardware, and saw how the command played out, the engineers running the mission might have a chance to say "oops, let's not bother to send that one..."
Re:Delete *.* (Score:4, Insightful)
Or perhaps something like what they did to the display resolution dialogs after a while... Ie if communication is lost after a command for X time units, undo the command.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised that systems, even back then weren't designed for some kind of autonomous "recovery mode". No communications with Earth for an extended period? How about slowly rotating the antennae through a pattern in search of a "beacon" we would send out on a separate frequency in such an event?
Re: (Score:2)
I guess they got everything out of the rover they needed. Additional time from the rover would not have added any significant value.
IIRC, the main reason these new rovers were really stressed is that the first one landed in a shithole. They needed to go a few miles to get out of volcanic ash to find anything interesting.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe Viking 1 just liked the programming on a different satellite.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like a good mission for one of the rovers. Go bump the bastard in the right direction.
Re:Nuclear powered (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nuclear powered (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
or even 'suns',
What exactly do you think that "sol" means?
Re:Nuclear powered (Score:4, Informative)
it's all about being nice with their partners.
Parent
NASA (Score:2)
Re:NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Challenger
Columbia
Parent
Oh, Burn (Score:2)
Re:NASA (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Each orbiter was only meant to last, structurally, for ten years. The number of missions it flew is largely a separate issue, given that much of the vehicle is replaced after each mission. Time was and always has be
Re: (Score:2)
Re:NASA (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
JPL Closed, Scientists Search for Nothing (Score:5, Funny)
The unemployed JPL engineers and scientists then gathered their equipment at the Florida shore and launched a rover-based underwater probe to locate the cause of the Bermuda Triangle. Unfortunately the mission was a failure, as the Bermuda Triangle seems to have disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. This important failure was discovered by the scientists who noted the rover's failure to fail to return. Hopefully the ex-JPL crew will turn their expertise to neuroscience in order to discover precisely why the previous sentence makes my brain hurt.
Finally, a public service announcement: Friends don't let friends post to
Finally, finally: I have no friends.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
But you have 23 fans ...
Re: (Score:2)
>> Finally, finally: I have no friends.
> But you have 23 fans
rovin' (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
While my car car hasn't had to withstand millions of miles wrapped up in radiation soaked gold foil, pass through reentry on a distant planet, followed by a good bounce across the ground, it has managed to take me more than 120,000 kilometres in 2 years without ever needing a service. Traveled on all kinds of road surfaces - including that outback powdery red dirt crap that is rather common in Australia. Alright, I had to change the tires a couple of times,
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I sincerely hope you had at least 9 or 12 oil changes in that time (depending on the schedule). And checked the air filter regularly, especially if you'd been spending time in the fine red dust.
Change your oil regularly and your car will love you.
Slashdot Tags of any worth? (Score:5, Insightful)
theydomakethemliketheyusedto, gogogadgetlander
What exactly is the criteria for tags getting on the front page? Are you seriously saying that several Slashdot users all came up with these tags at the same time? That is clearly either evidence of editorial manipulation, or that cyanide pills need to be handed at the next nerd convention.
LS
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
* V'ger
* Nomad
Re:Spirit? Opportunity? (Score:5, Funny)
Johann Gambolputty-de-von-Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-c
For those whose heads that went over:
Explaination [wikipedia.org]
Video [youtube.com]
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, not Barry Bonds here (Score:5, Informative)
Most thought that dust on the solar panels would end the missions after a few months. Turns out that whirlwinds clean them every now and then. They didn't know such would happen since long-duration solar missions hadn't been done yet.
And mechanics *are* wearing out, it is just that they find workarounds. Spirit drives backward because of a failed wheel, and Oppy holds its elbow in a single place most of the time, using wheels to maneuvor instead of bend the bad elbow. And some if it is probably luck; the electronics could snap at any time due to heat-cold cycles. (Oppy's front wheel is showing signs of wear also.)
It is also true that statistically, once missions get past the early phase, they tend to last well. The failure spots are usually early in most missions if there are failures.
Parent
Yawn: Another broken record (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is the case. As a matter of fact, what finally did Viking 1 in was a bad command issued to the lander's computers that caused it to point its antenna away from Earth.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It was faked on a soundstage in New Jersey.
Re:Oh my goodness me (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Oh my goodness me (Score:4, Insightful)
20, almost 30 years of no significant space achievements.
Oh sure, there's a couple of impressive things that have been done with probes. Crashing them into asteroids, flinging them out towards Pluto, but where are the asteroid mines and space colonies, the moonbases and He3 refining facilities, or even an interstellar probe to the nearest star system?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
They're hanging out with the flying cars, of course.