Mars Rover's Epic Trek For the Crater Endeavor 145
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."
Amazing (Score:5, Informative)
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!
Re:Amazing (Score:2, Informative)
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!
Oops, read that "4th year", my apologies.
Let's hope the motors hold out. (Score:5, Informative)
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 [nasa.gov]. 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.
On Barsoom, please... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Amazing (Score:2, Informative)
So either the rovers are overachievers or we just set their goals WAY too low!
I guess they are taking a page from Scotty's manual.
Its both as I understand it the big win was the martian wind kept the solar panels cleaner than expected, it was dust build up (and thus power loss) that was expected to kill the mssion
Re:Cleaning the solar cells? (Score:2, Informative)
NASA has been spending quite a bit of money recently on dust issues. Apparently in low-g situations dust stays suspended in the air for quite some time and consequently develops an static charge. NASA currently has a design for an electromagnetic dust wiper which is basically a array of wires under a surface (like a solar panel) which are electrified in sequence to push the dust around.
There are some issues with power draw and scalability, but my guess is that they will be using some sort of electro-magnetic device to remove dust in upcoming missions.
Re:Amazing (Score:2, Informative)
don't give them too many more things to-do but explore
That's what Opportunity is doing. It's will be exploring the crater. Along the way Opportunity will also be studying the soil and terrain it encounters while it's making it's trek to the crater.
I the JPL scientists were planning for Opportunity to explore whatever's available, but they didn't want it to just randomly wander whichever way it wanted to. Instead, they decided to give it an exploration trek. They will be exploring the environment, and at the end of the endeavor, it will end up at Endeavor Crater. The crater was the next thing over, the closest thing of great scientific interest that made a good destination for its continuing mission...
To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.