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Space Science

Second Opportunity For Mars Rover 84

Posted by timothy from the vicarious-participation dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Mars Opportunity rover faces a challenging survey around the rim of the stadium-sized Endurance Crater. In addition to what was previously described as the critical choice to go into the steep crater at the risk of not being able to get back out, this "most spectacular view we've seen of the Martian surface" may aid in answering how deep an ancient sea or lake might have been and how long it lasted. Endurance Crater appears much older and thus may pre-date arrival of significant standing water."
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Second Opportunity For Mars Rover More

Second Opportunity For Mars Rover

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  • Damn (Score:1, Funny)

    by Orgazmus ( 761208 )
    They got that far allready? Damn!
    Well, then its time for me to push the button.
    Cant have them snooping around my "lasers" you know.

  • Better Panorama (Score:5, Informative)

    by inio ( 26835 ) on Sunday May 09, 2004 @03:19PM (#9101618) Homepage
    A much better (and much larger) version of the panorama has been available at the NASA site [nasa.gov] for days.

  • For those of you not aware (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 09, 2004 @03:22PM (#9101635)
    a summary of the Mars Rover mission can be found here [nasa.gov]
  • Quick! You have until 5pm to get the free shrimp at Long John Silver's! [longjohnsilver.com]

    They promised that if NASA found evidence of water on Mars that they would give free Shrimp to the whole country. They followed through! (Now if only Mir had hit that Taco Bell sign...)

  • Hmm (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RabidChicken ( 684107 ) <andrew @ a n d r e w s tuckey.com> on Sunday May 09, 2004 @03:39PM (#9101697) Homepage
    This makes me wonder just how long exactly the rover will last. Another month? Year? Just how much battery power is there to last it? Will it last simply until a martian storm hits it? I personally think this is a great mission and every nugget of data is opening new doors. I would like to see it last for quite a while, even if there is no press coverage. P.S. The earlier comment about adding a mic to record the sounds on mars may seem trivial, but I say it'd be a great idea and inspire wonder (and a neato MP3 ;)

    • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Informative)

      by josh3736 ( 745265 )
      Just how much battery power is there to last it?

      Theoretically unlimited -- ah the joys of solar power! :)

      • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

        by Lispy ( 136512 )
        To be picky, even the source of solar energy is limited. But this shouldn't worry us I guess! ;-)
        • This is true, however I was speaking in the context of length -- how long the thing will run before the power is gone (whis is unlimited so long as the sun is still in the sky), not how many amps are availible to the rover (which is very limited).

      • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)

        by TheTimoo ( 658067 ) <TheTimoo.gmx@net> on Sunday May 09, 2004 @05:44PM (#9102258)
        No, from what I've read, the Mars Rover has no way of cleaning it's solar panels, which means dust will settle on it and eventually render them useless for producing power.
        • I am sure theres not much dust being gathered at the moment, if they took a photo now, or looked at the energy stats, it would be clean for years, unless theres a big dust storm.

          The thing that kills it first, is the batteries, constantly charging from -150c to 20c will limit it chemically.

          The "DUST" theory is so minor its not an issue unless we get batteries lasting 2+years on mars.

          Though the rover should still work even with really crap batteries or if they are dead, as long as it gets power from solar

        • Re:Hmm (Score:2, Interesting)

          by dude127 ( 652036 )
          NASA really has everyone believing the "dust on the panels" routine. I'm sure it could be a problem under certain circumstances, but if you ask me, they are hyping this problem so that they can set expectations artificially low.

          By setting low expecations, they make themselves look like heroes if they are able to exceed their original mission parameters, and they cover their butts if things turn sour.

          I think this is pretty common among technical types, since technology (especially cutting edge tech 100 mil

          • Thanks... (Score:1, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward
            > NASA really has everyone believing the "dust on the panels" routine.....but if you ask me...

            Thanks, but we'll ask actual _rocket scientists_ about rocket science, rather that Joe Ignorant on the internet. But we appreciate the offer!

    • Re:Hmm (Score:2)

      by zpok ( 604055 )
      "The earlier comment about adding a mic to record the sounds on mars may seem trivial, but I say it'd be a great idea and inspire wonder"

      - Keep that noise down will you?
      - Not me! Another one of them bloody Rovers! ...
      Intergalactic war, why, you ask?
  • or does that panorama look very much like something done
    on a hollywood special effects set?

    • Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Jott42 ( 702470 )
      With todays technology, what wouldn't?
    • I know the parent is marked as a troll but if you look at this image [nasa.gov] (WARNING: 26.7mb image) parts of the rocks and sand (notice the wavy ones near the middle) look a bit rendered and not natural, though it's porbably due to some software enhancing to make the image look better (it's already passed through a filter to give it color, it might as well be touched up even more) or maybe my eyes playing tricks on me.
      • and I hardly meant it as a troll either.. I've always been
        a big space supporter since growing up as a kid with the
        moon missions. But I took a look at that picture (blown up
        I might add) and it just.. well.. perhaps its the lens they
        use just makes the scale not look right, and it does rendered
        in spots as you have said.

  • The plane (Score:5, Informative)

    by roalt ( 534265 ) <slashdot.org@ r o a l t . com> on Sunday May 09, 2004 @03:44PM (#9101719) Homepage Journal
    According to the article, the following plan will opportunity follow:
    1. Make a round on the edge of the Endurance Crater to make measurements and see how steep the crater is.
    2. If (with little risk) opportunity can drive in it and back out, it will do so before doing the following points, otherwise, do the following points first before moving into Endurance.
    3. Examine the area around the heatshield, to check both the heatshield useful for future missions and to look in the deep hole the heatshield made into mars.
    4. Examine some other place it passed before (but then did not have enough time) to check the composition of a rock that is different than others.

  • interesting formations (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BigGerman ( 541312 ) on Sunday May 09, 2004 @03:46PM (#9101725)
    .. at the bottom of the crater. ( seen here [nasa.gov], 2M file). Is it created by wind? Or maybe water? Something like that can be seen at the bottom of a shallow round body of water on Earth.

  • If the crater is the size of a stadium... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ThomasFlip ( 669988 ) on Sunday May 09, 2004 @04:00PM (#9101776)
    then wouldn't there be enough science there to study until the end of the rover's life? They spent what seemed like a very long time just on that one small crater where the rover landed in. Granted, a lot of the initial time was used for calibration, systems tests, etc, but they spent a lot of time there. If this crater is the size of a stadium, I think it is safe to say that it will last them until the end of the rovers lifespan.

  • Expected Mars Rover sequence (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gordon Bennett ( 752106 ) on Sunday May 09, 2004 @05:28PM (#9102183)
    MR: *blip* SCANNING AREA
    Houston: Receiving data.
    MR: *beep* FOUND SCATTERED ARTIFACTS
    Houston: (operators go quiet) Zoom in on the artifacts, Mars Rover.
    MR: *bzt* REGULAR GEOMETRIC FORMS FOUND. SIZE NO LARGER THAN 5" RESEMBLING FRAGMENTS OF METALS
    Houston: Ah, that's the Beagle, Mars Rover, continue.
    MR: *bip*

  • Any cunning linguists out there ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ballpoint ( 192660 ) on Monday May 10, 2004 @03:37AM (#9104662)
    Who can decode the ancient Greek message [nasa.gov] ?
    Or is it Russian ?

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