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Space

Opportunity Rover Encounters Its Own Heat Shield 269

Posted by timothy from the like-a-shadow-of-its-former-self dept.
blamanj writes "Mars Rover Opportunity, a few meters shy of the 2km mark on its odometer, has come across the remains of the heat shield from its landing. This map traces the path of the rover for the past 11 months. It's been averaging about 6 meters/sol. Spirit, which had to stop to dislodge a rock, is still climbing the "Columbia Hills". It's tough going, and Spirit experiences slippage of up to 80% as it climbs the hills."
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Opportunity Rover Encounters Its Own Heat Shield More

Opportunity Rover Encounters Its Own Heat Shield

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  • Since I assume that they would not know the precise location of the shield, it must have been quite a moment when the thing first slewed into view. It's a bitch getting that Mountain Dew out of the keyboard, isn't it?

    • Re:Must have been a classic "WTF?!" moment at the (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rob Carr ( 780861 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:23PM (#11205923) Homepage Journal
      Since I assume that they would not know the precise location of the shield

      They already knew where the heat shield was. They had a picture from the Mars Orbiter camera [planetary.org] that let them know exactly how far away it was. There's actually been several pictures. I forget how long ago they knew, but they've known for some time where it was.

      I don't think anyone thought either rover would last this long, so it's only now that they get around to looking at it.

      • Re:Must have been a classic "WTF?!" moment at the (Score:5, Informative)

        by dragons_flight ( 515217 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2004 @12:18AM (#11206524) Homepage
        I don't think anyone thought either rover would last this long

        I was at a presentation by one of the members of the rover science teams six weeks ago.

        If there are no surprises, he was talking about the rovers possibly lasting till June or July. By that time, he was suggesting that the rover's batteries would no longer be able to hold enough charge to keep the things operating.

        For a while they had been expecting that the solar panels would fail first, but apparently the rate of dust accumulation is less than they expected. (Plus "martian carwash [slashdot.org]" events seem to have cleared off some of the dust. He felt such events were probably caused by dust devils that happened to cross over the rover.)
      • They already knew where the heat shield was. They had a picture from the Mars Orbiter camera

        IIRC, the first images of the shield came from the rover's "decent" cameras when it was a few miles high. The images were used by the lander system to correct for vertical motion, which would have otherwise caused the air-bag-encased rover to bounce and roll too much. The system simply kept the adjustment images for later use and they were sent back to Earth soon after landing.
    • ...and then the rest of the vets had a good laugh at the expense of the "new kid" they failed to clue in on the location of the shield they had been knowing. Ahh, c'est la vie.

  • Unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)

    by mg2 ( 823681 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:15PM (#11205865)
    The crushed-body of an evidently indigenous species was found sprawled in the impact zone of the heat shield....

  • ebay it (Score:5, Funny)

    by phoric ( 833867 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:17PM (#11205879)
    That stuff is gonna be worth a lot of money some day, when a kid digs it up in their back yard. On Mars. You know, after we all move there.
    • True, but by that time we'll have several more layers of prefixes. I am predicting "z-x-i-e-bay".
      • Heh, reminds me of a commercial for a TV I saw here in Japan...."Zexy!" I'm guessing it was either for Zenith or Sony.

        Or the Daihatsu ads: "Voxy!"

        "Wonderful Small!"

  • Ascending (Score:5, Funny)

    by lowpass_wilter ( 831895 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:17PM (#11205880)

    "It's tough going, and Spirit experiences slippage of up to 80% as it climbs the hills."

    Sounds a bit like trying to get out of Gehennom with the amulet.

  • How big is *your* potato? (Score:5, Funny)

    by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:18PM (#11205887)
    From the article;

    "A potato-sized rock got caught in Spirits's right rear wheel on sol 339"

    Come *on* NASA. Potatos vary so wildly in size that comparisons like this are totally useless!

  • In other news...... (Score:3, Funny)

    by RabidChicken ( 684107 ) <andrew@andrewstu ... com minus distro> on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:18PM (#11205889) Homepage
    NASA discovered microbes in the immediate area...
  • The shortest distance between two points is a straight line... did mission control get one of their offspring to draw the route with a red kiddy marker?

    Map [nasa.gov]

    I wonder if these rovers use Energiser (TM) solar panels... they just keep going and going and going :-)

    • Re:What the? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by FuturePastNow ( 836765 )
      Straight line? You act as if the goal of the mission is to actually have the rover cover distance. When I look at that map, I see the rover going from one interesting object to the next. It's cool that they've covered two kilometers, but it's the stopping and looking, not the moving, that is the point.
      • Aye,

        your parent might have been cracking a joke... but how true... I suppose when your millions of miles away on the martian surface, the old saying applies several orders of magnitude more:

        its the journey, not the desination...

    • Re:What the? (Score:2, Funny)

      by KennyP ( 724304 )
      I was driving the rover. Just because I'm a raging drunk doesn't mean that I won't get there sooner or later!!!

      Kenny P.
      Visualize Whirled P.'s

  • After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at? There's really not a whole lot--not even very many rocks--on that plain.

    Are there scientific targets identified, or are they maybe going to try to "sprint" Opportunity and see how far it can get in the shortest amount of time? Maybe there's other potential sites of interest some distance away.

    • Here's the schedule (Score:5, Funny)

      by i41Overlord ( 829913 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @11:02PM (#11206164)
      After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at?... Are there scientific targets identified, or are they maybe going to try to "sprint" Opportunity and see how far it can get in the shortest amount of time?

      I have the NASA rover plans right here, and the schedule is as follows:

      1. explore Endurance crater (complete)
      2. examine discarded heat shield (complete)
      3. run rover for endurance trials
      4. sprint rover (you called it)
      5. race rover
      6. jump rover
      7. make rover do acrobatic tricks
      8. crash rover
      9. profit

    • After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at? There's really not a whole lot--not even very many rocks--on that plain.

      There is a large plain of exposed bedrock a couple of miles south from the current position. And further south there is a crater that is something like 5 times larger than the one the rover just crawled out of. However, the larger crater is a long-shot. Oppy would have to log roughly 3 times the distance of Spirit to get there, and Spirit's wheels have been showing multiple signs

  • heat shield (Score:5, Interesting)

    by helioquake ( 841463 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:33PM (#11205981) Journal
    It's not often that we get a chance to examine the integrity of the remaining heat shield in these missions. Let it take a look and see what JPL guys can learn from it for future missions, eh?

  • How much buried? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FuturePastNow ( 836765 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:37PM (#11206006)
    It will be interesting to see how much sand has been blown over the shield in almost a year. Might give more insights into Martian weather.

  • Slippage (Score:4, Funny)

    by Icarus1919 ( 802533 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:39PM (#11206017)
    Yeah, I had 80% slippage my first time, too. But you get better after that and it's not as embarassing.

    • Re:Slippage (Score:2, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )
      Yeah, I had 80% slippage my first time, too. But you get better after that and it's not as embarassing.

      I hope you are not posting YOUR photos on NASA sites.

  • Why look at the heat shield? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:40PM (#11206022) Homepage
    I'd assume the value in looking at the heat shield is to determine how well it performed. I'd guess that's one thing you can never adequately test and maybe getting pictures of the shield can determine if it performed better, worse,or as expected. Obviously this could make future missions more reliable, cheaper, etc.

    • Re:Why look at the heat shield? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rob Carr ( 780861 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:45PM (#11206057) Homepage Journal
      You got it. They couldn't test the entire heat shield at once. Also, performance was based on estimates of how thick the Martian atmosphere was.

      There's also a divot where the heat shield bounced. With any luck, it dug into the Martian surface far deeper than Opportunity could dig. This will give them a chance to examine what's underneath the surface layer - they hope.

    • Another purpose is that the heat sheild probably made a nice, fresh hole in the ground where it hit. This is a good way to examine what is under the surface which couldn't be done without drilling tools the rovers do not have and also allows them to compare fresh holes to those that have been on the surface exposed to the atmosphere.
    • Let's not also forget that a high-speed impact of a heavy object like a heat shield is likely to expose some otherwise-covered rocks to the surface. Investigating the impact site itself may likely reveal things about Martian geology.

  • Lutefisk?? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Graabein ( 96715 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:44PM (#11206052) Journal
    In the image showing Spirit's course there is a rock called "Lutefisk" (Sol 296, top right).

    Lutefisk is a disgusting Norwegian dish, think of it as fish jell-o. You take some perfectly good pieces of dried fish (yuck) and soak them in lye (yes, really!) for 24 hours. Then you soak the fish in fresh water for 48 hours, before putting it in a pan and letting it simmer for about 20 minutes. Finally you wrap the fish in aluminium foil and bake in the oven at 200C for 30-40 minutes.

    The result is a quivering mass of translucent, inedible fish that is served with potatoes, bacon, mashed peas and melted butter (or melted pork fat).

    Now, what I want to know is, how did that disgusting dish of spoiled fish end up as the (informal) name of a rock on Mars?

    • Re:Lutefisk?? (Score:5, Funny)

      by CoolGopher ( 142933 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @10:57PM (#11206142)
      If you reckon Lutefisk is bad, you obviously have not yet had the "pleasure" of encountering the Swedish "delicacy" known as "Surströmming".

      To make surströmming you take a perfectly good piece of raw fish, stick it in a tin can, and then let it sit there fermenting for at least a year (the longer the better, apparently).

      After that, you open it, and eat it without any further preparation. Don't ask me what you normally have with it, because I don't know; 5 seconds after the can has been opened I am a few kilometers away, desperately attempting to escape the stench (generally together with everyone else in the neighbourhood).

      So, just be thankful it's only Lutefisk on that map - had it been surströmming the martians would have accused us of chemical warfare! ;-)

      • Re:Lutefisk?? (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        To make surströmming you take a perfectly good piece of raw fish, stick it in a tin can, and then let it sit there fermenting for at least a year (the longer the better, apparently).

        mmmm....sounds a bit like what we call tunafish.
    • I thought lutefisk got buried in the ground for a season in a jar before proper consumption. Is that just old-school? Maybe your recipe is for instant lutefisk? :)

      Then again I love Worchestershire sauce, made from rotted anchovie fish, so who am I to poke fun?

      • Re:Lutefisk?? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by MasterDirk ( 659057 )

        No, lutefisk isn't buried.

        Rakørret is. Just another disgusting variety on the mostly-decayed-fish theme here in Scandinavia. You take salt in a big jar or bowl (must be thoroughly cleaned), add trout in layers (dorsal down, side-by-side, salt in between layers) and let it ferment (dig it down into the ground) for a month or three (6-10 weeks).

        Every year some people die here in Norway from eating this "delicacy" prepared traditionally. When it's not done just right the meat is a perfect little place

      • I think you've got your Norwegian and Korean wires crossed. Kimchi, which is essentially pickled and spiced cabbage with spicy fish paste, is often said to be buried in a clay pot for a year while it ferments.

        Speaking from personal experience, it ranged from "damn that's hot" to "where did my lower jaw go?"

    • Re:Lutefisk?? (Score:2, Funny)

      by jtriska ( 520530 )
      I'm from Minnesota, where the dish is rather common. (Though I've never eaten it.. yuck)

      From what I've heard, people of nordic decent (of which there are a lot in MN) eat it as a tradition, definately not because of its taste, but as a reminder of harsh times.

      As for why they named a rock after it, who knows. Do the rovers have taste sensors? I'm sure it doesnt taste much different.

      • Re:Lutefisk?? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )
        yeah.. it's eaten in finland sometimes too.

        anyhow, i reckon it was a way to preserve the fish.

        it's total crap, thought the taste isn't that bad(hint, when properly done IT DOESNT HAVE A TASTE, though i'd be surprised if it had any nutrition or energy either after all that).

        anyhow.. you're supposed to eat it with potatoes and some white sauce(i don't know the proper english name) and some spices(black pepper? it's been a while since i've had to eat the shit so can't remember).

        could be because of it's sha
  • So, are these rovers going to make it to being opearional a year after they landed?

    I find it amazing that they can throw robots on a rocket, have them land on another planet, and they remain functional for over 300 days.

  • If Beagle 2 is not too far away perhaps they can set one of the rovers over and take a looksee at it and determine what happened.

  • Museum? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by _Hellfire_ ( 170113 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @11:08PM (#11206192)
    When (yes when) humans colonize Mars and non-engineer/scientific humans are living there I wonder what they will do with the man made stuff from long ago that will be sitting there inert.

    I have a couple of theories as to what the human race will do with this stuff:

    a) Cordon off the area around the rovers and heat shields etc. as a "heritage park" for people to visit and think about the events of the past

    b) Take the stuff and stick it in a museum on earth

    c) As above but create the museum on Mars

    d) Melt it down and recycle it

    e) Revive the electronics and re-purpose the robots etc.

    f) Dump it in the nearest canyon as landfill

    Any other suggestions?
    • How about un-burrying it first. Considering the planet is a giant beach minus the water, the sand will likley cover all of our instrumentation many times over before we ever arrive.
    • Almost certainly reuse it, IMHO. Sending finished goods to Mars is EXPENSIVE, and I see no reason the people there wouldn't do their best to make use of available resources. A Mars colony would be remote and resource poor (at least in the beginning) like no colony in human history, and I suspect every gram of refined metal, and every tool that can be coaxed into working again, will be invaluable.

  • Slow moving Rovers last longer (Score:3, Informative)

    by Inmatarian ( 814090 ) on Tuesday December 28, 2004 @11:30PM (#11206295)
    Its a bit subtle, but consider when you drive your RC car around and it hits a rock, flops over, and you walk over and flip it over.

    On Mars, theres nobody there to flip the Rover over, or even dislodge stuff from it's tires. They spend all day preparing for a slight bit of movement just so they don't make a mistake worth millions of taxpayer dollars.
    • On the other hand, if they had watched Robot Wars they would have known how to build a basic self-righting mechanism...

      On a more serious note, I witnessed a demonstration of a legged robot recently that could just as easily function upside down. It had a thin central body with four legs on each side, and the hinges for raising and lowering the legs could flip all the way around to allow them to work when the robot had its back to the floor.

      The thing was pretty fast too, scaring a few people by charging

  • Humans haven't even landed there..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by fred911 ( 83970 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2004 @12:05AM (#11206469) Journal
    We're already trashing up the place!

  • Oh how much I wish... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Yaztromo ( 655250 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2004 @12:44AM (#11206652) Homepage Journal

    I know it isn't going to happen due to the distances involved, but I'd love it if one of these rovers (or one of the rovers to follow...) were to come across Viking I and/or II. It would be interesting to see how they have withstood the test of time in the last 28 years since their landing. I imagine there is quite a bit of useful science that could be conducted, as both are known variables from nearly 30 years ago, and we have a lot of data from them about their surroundings.

    At the same time, Viking I and Viking II are two of the extraterrestrial missions I have early memories of. I was three when they landed, and continued transmitting data until I was nine. So these are old friends I wouldn't mind revisiting.

    The current missions aren't close enough to either one to make it, but maybe a future mission will give up a glimpse of these past heroes. One can hope :).

    Yaz.

    • Rebooting Viking II (Score:3, Informative)

      by cmholm ( 69081 )
      Yeah, if only. Viking II was accidentally powered down by mission controllers. It'd be a (moderately) interesting engineering exercise to look at the what it would take to recycle the logic in situ. However, even if the two MERs were bullet proof designs, capable of 1k+ miles of travel, they wouldn't be able to make it, Viking II being too far north for the rovers' solar panels to generate sufficient juice.

  • nuclear powered rovers... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ArbitraryConstant ( 763964 ) on Wednesday December 29, 2004 @02:20AM (#11207040) Homepage
    They would last years (assuming the dust doesn't screw up the wheels), be able to travel much farther, and opperate at night.

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