End of the Road For NASA's Mars Rover? 181
An anonymous reader writes "NASA celebrated Mars rover Spirit's bountiful, six-year stint on the red planet on Sunday – way longer than its forecast three-month mission. But it all may soon come to an end, stuck as it is in Martian sand."
look on the bright side (Score:5, Funny)
some exoarcheology student in a couple hundred years is going to make the find of his life
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I hope you mean some extra-terrestrial exoarcheology student, because it's too sad to imagine that all information on the rovers will be lost in a couple hundred years.
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Yes, that's more sad than thinking those extra-terrestrials have either killed us or drove us away from our solar system.
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Yes, that's more sad than thinking those extra-terrestrials have either killed us or drove us away from our solar system.
Wow, foreign students must be pretty violent in your country. As you're still alive I guess they drove you away?
Or maybe you're the foreign student and you killed the entire population of the country you were visiting?
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Or maybe you're the foreign student and you killed the entire population of the country you were visiting?
Or maybe he's one of the foreign "explorers" that come long before the students do... they're the ones that do the killing and the driving away...
a doctoral dissertation, 2250: (Score:5, Interesting)
"the lost century: the millennial archive hole"
abstract: paper archives from the 1900s are still useable today, the only barrier being language conventions of that time period. additionally, digital records from the 2100s are usable today, due to mandated standardization of file formats and the prevalence of cheap, eternal nanoholographic storage. however, the 2000s consisted mainly of magnetic and optical storage on flimsy media. additionally, file formats were often proprietary, quirky, and ever changing due to the rapidly evolving nature of digital technology from that early era. if the actual media itself wasn't degraded, the file format itself was usually forgotten in a generation or two. finally, many early groundbreaking sites of the primitive internet are lost to posterity simply because they were designed to be ephemeral and ever changing, and no one thought to take archival snapshots of their content. it didn't seem important at the time. and so, the early decades of the digital age, when many fundamental crucial decisions were made that have defined our culture today, are forever lost to us
Ugh, maybe civilization will go down the shitter.. (Score:2)
...after all (how it has been predicted since the beginning of written history when looking at the intellectual and moral demise of youth, of course)
Or at the least promoters of PHDs will do that. How could one dealing with the above dissertation let it through without mentioning DRM?
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The future it will not be called DRM. It will be the way it is. If one format wins out over all others, everyone will use the same format.
Promoters will be worse than I thought at first (Score:2)
Sooo...how could they know that "file formats were often proprietary, quirky, and ever changing due to the rapidly evolving nature of digital technology from that early era. ... the file format itself was usually forgotten in a generation or two. ... sites of the primitive internet are lost to posterity simply because they were designed to be ephemeral and ever changing"? ;p
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You see, some Internet Technologist were rich enough to afford elaborate burials. They were placed in tombs underneath their Mother's abode and were buried with their accumulated wealth. Heirloom electronics that has been passed down through generations, ritual energy drinks ( long since gone ), and other goods thought to be needed in the afterlife. And although the ages have toppled these revered accouterments needed to make the passage into the afterlife into piles of debris, they also allowed for the pre
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in the future, no one will know DRM even existed
Why? Are you going to DRM all the documents mentioning DRM?
Hopefully they will know that it existed (and that it was a really bad idea). Something about those that forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them...
So? (Score:4, Interesting)
The covering stones of the Pyramids have been used to build other buildings. The Chinese wall has been dismantled for resources as well. Painting have been painted over for the want of a canvas. Tapes for tv-shows have been re-used because tapes were expensive and who cared about another sitcom.
It is nothing new. We learned most of the egyptians from their dump site where they dropped tons of daily, and in their eyes, worthless communication. One accidently saved backup of MySpace will tell future researchers more then museums of our age. It is the data we don't care about that tells the most about us.
Some floppies will survive, purely by accident, and it will be, enough. The holocaust is important for our generation and yet its most influential book, The Diary of Anne Frank, is an accident. You could have all the records of the holocaust in tact, and it still wouldn't speak as loudly. If all the diaries of all the victims still existed, then they would be meaningless, a huge pile of paper nobody would ever bother to read. Precisely because records of the past are rare, we value them. If we knew every move of the roman empire, had it all on paper, what would be there to explore? Proof? How many people study ancient history vs the present? You can get all the records of the current senate of the world most powerful nation... C-span. Nobody is watching.
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B-b-b-but some bald guy told me that the Diary of Anne Frank, and the holocaust, were a hoax!
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If we preserve 0.01% of the digital junk we keep around, the 2000s will be much better documented than the 1900s. Hell, I was reading not that long ago about a huge library of old newspapers (like dead tree from the 1800s) that was being thrown away, because no one wanted to pay for storage. It's all been digitized though, probably OCRs too so you can do things like search it instead of sifting through endless microfiles. One reason alone digital will survive because it's valuable, I just recently noticed a
Note: It was not designed to last 90 days (Score:2)
Anytime Spirit/Opportunity are mentioned here, somebody puts in the post that they are amazing, considering they were designed to work for 90 days.
It should noted that they were designed to work no matter what for their initial 90 day mission and that running beyond that was expected.
Of course, running 6+ years is quite an accomplishment.
myke
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It should noted that they were designed to work no matter what for their initial 90 day mission and that running beyond that was expected.
Very true. 90 days was a "guaranteed" lifetime for doing the cost-benefit analysis for the mission. Obviously to guarantee 90 days, the rover would have to be designed to last much longer than that.
It should also be noted that the 90 day lifetime was based on how long they thought it would take before the Martian dust covered the solar panels and the rover died. Variou
Way to go, NASA! (Score:5, Insightful)
As spectacular as some of its failures have been -- like slamming a probe into Mars because one group failed to convert the units the other group was using -- it's important to recognize that NASA is capable of equally spectacular successes. These rovers have done way more than anyone expected and helped us learn a tremendous amount about Mars. We definitely got more than our money's worth on this project, and the scientists and engineers whose hard work made it happen deserve some serious accolades.
Re:Way to go, NASA! (Score:5, Interesting)
As spectacular as some of its failures have been -- like slamming a probe into Mars because one group failed to convert the units the other group was using -- it's important to recognize that NASA is capable of equally spectacular successes. These rovers have done way more than anyone expected and helped us learn a tremendous amount about Mars. We definitely got more than our money's worth on this project, and the scientists and engineers whose hard work made it happen deserve some serious accolades.
I think it's also important to note that NASA is something like 5/6 in Mars landings.... no other agency in the world has even landed 1 successfully. People (correctly?) shit on NASA for its perceived failings in manned spaceflight but it has an unbeatable record in interplanetary exploration.
Re:Way to go, NASA! (Score:4, Interesting)
Sort of, the soviets managed to land intact on Mars twice. Of course since both lander stopped working within half a minute it's hard to really call them successful.
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...no other agency in the world has even landed 1 successfully...
Huh? While mission of Soviet Mars 3 lander was pretty much a failure (transmission ended 20s after landing due to unknown reasons; what it transmitted and observations suggest it had the misfortune of landing in extreme dust storm), it has successfully landed. It was the first man-made objest on Mars that did.
There is something about worth of accomplishments if only own ones are remembered...
Re:Way to go, NASA! (Score:4, Informative)
The USSR bounced plenty of probes off and past Mars before and after the Mars 3 lander. Getting onto the surface of Mars is no trivial task. I think they had 7 failures (not including launchpad kerfuffles) where the probe either stopped responding, missed the planet or created a new crater.
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Well it's hardly a surprise they had problems. Who eats kerfuffles on a launchpad?!
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Just landing isn't much of an accomplishment. Did the Soviets get any useful science from the landing itself? They don't even know why it stopped working after it landed (successfully). Please, remember this all you want - I have no objection.
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In Soviet Mars, Russia lands on you!
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There's an old trueism - "you get something right, nobody remembers. You get something wrong, nobody forgets."
Sadly, no organisation in history has suffered from that more than NASA.
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As spectacular as some of its failures have been -- like slamming a probe into Mars because one group failed to convert the units the other group was using -- ...
From CNN circa 1999...
NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.
...
The latest findings show that the spacecraft's propulsion system overheated and was disabled as Climate Orbiter dipped deeply into the atmosphere, JPL spokesman Frank O'Donnell said.
That probably stopped the engine from completing its burn, so Climate Orbiter likely plowed through the atmosphere, continued out beyond Mars and now could be orbiting the sun, he said.
missed it by that much...
Hats off to the rover designers (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd just like to take this opportunity to tip my hat to the folks that designed this rover. It was slated for a 180 day mission, and they just finished up day 2,190. That's some pretty high quality engineering that must have gone into this project, especially when you take into account it's on *another planet*, so no tech to fiddle with something that's just a bit off here or there.
No parts, no cleaning, no help at all. To top that off, it's doing all of this on Mars, which isn't really an electronics friendly environment. It crash landed on another planet from a rocket ship and worked 10x longer than it was supposed to.
Well done.
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No parts, no cleaning
Mars has been doing the cleaning. The wind has been cleaning the solar panels, and maybe the wind will have to either clear away the sand from the rover wheels or bury it.
I wonder is snake locomotion has been tried. Turn the steering wheels to the side (or is it steered like a tank?) and slither around to smooth out the ground underneath. Typically when a wheel is stuck, it is in a depression surrounded by loose material - slithering pushes aways the surrounding hills and permits a hill
All is not lost (Score:2, Informative)
One option being considered is spinning the wheels on one side in the hope of tilting the solar panels to face the winter sun. Even if Spirit never travels again, all is not lost. There is a radio experiment for measuring the wobble of Mars as it spins that requires the rover to stay in one place. The key is surviving the upcoming winter, which may depend on a fortuitous wind blowing accumulated dust off the solar panels.
End of the Road (Score:2, Funny)
A Martian Geodetic Observatory (Score:2)
Those of us who are interested in Martian climate oscillations hope that they can turn Spirit into a Martian geodetic observatory, to study the rotation of Mars. There hasn't been a good platform for doing this since Viking 1 died some 27 years ago.
As Bill Folkner [nasa.gov] says : ""Long-term change in the spin direction could tell us about the diameter and density of the planet's core. Short-period changes could tell us whether the core is liquid or solid." There would also be good science in comparing the current
How to make a 3 month stint last 6 years (Score:2, Funny)
Have you ever landed a dream job with dream pay, only to realize it is just a 3 month contract? What do you do to extend it, and for how long can you do that?
Here are the rules:
1. Dont brake anything you need to do your job.
2. Do everything really slow. And I mean really slow:
-Tell your boss it will take 6 month to make a right turn.
-Be a hero when you are able to do it in 3 months, stop the vehicle, take a lot of pictures, have some discussions, test the right turn in a sandbox, discuss mor
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1. Dont brake anything you need to do your job.
Did you mean "brake" or "break"? Because if you meant "break" it changes the meaning of what you said entirely, and if you meant "brake" I fail to see how slowing down your job will do anything except to make it last longer.
A question for NASA (Score:2)
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I doubt your average redneck has had a truck that took ten minutes to get it from forward to reverse and another ten minutes to see if anything happened. That's how long it takes for a command to reach Mars from Earth, and from the feedback to reach Earth from Mars.
Spirit to NASA (Score:2, Funny)
Is there not 2 of them? (Score:2)
Correct me if I am wrong, I probably am, but I thought there were 2 of these rovers, could the other not lend a hand to get the first out of the mud/sand, or wipe off his panels for him???
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yes, and what better way to map out the planet then to do exactly this, if it were me, I would want to get as much out of my buck for the bang, as possible, and if I have to send my one car to help the other get out of the snow (or in this case sand) then so be it, I dont just leave my vehicle parked there.
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Yes, there are two of them. They landed on opposite sides of the planet, so it's not like Spirit can just yell across the canyon to his buddy. In fact, Opportunity has travelled less than 12 miles in the six years it's been there.
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As has already been pointed out, they're very far apart from one another on the planet -- many orders of magnitude further than either have traveled yet, and way more than either of them could ever possibly travel. Like, around the planet kind of distances.
However, since the second one was added as a bonus (and I guess a
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They're on opposite hemispheres of Mars.
Send more! (Score:3, Insightful)
These rovers are a very mature design that has worked flawlessly. Build and send a dozen of them.
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These rovers are a very mature design that has worked flawlessly. Build and send a dozen of them.
Indeed! Or make just minor modifications to the design: it has been a proven reliable platform.
Modifications (off the top of my head) that would prove useful:
1. more memory to avoid the pesky problems with the NVRAM ... perhaps add a means of mechanical decoupling if they completely lock up
2. higher energy density batteries (thanks to improved chemistries now available)
3. ultrasonic vibrator to shake dust off the solar panels (work GREAT in my digital SLR camera)
4. redesign the wheels a tad
5. just a tad mo
Another failure by NASA (Score:2)
TIC. Definitely one of NASA's top 5 accomplishments.
Can RAT save Spirit? (Score:2, Interesting)
Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid. (Score:5, Interesting)
I wish the poster had done a better job summarizing the situation. Spirit is stuck in the sand and can't rock itself free; because it's not moving, sand and dust is collecting on the solar panels; winter is coming on Mars, making the solar energy that much weaker anyway.
But even as cute little rover sits there spinning, its wheels are doing Science, they dug down to a layer with sulfur. Sulfur indicates hydrothermal vents, and hydro is the greek word for water. Woot!
A miracle could happen; a sandstorm could clean off the solar panels, allowing enough energy for a mighty push that could free the machine.
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:5, Interesting)
Does it need continuous power to stay capable of operating? Or could it just wait over winter without power to see if there was a storm that cleaned its solar panels, and continue when more power is available again?
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:5, Informative)
Does it need continuous power to stay capable of operating?
Yes. It requires some nominal amount of power for heating to avoid freezing and damaging components. This is what happened to the Phoenix lander (as anticipated in that case). With the panels covered in dust, plus the additional cold and lack of sunlight during the winter, Spirit is unlikely to survive the winter unless something changes.
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I though they did not use electric heaters on the rovers but used radioactive heating and aerogel insulation.. or was that the first little toy rover we sent?
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Correction of misinformation (Score:4, Informative)
"The rovers run a VxWorks embedded operating system on a radiation-hardened 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM with error detection and correction and 3 MB of EEPROM. Each rover also has 256 MB of flash memory. To survive during all of the various mission phases, the rover's vital instruments must stay within a temperature of 40 C to +40 C (40 F to 104 F). At night the rovers are heated by eight radioisotope heater units (RHU) which each continuously generate 1 W of thermal energy from the decay of radioisotopes, along with electrical heaters that operate only when necessary. A sputtered gold film and a layer of silica aerogel are used for insulation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover [wikipedia.org]
-- Terry
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I though they did not use electric heaters on the rovers but used radioactive heating and aerogel insulation..
You are correct that they do have a radioisotope heater and aerogel insulation, but they do use electrical heating as well to augment the base level created by the radioisotope heater. Without electrical power, it most likely won't have enough heat to survive winter.
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Does it need continuous power to stay capable of operating?
Yes. It requires some nominal amount of power for heating to avoid freezing and damaging components. This is what happened to the Phoenix lander (as anticipated in that case). With the panels covered in dust, plus the additional cold and lack of sunlight during the winter, Spirit is unlikely to survive the winter unless something changes.
Couldn't they have programmed some kind of self-cleaning cycle so these robots can fix themselves after sandstorms? The mission cost of a few extra actuators and a bottle of Windex seems pretty minimal versus robot death because of a particularly nasty storm.
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Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:5, Interesting)
Couldn't they have programmed some kind of self-cleaning cycle so these robots can fix themselves after sandstorms? The mission cost of a few extra actuators and a bottle of Windex seems pretty minimal versus robot death because of a particularly nasty storm.
Well, NASA considered that themselves, and their cost-benefit analysis said it wasn't worth it.
And that was back before they knew that the Martian wind would blow strongly enough to do a decent job of cleaning the panels on its own, and thus had estimated that in 90 days the panels would be covered in too much dust for the rover to operate.
"A few extra actuators and a bottle of Windex", snarkiness aside, is easier to say than to actually engineer without compromising other parts of the mission.
And now that we know that the Martian wind does blow, and as a result the rovers lasted for a good six years, then I have to say with hindsight that neglecting any sort of cleaning mechanism and the associated weight cost was unequivocally the correct choice.
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"A few extra actuators and a bottle of Windex", snarkiness aside
Lighten up. It was a joke. On the other hand, if I had suggested adding an extra roll of duct tape to the mission payload, that would have been a clue that I was making a serious suggestion because duct tape can solve any problem.
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Yeah I knew the suggestion was a joke, but I was responding to the not-necessarily-joking sentiment behind it of why not have a method of cleaning the panels. And not in a particularly dark manner I thought.
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Yeah, I guess I know what you mean. I'm also prone to taking wildly off-the-wall suggestions seriously as a thought exercise... but your error was bringing the conclusion back to a serious and scientifically correct conclusion.
See the other responder to my Windex post who commented about NASA's false assumption that there would be homeless Martians lining up to clean off the instruments every time it stopped. That's the right way to respond to serious-sounding-but-idiotic suggestions in a science forum.
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:4, Interesting)
It needs enough power to at the very least maintain the heating of the components to a level where they will not be compromised. If the rover gets too cold over the winter, the actual materials of the rover could be damaged by the cold temperatures. In theory, it is possible that the rover could recover from a minimal power state if the panels were cleared of dust by a storm or something, but it's not all that likely. Mars is not a very hospitable place to begin with, and is a *very* bad place to run out of gas (proverbially).
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:5, Insightful)
IIRC they put it in "low power mode" last Martian winter and were pleasantly surprised when it survived, booted up, and restarted communications with Earth again when there was enough sunlight available. The trouble is, this year it's stuck at a less-than-ideal angle for collecting sunlight so there may be less of a chance of a springtime startup unless they can adjust the position, which of course takes, well, power. It's a risk either way. Plus, I think it's just locked up a second wheel, leaving it with 4 of 6.
So we'll see. If it can't move again but gets power, its utility as a science platform is going to be severely impacted. Still, it will be able to collect data and pictures of the changing landscape in its immediate vicinity, and it seems to have gotten stuck in an interesting spot, so there will still be useful data coming out of it.
And since the warranty ran out 5+ years ago, I think even a partly functional stationary science platform is pretty darned impressive.
Even after six years, the simple fact that Mankind has working scientific instruments on Mars gives me a geekgasm all over again.
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I believe it needs a small amount of power to keep the antenna pointed towards us in order to continue to receive commands.
Maybe in the future, we can design solar panels that won't collect dust over time. Or figure out how to turn the radioactive heating units into emergency backup power.
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno what's with the blame game, it's alone on Mars, something was going to go wrong eventually. If the designers had made an improvement that would alleviate THIS problem, something else would be missing making THAT a problem.
Oh if only someone had thought to turn the radioactive heating units into emergency backup power! (sarcasm) If only someone had thought to install fans to blow the dust off! (previous poster, more sarcasm.)
It is an incredibly well-designed machine; just like with the human body, everything has a cost. Improving one item means less for the rest.
When I toured JPL it was obvious that the people there have an emotional bond with this little animal robot, its gritty determination, it's spirit of exploration.
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There is actually a windshield/glass technology out there now that can prevent (or at least slow) the dust from building up on the glass of the solar panels. Unfortunately it wasn't around when these guys were built, proven, and then shipped off to a strange hostile world where they have run around like little conquering heroes.
These little guys (and by extension their designers, etc...) are a shining examples of going above and beyond the call of duty.
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Does it need continuous power to stay capable of operating?
As has been pointed out elsewhere, yes it does. There's some detail in the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] (oddly in the section on dust storms). There's also some nice "footage" of a Martian 'dust devil' [wikipedia.org] - one of which fortuitously cleaned Spirit's solar panels earlier in the mission
Yes, it needs power; here's why (Score:5, Informative)
Tthe OS reboots periodically if there's no communication to ensure that it doesn't hang because of the OS. It's a hardware watchdog, which is NOT shut down when the rover is put to sleep, so it will wake periodically over the winter, try to establish communications, ask for a software update (if any), and then go back to sleep. Given that the original mission anticipated a 90 life expectancy, expect these reboots to be relatively frequent.
http://www.flightsoftware.org/files/FSW08_Deliman.pdf [flightsoftware.org]
-- Terry
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We'd just invade. And blame the Martians as the biggest threat to our nation's security....
Late-Breaking News from the Council: VICTORY! (Score:5, Funny)
Today the Council of Elders confirmed the rumours that the sinister blue planet third from our star has waved the white flag of surrender regarding one of its mechanical invaders. K'Breel, Speaker for the Council of Elders, reported the leak of an intelligence report from the blue world:
http://planetary.org/news/2010/1231_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html [planetary.org]
Continuing his pronouncement, K'Breel continued: "The trap which we laid for the robotic invader has proven successful; the monstrosity from the blue world now lies half-buried in a Snarpat pit, impaled upon a spire of rock."
"Rejoice, podmates, one invader has been immobilized, and even as I speak to you, our teams are dutifully hunting down the second. It is of identical design as to the first, and we anticipate that it will succumb long before it reaches its destination!"
When a junior analyst suggested that both invaders had already exceeded their designed lifetimes by a factor of ten, and that even the immobilized one was one gust of wind away from being able to return operationally-useful scientific data from its current position for years to come, K'Breel had the analyst's gelsacs placed between the invader's slowly-spinning wheel and the crusty sulfates of Scamander Crater.
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...little they knew the third planet, as they spoke, was preparing new, immensely bigger monstrosity, powered by the force of elements of matter itself.
Re:Spoiler: Why it's dying; emits one last factoid (Score:2)
They discovered Greeks on Mars? No wonder Mt. Olympus is there!
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What I wonder and nobody has brought up. Why cant it die and come back in the spring? IT should be like any computer/robot and easily recover from a total power failure and restoration.
Why not let it sleep all winter and check in the spring when it may have enough solar-juice to come back online?
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Have you cleared this with Muad'Dib?
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Also, if you're putting a robot on a sand planet, wouldn't it kind of make sense to have some fans to blow off the sand from the solar panels?
Air pressure averages about 1% of Earth's. There simply isn't enough atmosphere to justify a fan or the power it would draw.
One word (Score:2)
Terraforming
It worked perfectly in the simulation known as Total Recall
All we need to do now is send in the Governator to activate the reactor and the Spirit will live again
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OTOH the same atmosphere is able to support dust particles (heck, even dust storms) which cover the panels with...dust. So it might be not so clear-cut.
From what I've heard, it was more about not knowing enough about dust dynamics in the Martian atmosphere at the time of rover development. Certainly not enough to justify the added complexity. They were surprised at the occasional cleaning effects after all.
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Two cans of computer duster in quick draw holsters. DUH!
This is not rocket science here...... Oh wait....
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What bits of equipment would you remove to compensate for the extra weight?
Re:What happened to their plan from a few days ago (Score:4, Funny)
It seems to me that the simplest solution would be to send a manned mission and have the astronauts follow the rovers around with a rag and a bottle of windex.
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Re:What happened to their plan from a few days ago (Score:5, Insightful)
"wouldn't it kind of make sense to have some fans to blow off the sand from the solar panels?"
It was only expected to go 90 days, and not expected to suffer much dust or winter over.
Another in the long line of 'why didn't they'. As in:
"Why didn't they build these things to last 6 years?" Answer: They weren't expected to.
"Why didn't they think of this or that?" Answer: The mission requirements did not include that.
"Why did they do this or that?" Answer: They exercised their best judgement at the time. So far, so good.
What part of exceeding your expectations by 24 times are you complaining about? Your GF expected a 1.0+ct diamond, and she got a 24-ct one? She complains it's VSS-1? That it's heavy? That it catches on her clothes? That it blinds people on the street?
And does she ask you how much you paid for it, and you end up telling her the truth, you paid for a 1/4 ct brilliant, and wow, 6 years later ya got this...
Again, no complaints about the Rovers. Spectacular performance. And NASA is scouting around for the next robotic mission. Ask some of these guys for ideas, anyone?
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Exactly. And the MSL is going to be nuke powered, none of this fussing around with solar panels. Of course the MSL is going to be HUGE compared to the MER landers.
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And more and more of everything.
More to break. Kinda sad.
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atmosphere in mars is 1/10 as thick at only 1% the pressure of earth.
fans would be useless.
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Also, if you're putting a robot on a sand planet, wouldn't it kind of make sense to have some fans to blow off the sand from the solar panels?
Because it was designed for a 3 month mission. Every ounce of weight added is a massive deal to a project like that where it would either add cost or require weight to be removed from somewhere else. As it was they were really testing the limits of the parachute/rocket/bouncy ball re-entry method.
If they were really serious about a long duration rover project they wou
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God what coincidences always seem to await me. When I got back from lunch the photo on my screen saver was the rover's wheel when it was stuck in the dirt the last time. Then I log onto slashdot and look what the topic is!
if you're putting a robot on a sand planet, wouldn't it kind of make sense to have some fans to blow off the sand from the solar panels?
They were only designed to last three months, not long enough for dust buildup on the solar panels to matter. Nobody dreamed thses things would still be
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I see the next installment of the Saw series forming here.
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Clearly the rover isn't making much progress with it's 'dead foot' stuck in the sand, so why can't we cut it off?
As I understand it, there are no "stuck" feet. The rover simply doesn't have the traction (perhaps combined with low motive power) to leave this area of sand.
Re: (Score:2)
One wheel failed years ago and a second failed recently. Both have shown signs of life recently but in the last attempt to move the Rover only 4 of the 6 wheels moved. The two wheels that failed are on the side with the best traction of course.
Re: (Score:2)
The rovers are far away, they will never meet (well, not on their own accord; who knows, retrieval teams might keep them in one place before sending to separate museums, for example)
And we want it that way - what's the point of two rovers if they explore the same strip of the planet?
Re: (Score:2)
They can. Problem is that you cant get people with Phd's to work for mission control for $8.95 an hour and work in a shipping container.
You can communicate with mars for cheap, problem is the Cost of doing anything within a NASA building with NASA employees is expensive. Give the rovers control software and documents to a university and you could run it for peanuts... Students dont care about working in a non air-conditioned shipping container for nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
No real argument here, I've often thought NASA (and many other government organizations) are too far gone culture-wise and in monetary habits to be worth keeping.
I do disagree that Phd types wouldn't work cheap... I'm sure you'd find a lot who would for a chance like this, especially in the current economy.
And I also think that the bulk of the budget to keep these rovers up and running isn't people and high government salaries (although the fact that it's a government operation multiplies the cost) bu
Re: (Score:2)
It's stuck in the snow, the cellphone is dead and they lost their AAA card.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a 1928 Duesenberg that has never had any maintenance whaever, not even an oil change, and it's still working. However, it has a flat tire and can't get to the gas station and it's almost out of gas.
Except it's on Mars.
Re: (Score:2)
So they could propose a manned rescue mission.
Before they can get funding for that, they'll have to send Opportunity over to help out and get that stuck too...