Two Months Later: NASA's Opportunity Rover Is Still Lost On Mars After Huge Dust Storm (space.com) 46
Two months have passed since NASA's Opportunity Mars rover last phoned home. The last time we reported on the rover was on June 12th, when it was trying to survive an intensifying dust storm that was deemed "much worse than a 2007 storm that Opportunity weathered," according to NASA. "The previous storm had an opacity level, or tau, somewhere above 5.5; this new storm had an estimated tau of 10.8." Space.com reports on Opportunity's current status: Opportunity hasn't made a peep since June 10, when dust in the Red Planet's air got so thick that the solar-powered rover couldn't recharge its batteries. Opportunity's handlers think the six-wheeled robot has put itself into a sort of hibernation, and they still hope to get a ping once the dust storm has petered out. And there are good reasons for this optimism, NASA officials said. "Because the batteries were in relatively good health before the storm, there's not likely to be too much degradation," NASA officials wrote in an Opportunity update Thursday (Aug. 16). "And because dust storms tend to warm the environment -- and the 2018 storm happened as Opportunity's location on Mars entered summer -- the rover should have stayed warm enough to survive."
Engineers are trying to communicate with Opportunity several times a week using NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of big radio dishes around the globe. They hail the robot during scheduled "wake-up times" and then listen for a response. And team members are casting a wider net, too: Every day, they sift through all radio signals received from Mars, listening for any chirp from Opportunity, NASA officials said. Even if Opportunity does eventually wake up and re-establish contact, its long ordeal may end up taking a toll on the rover. "The rover's batteries could have discharged so much power -- and stayed inactive so long -- that their capacity is reduced," NASA officials wrote in the update. "If those batteries can't hold as much charge, it could affect the rover's continued operations. It could also mean that energy-draining behavior, like running its heaters during winter, could cause the batteries to brown out."
Engineers are trying to communicate with Opportunity several times a week using NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of big radio dishes around the globe. They hail the robot during scheduled "wake-up times" and then listen for a response. And team members are casting a wider net, too: Every day, they sift through all radio signals received from Mars, listening for any chirp from Opportunity, NASA officials said. Even if Opportunity does eventually wake up and re-establish contact, its long ordeal may end up taking a toll on the rover. "The rover's batteries could have discharged so much power -- and stayed inactive so long -- that their capacity is reduced," NASA officials wrote in the update. "If those batteries can't hold as much charge, it could affect the rover's continued operations. It could also mean that energy-draining behavior, like running its heaters during winter, could cause the batteries to brown out."
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It's definitely not lost [wikipedia.org]
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Reminds me when they called Odin, where he lost his eye:
"I did no lose my eye, I know exactly where i placed it!"
it's a lost opportunity (Score:3)
Seize the Sol.
can't login or even ping, way too far to get there (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like every sysadmin feels NASA's pain. Don't you just love when there's a remote machine that doesn't respond to any means of contacting it you have, and getting there would take a whole day's trip, preceded by two weeks of having access there organized?
NASA just has exactly this, scaled way up.
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Sounds like every sysadmin feels NASA's pain. Don't you just love when there's a remote machine that doesn't respond to any means of contacting it you have, and getting there would take a whole day's trip, preceded by two weeks of having access there organized?
Uh... nope. Most sysadmins have their servers in-house, at a data center or in some branch office where somebody can take a look at it. Operating servers in unmanned locations is a niche, it happens in a lot of industries so it's not exactly rare but no most sysadmins don't know that pain.
Re: can't login or even ping, way too far to get t (Score:1)
Those are keyboard monkeys not sysadmins.
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Sounds like every sysadmin feels NASA's pain. Don't you just love when there's a remote machine that doesn't respond to any means of contacting it you have, and getting there would take a whole day's trip, preceded by two weeks of having access there organized?
Uh... nope. Most sysadmins have their servers in-house, at a data center or in some branch office where somebody can take a look at it. Operating servers in unmanned locations is a niche, it happens in a lot of industries so it's not exactly rare but no most sysadmins don't know that pain.
The old days used to be like this. It was always a nervous moment when you rebooted. But that was before we had remote management tools and virtual systems.
Smart sysadmins deploy remote physical servers with multiple paths of access and remote tools such as remote power switching, networked KVM switches, independent remote admin interfaces (i.e. iLO, DRAC, etc.), etc.
The advent of virtual systems makes this much easier with the ability to image a VM as a backup and bring it up on another VM host if neede
Re: can't login or even ping, way too far to get t (Score:2)
The physical hardware still needs maintained. I have to make a trip to replace power supplies or disks at times. If you're not doing that you're half a sysadmin, a sysmanlette.
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The old days used to be like this. It was always a nervous moment when you rebooted. But that was before we had remote management tools and virtual systems.
If you have a fleet of servers, then obviously you have good remote management. That's not the case when every machine is an unique snowflake or at a different location, though.
Mars rovers are very firmly in the the latter category.
Re:can't login or even ping, way too far to get th (Score:4, Interesting)
Surprising (Score:2)
ETA of end of storm? (Score:2)
I didn't see an estimate in the story of when the storm might leave the area. Anyone have an alternate site?
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No windshield wipers on the solar panels?
WTF NASA!
Think about it. If the batteries are depleted from 2 months of trying to keep critical components warm enough to survive, where would the power to run the wiper motors come from?
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the warranty is expired (Score:1)
The original 90 day warranty on the rover expired long ago. And didn't cover this sort of off road treatment
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Actually, I have yet to see anyone point out that so far, Opportunity has already exceeded the planned length of its mission by more than 14 years.
xkcd (Score:4, Funny)
https://xkcd.com/1504/ [xkcd.com]
Nice one . . . . (Score:2)
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So.. you are saying it is currently silent as it plots its next move?
Mars rover to self... (Score:2)
"F*ck this, I've been running errands for earthlings for far too long, I'm going to find myself a pub!"
You see !!!!! (Score:2)
The HHGTTG quote (Score:3)
“The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.”