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Robotic Spacecraft (Astronomy, Planetary, Earth, Solar/Heliophysics) => Space Science Coverage => Topic started by: jacqmans on 08/29/2006 09:15 pm
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http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html
SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Continues Mid-Winter Studies of Martian Rocks and
Soil - sol 933-942, August 25, 2006:
Spirit continued to make progress on the rover's winter campaign of
science observations, acquiring microscopic images and data about rock
composition with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and the
miniature
thermal emission spectrometer. Spirit took images of the spacecraft
deck
for incorporation into the "McMurdo panorama."
Spirit remains healthy. Electrical power from the rover's solar array
has been holding steady at about 280 watt-hours per sol (a hundred
watt-hours is the amount of electricity needed to light one 100-watt
bulb for one hour).
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 933 (Aug. 18, 2006): Spirit acquired super-resolution images of a
basalt hill nicknamed "Dome Fuji" with the panoramic camera and
monitored dust on the pancam mast assembly. Spirit scanned the
atmosphere for opacity caused by dust and scanned the sky and ground
with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 934: Spirit acquired touch-up images for the McMurdo panorama with
the panoramic camera. Spirit scanned the atmosphere for opacity caused
by dust and scanned the sky and ground with the miniature thermal
emission spectrometer.
Sol 935: Spirit acquired panoramic camera images of a rock target
called
"Prat" and measured the magnitude of sunlight in addition to scanning
the horizon and sky with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal
emission spectrometer.
Sol 936: Spirit acquired data from a rock target called "Wasa" with the
miniature thermal spectrometer. The rover continued to make daily
observations of the sky and ground with the panoramic camera and
miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 937: Spirit acquired microscopic images of a ripple called "Palmer"
and scanned for wind-related changes in a sand target known as
"Rothera." Spirit continued to make daily observations of the sky and
ground with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission
spectrometer.
Sol 938: Spirit acquired super-resolution, panoramic camera images of a
possible meteorite candidate known as "Vernadsky." The rover continued
to make daily observations of the sky and ground with the panoramic
camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 939: Spirit acquired super-resolution, panoramic camera images of a
target known as "Scott Base." Spirit continued to make daily
observations of the sky and ground with the panoramic camera and
miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 940: Plans called for Spirit to acquire images of the rover deck
with the panoramic camera and acquire miniature thermal emission
spectrometer data on a rock target known as "Law-Racovita." Plans
called
for continued daily observations of the sky and ground with the
panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 941: Plans called for Spirit to acquire panoramic camera images of
the rover deck as well as continue to make daily observations of the
sky
and ground with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission
spectrometer.
Sol 942 (Aug. 27, 2006): Plans called for Spirit to continue acquiring
panoramic camera images of the rover deck, collect data about elemental
composition of the rock target called "Halley Brunt," and make daily
observations of the sky and ground with the panoramic camera and
miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Odometry:
As of sol 938 (Aug. 23, 2006), Spirit's total odometry remained at
6,876.18 meters (4.27 miles).
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Closer and Closer to 'Victoria' - sol 913-919,
August 25, 2006:
Opportunity is healthy and located only 218 meters (715 feet) from the
rim of "Victoria Crater." Opportunity's odometer clicked past the
9-kilometer (5.5-mile) mark as it drove 237.81 meters (780 feet) during
the week. The terrain within the annulus, or ring, of material
surrounding Victoria is homogeneous and flat, which is favorable for
long drives. The team planned a trenching activity for sol 919 (Aug.
25,
2006) to prepare for a robotic arm campaign during the weekend.
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 913 (Aug. 18, 2006): Opportunity used its panoramic camera to
conduct a 13-filter systematic foreground observation, gathered a
systematic foreground raster with the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer and used the navigation camera in support of that
spectrometer. The rover measured the atmosphere's clarity (a
measurement
called "tau") with the panoramic camera and used the miniature thermal
emission spectrometer for observations of targets "Tenerife" (a
boulder)
and "Tenerife BG" (soil near the boulder).
Sol 914: Opportunity drove 71.72 meters (235 feet) then took images
from
its new position with the navigation camera and the panoramic camera.
The rover also conducted a test to aid the design effort for NASA's
2009
Mars Science Laboratory. Opportunity's navigation camera took an image
of the sunset. The image was designed to help in development of an
algorithm for determining the rover's position using the sun and the
time of day. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer observed sky
and ground during the afternoon communication-relay pass of NASA's Mars
Odyssey orbiter.
Sol 915: The rover conducted monitoring of dust on the panoramic mast
assembly (the rover's "neck" and "head"), used the panoramic camera to
survey clasts (rock fragments) and used the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer to observe sky and ground.
Sol 916: The rover drove backwards for 88.82 meters (291 feet).
Sol 917: Opportunity drove backwards 77.27 meters (254 feet) and took
mosaics of images with the navigation camera. Before the Mars Odyssey
pass, the rover took a panoramic camera tau measurement. During the
orbiter's pass, the miniature thermal emission spectrometer conducted a
foreground stare. The rover also took a panoramic camera 13-filter
foreground image.
Sol 918: Opportunity did untargeted remote sensing, including: a
panoramic camera albedo measurement, a navigation camera rear-looking
mosaic, a front hazard avoidance camera image for potential robotic-arm
work, and a miniature thermal emission spectrometer seven-point sky and
ground observation. The rover also took a panoramic camera tau
measurement before the first of two Odyssey passes and a miniature
thermal emission spectrometer sky and ground observation during the
first Odyssey pass.
Sol 919: Plans call for Opportunity to take a panoramic camera image of
the location selected for trenching, then to advance 2.3 meters (7.5
feet) and use a wheel to dig the trench, pausing to take images. Next
in
the plan are navigation camera mosaics in the forward and rear
directions, then observations of sky and ground with the miniature
thermal emission spectrometer during the Odyssey pass.
As of sol 918 (August 24, 2006), Opportunity's total odometry was
9,015.19 meters (5.60 miles).
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Thanks for posting the update. The MER Rovers have been one of NASA’s biggest exploration successes in recent years, the folks that built them and the operations team deserve great credit. I can't wait to see Victoria Crater.
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Inching Closer to 'Victoria' - sol 920-927,
September 1, 2006:
Opportunity is healthy and still 218 meters (715 feet) from "Victoria
Crater." Over the weekend, the rover's shoulder azimuth joint stalled
as
Opportunity was trying to start measurements on a trench it dug on Sol
919 (Aug. 25, 2006). Consequently, all weekend arm activities were
aborted, but remote science activities were executed as planned.
Beginning on Sol 923, rover arm diagnostic measurements were taken as
well as some remote sensing science. Results from the diagnostics
revealed neither cause nor any damage to the stalled joint. On Sol 924,
the arm performed flawlessly as Opportunity successfully completed the
activities originally planned for Sol 920. On Sols 925, 926 and 927
Opportunity collected more arm diagnostics (to ensure the stow before
drive would go smoothly) as well as completing all arm activities
originally planned over the weekend.
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 920 (Aug. 26, 2006): Opportunity did a miniature thermal emission
spectrometer observation and other activities were aborted due to the
arm stall.
Sol 921: The rover took a panoramic camera image.
Sol 922: Opportunity used its panoramic camera and miniature thermal
emission spectrometer.
Sol 923: The rover conducted arm diagnostics and took panoramic camera
and miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations.
Sol 924: Completing the activities originally planned for sol 920,
Opportunity took a microscopic image and did an alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer observation.
Sol 925: The rover continued to do arm diagnostics and completed a
Moessbauer spectrometer observation - a completion of sol 921's
originally planned activities.
Sol 926: Opportunity continued to do arm diagnostics and completed
activities originally planned for sol 922 by taking microscopic images
and using the Moessbauer spectrometer.
Sol 927: On this sol, the rover used its Moessbauer spectrometer.
As of sol 925 (August 31, 2006), Opportunity's total odometry was
9,023.70 meters (5.61 miles).
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SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Recovers from Software Reset, Makes Finishing
Touches to Winter Panorama - sol 943-949, September 05, 2006:
Spirit experienced a software reset during the evening overpass of the
Odyssey orbiter on sol 944 (Aug. 29, 2006). The rover was in the
process
of receiving command sequences for the following two Martian days, sols
945 and 946 (Aug. 30-31, 2006). As a result of the reset, the rover
went
into automode, meaning the rover did not attempt to execute a master
sequence of activities for the day. The apparent cause was that the
rover's central processing unit was overworked as several tasks were
running in parallel at the time. Engineers transmitted a new,
abbreviated plan of activities on sol 946 along with the plan of
activities for sol 947 (Sept. 1, 2006).
Spirit is healthy and continues to make progress on the rover's winter
science campaign. The rover spent part of the week filling in sections
of the rover deck for the "McMurdo panorama." Electrical power from the
rover's solar array has been holding steady at about 280 watt-hours per
sol (a hundred watt-hours is the amount of electricity needed to light
one 100-watt bulb for one hour).
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 943 (Aug. 28, 2006): Spirit acquired sky images with the navigation
camera. The rover scanned the atmosphere for opacity caused by dust and
scanned the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer.
Sol 944: Spirit acquired microscopic images of the soil target known as
"Halley Brunt." Spirit scanned the atmosphere for opacity caused by
dust
and scanned the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer.
Sol 945: Spirit experienced a software reset and went into automode,
meaning the rover did not attempt to execute a master sequence of
activities for the day. The apparent cause was that the rover's central
processing unit was overworked.
Sol 946: Spirit remained in automode. Engineers transmitted an
abbreviated plan of activities for the sol along with the plan of
activities for sol 947.
Sol 947: Plans called for Spirit to acquire fill-in images for the
McMurdo panorama and to continue to make daily observations of the sky
and ground with the panoramic camera and the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer.
Sol 948: Plans called for Spirit to acquire Moessbauer data on the soil
target called "Halley Brunt" and to continue to make daily observations
of the sky and ground with the panoramic camera and the miniature
thermal emission spectrometer.
Sol 949 (Sept. 3, 2006): Plans called for the rover to acquire fill-in
frames for the McMurdo panorama and to continue to make daily
observations of the sky and ground with the panoramic camera and the
miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Odometry:
As of sol 945 (Aug. 30, 2006), Spirit's total odometry remained at
6,876.18 meters (4.27 miles).
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Finishing Up Scuff Work and Heading for 'Emma Dean'
- sol 928-935, September 12, 2006:
Opportunity is healthy and just over 100 meters (328 feet) from
"Victoria Crater." The rover completed robotic arm work on a scuff mark
it made on sol 919. On sol 929 (Sept. 4, 2006), Opportunity almost got
a
hole-in-one by driving 100.31 meters (329 feet) to the small crater
"Emma Dean." The rover arrived just 5 meters (16 feet) short of Emma
Dean. On sol 931 the rover photographed the bit of the rock abrasion
tool (RAT) to help engineers estimate how many more grinds might be
possible with the tool. The hazard avoidance camera took several
high-resolution images at different angles. The RAT engineers are
examining them to see how much "bite" is left in the RAT. Also on sol
931, a short bump to an ejecta rock was attempted in the hopes of
grinding it. Another bump (tentatively scheduled for sol 937) will have
to be attempted before the rover can actually grind it. The remainder
of
the week had Opportunity acquiring remote-sensing science at Emma Dean.
Following the robotic arm campaign at Emma Dean, Opportunity will
continue its drive to Victoria Crater.
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 928 (Sept. 3, 2006): Opportunity used the microscopic imager on the
robotic arm to look at scuff-mark targets "Powell" and "Powell's
Brother." The rover also used the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on
Powell's Brother. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer was also
used on this sol.
Sol 929: The rover bumped back this sol and used its panoramic camera.
It also drove forward toward the small crater referred to as Emma Dean.
The rover also took some post-drive images.
Sol 930: This sol consisted of untargeted remote sensing.
Sol 931: Opportunity bumped to a rover arm target at Emma Dean and
conducted untargeted remote sensing.
Sol 932: The rover conducted untargeted remote sensing.
Sol 933: Opportunity conducted targeted remote sensing.
Sol 934: Opportunity conducted targeted remote sensing.
Sol 935 (Sept. 10, 2006): Opportunity conducted targeted remote
sensing.
As of sol 931 (Sept. 6, 2006), Opportunity's total odometry was
9,128.84
meters (5.67 miles).
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SPIRIT UPDATE: The Martian Sun Also Rises as Winter Retreats -
sol 957-963, September 14, 2006:
Spirit is beginning to see an upward trend in electrical power as
winter
slowly recedes and the sun ascends higher in the sky each day.
Electrical power from the rover's solar array rose to 287 watt-hours on
the rover's 958th Martian day, or sol (Sept. 12, 2006) of exploration,
compared with 277 watt-hours on sol 944 (Aug. 29, 2006). One hundred
watt-hours is the amount of electricity needed to light one 100-watt
bulb for one hour.
During the past week, Spirit conducted 10 hours of analysis of the
elemental composition of dust on the rover's magnets using the alpha
particle X-ray spectrometer. Spirit also finished taking images of the
spacecraft deck.
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 957 (Sept. 11, 2006): Spirit continues to complete the same set of
observations each sol in parallel with engineering activities such as
data management. The engineering block of activities includes
monitoring
atmospheric dust with the panoramic camera, and surveying the sky and
ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. On this
particular sol, Spirit demonstrated additional multi-tasking abilities
by acquiring data on a rock target known as "Vostok" using the
miniature
thermal emission spectrometer while transmitting data to the Odyssey
spacecraft as it passed overhead.
Sol 958: Spirit acquired part 13 of the 15-part image mosaic of the
spacecraft deck with the panoramic camera. Spirit spent about five
hours
acquiring data on the elemental composition of dust on the rover's
filter magnets using the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.
Sol 959: Spirit acquired panoramic camera images of a soil target
consisting of bright material in the rover's tracks known as "Tyrone."
Sol 960: Plans called for Spirit to continue to acquire panoramic
images
of the rover deck, restart the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer
following the overhead pass of the Odyssey spacecraft, and spend 4
hours
and 50 minutes collecting elemental data of dust on the filter magnets.
Plans also called for a morning measurement of sky brightness in the
west with the panoramic camera (known as a pancam skyspot), a search
for
clouds using the navigation camera, a horizon survey with the panoramic
camera, imaging of the "El Dorado" dune field with the panoramic
camera,
and imaging of ripples with the rear hazard avoidance camera.
Sol 961: Plans called for Spirit to acquire data from a target known as
"Macquarie" with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, acquire
data from the calibration target with the miniature thermal emission
spectrometer, and search for clouds with the navigation camera.
Sol 962: Plans called for Spirit to acquire the last segment of the
15-part panoramic mosaic of the spacecraft deck and conduct a 4-hour
and
35-minute alpha particle X-ray spectrometer analysis of the filter
magnets. Plans also called for Spirit to acquire sky images with the
panoramic camera and validate measurements of complete darkness by the
panoramic camera.
Sol 963 (Sept. 18, 2006): Plans called for Spirit to acquire images of
the rover's tracks with the navigation camera, take microscopic images
of the filter and capture magnets, and place the alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer on the capture magnet. Plans also called for the rover to
acquire hazard avoidance camera images of the work volume reached by
the
rover's robotic arm, monitor dust on the panoramic camera mast
assembly,
survey the horizon with the panoramic camera, and search for morning
clouds with the navigation camera.
Odometry:
As of sol 958 (Sept. 12, 2006), Spirit's total odometry remained at
6,876.18 meters (4.27 miles).
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Grinding into 'Cape Faraday' - sol 936-940,
September 15, 2006:
Opportunity is healthy and is currently driving toward "Victoria
Crater," which is a little over 100 meters (328 feet) away. On sol 936
(Sept. 11, 2006), a short bump was made to a robotic arm rock target
called "Cape Faraday" near the crater "Emma Dean." Opportunity drove
1.45 meters (4.8 feet) between sols 936-940.
Sol-by-sol summaries:
Sol 936 (Sept. 11, 2006): The morning of this sol saw the rover
monitoring the amount of dust on itself using the panoramic mast
assembly. Opportunity completed a panoramic camera tau, assessing the
clarity of the sky. The rover then bumped to the robotic arm target at
Emma Dean Crater and took a panoramic camera image of the arm's work
area. Another measurement was done before the Mars Odyssey pass. During
the pass, Opportunity used the miniature thermal emission spectrometer
and had a look at that instrument's calibration target.
Sol 937: Opportunity used the morning to examine certain points in the
sky with its panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission
spectrometer. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer took
measurements of the sky and ground, and the instrument's calibration
targets were examined.
Sol 938: Opportunity completed another assessment of the clarity of the
sky. The rover used its miniature thermal emission spectrometer to
measure points on the sky and ground and used its navigation camera to
search for clouds. The rover's miniature thermal emission spectrometer
had a look at targets "Thompson" and "Jones."
Sol 939: The rover did another assessment of the sky, a tau
measurement.
The rover used its microscopic imager to snap a photo of Cape Faraday
before grinding. The rock abrasion tool ground into the target and the
microscopic imager took the "after" shot. The panoramic camera took
images in the rover's driving direction. The alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer was used after the Odyssey pass.
Sol 940 (Sept. 15, 2005): On this morning, Opportunity used its
panoramic camera to examine targets in the sky and used the miniature
thermal emission spectrometer to look at the sky and ground. The rover
examined Cape Faraday with the Moessbauer spectrometer, and took a look
at the rock "Beaman" with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
During the Odyssey pass, the rover investigated the miniature thermal
emission spectrometer calibration target.
As of sol 936, (Sept. 11, 2006) Opportunity's total odometry was
9130.29
meters (5.67 miles)
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The MER mission has been extended again! http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0609/26rovers/
Now 31 month into the mission, Opportunity is heading towards the 10,000 meters mark! (Originally planned: 3 month and a few hundert meters)
Go Spirit, Go Opportunity
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If you have not had a chance.. get over to the JPLwebsite for a view of Victoria.. its something to behold
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
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have a look at this: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-121
the rover opportunity spotted by MRO. Even the shadow of the camera mast of the vehicle is visible! An impressive demonstration of the power of MROs HiRISE-Camera.
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Well, after all the rovers are NASA made :)
Isn't it incredible how humans can establish such a global system in an alien world - orbiters, rovers and soon landers?
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RELEASE: 08-216
NASA'S MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY CLIMBING OUT OF VICTORIA CRATER
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration rover Opportunity is
heading back out to the Red Planet's surrounding plains nearly a year
after descending into a large Martian crater to examine exposed
ancient rock layers.
"We've done everything we entered Victoria Crater to do and more,"
said Bruce Banerdt, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. Banerdt is project scientist for Opportunity and its rover
twin, Spirit.
Having completed its job in the crater, Opportunity is now preparing
to inspect loose cobbles on the plains. Some of these rocks,
approximately fist-size and larger, were thrown long distances when
objects hitting Mars blasted craters deeper than Victoria into the
Red Planet. Opportunity has driven past scores of cobbles but
examined only a few.
"Our experience tells us there's lots of diversity among the cobbles,"
said Scott McLennan of the State University of New York, Stony Brook.
McLennan is a long-term planning leader for the rover science team.
"We want to get a better characterization of them. A statistical
sampling from examining more of them will be important for
understanding the geology of the area."
Opportunity entered Victoria Crater on Sept. 11, 2007, after a year of
scouting from the rim. Once a drivable inner slope was identified,
the rover used contact instruments on its robotic arm to inspect the
composition and textures of accessible layers.
The rover then drove close to the base of a cliff called "Cape Verde,"
part of the crater rim, to capture detailed images of a stack of
layers 20 feet tall. The information Opportunity has returned about
the layers in Victoria suggest the sediments were deposited by wind
and then altered by groundwater.
"The patterns broadly resemble what we saw at the smaller craters
Opportunity explored earlier," McLennan said. "By looking deeper into
the layering, we are looking farther back in time." The crater
stretches approximately a half mile in diameter and is deeper than
any other seen by Opportunity.
Engineers are programming Opportunity to climb out of the crater at
the same place it entered. A spike in electric current drawn by the
rover's left front wheel last month quickly settled discussions about
whether to keep trying to edge even closer to the base of Cape Verde
on a steep slope. The spike resembled one seen on Spirit when that
rover lost the use of its right front wheel in 2006. Opportunity's
six wheels are all still working after 10 times more use than they
were designed to perform, but the team took the spike in current as a
reminder that one could quit.
"If Opportunity were driving with only five wheels, like Spirit, it
probably would never get out of Victoria Crater," said JPL's Bill
Nelson, a rover mission manager. "We also know from experience with
Spirit that if Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel after it
is out on the level ground, mobility should not be a problem."
Opportunity now drives with its robotic arm out of the stowed
position. A shoulder motor has degraded over the years to the point
where the rover team chose not to risk having it stop working while
the arm is stowed on a hook. If the motor were to stop working with
the arm unstowed, the arm would remain usable.
Spirit has resumed observations after surviving the harshest weeks of
southern Martian winter. The rover won't move from its winter haven
until the amount of solar energy available to it increases a few
months from now. The rover has completed half of a full-circle color
panorama from its sun-facing location on the north edge of a low
plateau called "Home Plate."
"Both rovers show signs of aging, but they are both still capable of
exciting exploration and scientific discovery," said JPL's John
Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
The team's plan for future months is to drive Spirit south of Home
Plate to an area where the rover last year found some bright,
silica-rich soil. This could be possible evidence of effects of hot
water.
For images and information about NASA's Opportunity and Spirit Mars
rovers, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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NEWS RELEASE: 2008-168 August 29, 2008
NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Ascends to Level Ground
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has climbed out of the large crater that it had been examining from the inside since last September.
"The rover is back on flat ground," an engineer who drives it, Paolo Bellutta of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced to the mission's international team of scientists and engineers.
Opportunity used its own entry tracks from nearly a year ago as the path for a drive of 6.8 meters (22 feet) bringing the rover out over the top of the inner slope and through a sand ripple at the lip of Victoria Crater. The exit drive, conducted late Thursday, completed a series of drives covering 50 meters (164 feet) since the rover team decided about a month ago that it had completed its scientific investigations inside the crater.
"We're headed to the next adventure out on the plains of Meridiani," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Opportunity and its twin Mars rover, Spirit. "We safely got into the crater, we completed our exploration there, and we safely got out. We were concerned that any wheel failure on our aging rover could have left us trapped inside the crater."
The Opportunity mission has focused on Victoria Crater for more than half of the 55 months since the rover landed in the Meridiani Planum region of equatorial Mars. The crater spans about 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter and reveals rock layers that hold clues to environmental conditions of the area through an extended period when the rocks were formed and altered.
The team selected Victoria as the next major destination after Opportunity exited smaller Endurance Crater in late 2004. The ensuing 22-month traverse to Victoria included stopping for studies along the route and escaping from a sand trap. The rover first reached the rim of Victoria in September 2007. For nearly a year, it then explored partway around the rim, checking for the best entry route and examining from above the rock layers exposed in a series of promontories that punctuate the crater perimeter.
Now that Opportunity has finished exploring Victoria Crater and returned to the surrounding plain, the rover team plans to use tools on the robotic arm in coming months to examine an assortment of cobbles -- rocks about fist-size and larger -- that may have been thrown from impacts that dug craters too distant for Opportunity to reach.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For images and information about NASA's Opportunity and Spirit Mars rovers, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .
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RELEASE: 08-240
NASA'S MARS ROVER TO HEAD TOWARD BIGGER CRATER
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is setting its
sights on a crater more than 20 times larger than its home for the
past two years.
To reach the crater the rover team calls Endeavour, Opportunity would
need to drive approximately 7 miles to the southeast, matching the
total distance it has traveled since landing on Mars in early 2004.
The rover climbed out of Victoria Crater earlier this month.
"We may not get there, but it is scientifically the right direction to
go anyway," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal
investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin
rover, Spirit. "This crater is staggeringly large compared to
anything we've seen before."
Getting there would yield a look inside a bowl 13.7 miles across.
Scientists expect to see a much deeper stack of rock layers than
those examined by Opportunity in Victoria Crater.
"I would love to see that view from the rim," Squyres said. "But even
if we never get there, as we move southward we expect to be getting
to younger and younger layers of rock on the surface. Also, there are
large craters to the south that we think are sources of cobbles that
we want to examine out on the plain. Some of the cobbles are samples
of layers deeper than Opportunity will ever see, and we expect to
find more cobbles as we head toward the south."
Opportunity will have to pick up the pace to get there. The rover team
estimates Opportunity may be able to travel about 110 yards each day
it is driven toward the Endeavour crater. Even at that pace, the
journey could take two years.
"This is a bolder, more aggressive objective than we have had before,"
said John Callas, the project manager for both Mars rovers at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's tremendously
exciting. It's new science. It's the next great challenge for these
robotic explorers."
Opportunity, like Spirit, is well past its expected lifetime on Mars,
and might not keep working long enough to reach the crater. However,
two new resources not available during the 4-mile drive toward
Victoria Crater in 2005 and 2006 are expected to aid in this new
trek.
One is imaging from orbit of details smaller than the rover itself,
using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera
on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at the Red
Planet in 2006.
"HiRISE allows us to identify drive paths and potential hazards on the
scale of the rover along the route," Callas said. "This is a great
example of how different parts of NASA's Mars Exploration Program
reinforce each other."
Other advantages come from a new version of flight software uplinked
to Opportunity and Spirit in 2006, boosting their ability to
autonomously choose routes and avoid hazards such as sand dunes.
During its first year on Mars, Opportunity found geological evidence
that the area where it landed had surface and underground water in
the distant past. The rover's explorations since have added
information about how that environment changed over time. Finding
rock layers above or below the layers already examined adds windows
into later or earlier periods of time.
NASA's JPL built and manage the rovers and the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For images and information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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Wow - now that is an ambitious journey!
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Read this yesterday.
http://www.space.com/news/081112-mars-rover-spirit.html (http://www.space.com/news/081112-mars-rover-spirit.html)
Anyone have an update?
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UMSF says they did hear from Spirit and a low-power fault did not occur.
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Thanks for that. I worry about those little guys!
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Glad to know they're still going strong!
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Glad to know they're still going strong!
Actually they aren't - that's what he was posting about. Spirit is barely alive thanks in part to the dust storm, and there's some fear she won't make it through (although it seems to be getting out of the worst.)
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Spirit's problem:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10128
Doesn't look good for her.
--- CHAS
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I was thinking. In future, could they devise & implement an air pump to collect atmospheric gas, compress it just enough and store it in a little sample bottle, and use it to blow off the solar arrays? They could have nozzles a specific location (or attached to the end of an arm) to clean off the dust periodically. You would probably have to launch it empty to prevent bursting during descent heating, unless the relief valve is good enough.
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http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20081113a.html
"NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit communicated via the Mars Odyssey orbiter today right at the time when ground controllers had told it to, prompting shouts of "She's talking!" among the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "
89 W-hours a couple days ago. The lows over the winter that had them only communicating on alternating days were all still over 200 W-hours. Reports from over the last couple days and weeks say the atmosphere is 70% opaque, and that only 32% of light that falls on Spirit's solar panels gets through. They've even shut off some heaters in addition to skipping communications windows to keep her from going into fault mode, because normal fault behavior is to regularly try communicating with earth, which will just drain her batteries until enough charge accumulates to immediately try again.
Here's hoping for a dust devil.
Robertross, the suggestion has been made before. The conclusion they reached was more science payload was more valuable than the variety of options for trying to blow off dust, especially since none of them were guaranteed to work. Also, they maximized the size of the solar panels keep power levels reasonable even as dust started to block sunlight. An added bonus was plenty of power to spare at the beginning of the mission.
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RELEASE: 08-337
MARS ROVERS NEAR FIVE YEARS OF SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have
big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of
their memorable landings on Mars.
Of the hundreds of engineers and scientists who cheered at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2004,
when Spirit landed safely, and 21 days later when Opportunity
followed suit, none predicted the team would still be operating both
rovers in 2009.
"The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the
prime mission plan," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "The twins have worked almost 20 times that long. That's
an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary
times."
The rovers have made important discoveries about wet and violent
environments on ancient Mars. They also have returned a
quarter-million images, driven more than 13 miles, climbed a
mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and aging
hardware, survived dust storms, and relayed more than 36 gigabytes of
data via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. To date, the rovers remain
operational for new campaigns the team has planned for them.
"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme
environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas,
JPL project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We realize that a
major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and
end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could
accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on
each rover in the year ahead."
Occasional cleaning of dust from the rovers' solar panels by Martian
wind has provided unanticipated aid to the vehicles' longevity.
However, it is unreliable aid. Spirit has not had a good cleaning for
more than 18 months. Dust-coated solar panels barely provided enough
power for Spirit to survive its third southern-hemisphere winter,
which ended in December.
"This last winter was a squeaker for Spirit," Callas said. "We just
made it through."
With Spirit's energy rising for spring and summer, the team plans to
drive the rover to a pair of destinations about 200 yards south of
the site where Spirit spent most of 2008. One is a mound that might
yield support for an interpretation that a plateau Spirit has studied
since 2006, called Home Plate, is a remnant of a once more-extensive
sheet of explosive volcanic material. The other destination is a
house-size pit called Goddard.
"Goddard doesn't look like an impact crater," said Steve Squyres of
Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is principal investigator
for the rover science instruments. "We suspect it might be a volcanic
explosion crater, and that's something we haven't seen before."
A light-toned ring around the inside of the pit might add information
about a nearby patch of bright, silica-rich soil that Squyres counts
as Spirit's most important discovery so far. Spirit churned up the
silica in mid-2007 with an immobile wheel that the rover has dragged
like an anchor since it quit working in 2006. The silica was likely
produced in an environment of hot springs or steam vents.
For Opportunity, the next major destination is Endeavour Crater. It is
approximately 14 miles in diameter, more than 20 times larger than
another impact crater, Victoria, where Opportunity spent most of the
past two years. Although Endeavour is 7 miles from Victoria, it is
considerably farther as the rover drives on a route evading major
obstacles.
Since climbing out of Victoria four months ago, Opportunity has driven
more than a mile of its route toward Endeavour and stopped to inspect
the first of several loose rocks the team plans to examine along the
way. High-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,
which reached Mars in 2006, are helping the team plot routes around
potential sand traps that were not previously discernable from orbit.
"The journeys have been motivated by science, but have led to
something else important," said Squyres. "This has turned into
humanity's first overland expedition on another planet. When people
look back on this period of Mars exploration decades from now, Spirit
and Opportunity may be considered most significant not for the
science they accomplished, but for the first time we truly went
exploring across the surface of Mars."
For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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I was thinking. In future, could they devise & implement an air pump to collect atmospheric gas, compress it just enough and store it in a little sample bottle, and use it to blow off the solar arrays? They could have nozzles a specific location (or attached to the end of an arm) to clean off the dust periodically. You would probably have to launch it empty to prevent bursting during descent heating, unless the relief valve is good enough.
Squyres and his team brainstormed ideas for cleaning the arrays, but they were short on time, short on money, every ounce of weight would mean an ounce of something else had to be eliminated and there wasn't enough space to fit a mouse testicle in there after it was folded into the shell.
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Squyres and his team
You mean JPL and Squyres. Rover hardware was JPL bailiwick
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a ... pit called Goddard.
LMAO. :D A little intercenter rivalry perhaps?
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I've often wondered with such a robust, proven design on Spirit and Oppy, why not make and launch a bunch more of these to new locations. Perhaps make a few updates, based on things we've learned, but nothing too major. We've already paid for the R&D, let's do a production run!
Seems like as soon as we find something that works really well, we abandon it for the next thing all too soon.
na
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I've often wondered with such a robust, proven design on Spirit and Oppy, why not make and launch a bunch more of these to new locations. Perhaps make a few updates, based on things we've learned, but nothing too major. We've already paid for the R&D, let's do a production run!
because they are limited to specific science goals and that isn't needed anymore. There is little to be gained by more them. Also, they were design for a specific low C3 that existed in 2003. They could not be launched by Delta II's in 2005, 2007, 2009, etc
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I've often wondered with such a robust, proven design on Spirit and Oppy, why not make and launch a bunch more of these to new locations. Perhaps make a few updates, based on things we've learned, but nothing too major. We've already paid for the R&D, let's do a production run!
because they are limited to specific science goals and that isn't needed anymore. There is little to be gained by more them. Also, they were design for a specific low C3 that existed in 2003. They could not be launched by Delta II's in 2005, 2007, 2009, etc
I think the same basic design can be used but the science instruments upgraded and tailored to new goals. (All landers will carry camera's and spectrometers- the spectrometers just need to be landed in a region of new geology). A different launch vehcle could be used that could allow different launch windows to be used. There would be costs but these rovers were so good that it is tragic to see the design thrown away.
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they were design for a specific low C3 that existed in 2003. They could not be launched by Delta II's in 2005, 2007, 2009, etc
So launch them in pairs on Atlas.
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I can think of another way that they are limited by design. They used the "bouncing airbag" landing system, which necessitates picking a landing site that is relatively smooth and flat and doesn't look like it has a lot of big sharp rocks to puncture the bags. That, IIRC, heavily limited where they could land. A rover with a powered descent system would be more flexible.
There is no doubt that the MERs are some of NASA's crowning achievements of the past decade. But now we need more capability to expand on the data they gathered. Sending more MER clones would grow the data set but not necessarily broaden it.
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I can think of another way that they are limited by design. They used the "bouncing airbag" landing system, which necessitates picking a landing site that is relatively smooth and flat and doesn't look like it has a lot of big sharp rocks to puncture the bags. That, IIRC, heavily limited where they could land. A rover with a powered descent system would be more flexible.
There is no doubt that the MERs are some of NASA's crowning achievements of the past decade. But now we need more capability to expand on the data they gathered. Sending more MER clones would grow the data set but not necessarily broaden it.
One could land in Hellas or Valles Marineris, or many other locations of interest that have safe landing zones but would allow new data to be collected. I think we can leverage the proven design to pull more useful data from the planet. There will be vast areas of the planet still unaccessible but we've only just scratched the surface of our knowledge of the red planet. The current rovers are still returning new discoveries. Also - the original Mars Surveyor program had landers in every launch window so the creators of the program clearly thought that more could be gained from the lander design.
The mission could be funded via the Disovery program.
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Agreed.
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Passport To Mars - Bouncing To Mars Part 1 & 2
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4598
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Thanks for the tip John44, I was wondering if NASA TV had (or was) airing anything to mark the anniversary.
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More is coming tomorrow.
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I suggest "Roving Mars" by Steve Squyres. It gives a good account of the MER story from conception to the part in 2004 where they were proud of what the rovers had done, but expected them to fail "soon".
Reading about the ridiculous chain of failures and near disasters during the building of those things right up to launch, makes their success all the more incredible.
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NEWS RELEASE: 2009-004 January 12, 2009
Public Events Mark Mars Rovers' Five-Year Anniversary
PASADENA, Calif. -- Public events during the next two weeks will share the adventures of the still-active NASA Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed five years ago this month on missions originally scheduled to last three months.
Rover mission leaders will present free, illustrated talks Thursday, Jan. 15, and Friday, Jan. 16, in Pasadena, with the Jan. 15 event streamed live online and archived for later viewing.
On Friday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 25, rover team members will give a series of talks at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. The observatory will also display a full-size Mars rover model, with team members available to answer visitors' questions.
Since landing on opposite sides of Mars during January of 2004, Spirit and Opportunity have made important discoveries about historically wet and violent environments on ancient Mars. They also have returned a quarter-million images, driven more than 21 kilometers (13 miles), climbed a mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and aging hardware, survived dust storms, and relayed more than 36 gigabytes of data via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. Both rovers remain operational for new exploration campaigns the team has planned.
The public presentations on Jan. 15 and 16, "Spirit and Opportunity: The Corps of Discovery for Mars Rolls On," are part of the monthly von Kármán Lecture Series by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payloads on the rovers, will deliver the Jan. 15 talk in Beckman Auditorium on the campus of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, on Michigan Avenue one block south of Del Mar Avenue. JPL's John Callas, project manager for the rovers, will deliver the Jan. 16 talk in Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum, 1570 E. Colorado Ave.
Squyres and Callas will begin their presentations at 7 p.m. Admission is free, on a first-come, first-seated basis. For more information about the lectures and the webcast of the Jan. 15 event, see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures.cfm?year=2009&month=1 .
At Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, the full-size rover model will be on display in the Depths of Space gallery Jan. 23 through Jan. 25, accompanied by rover team members from JPL. Talks about topics such as how the team drives the rovers and what the rovers have revealed about Mars will be presented in the observatory's Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater. These talks, by JPL rover-team members Al Herrera, Scott Lever, Scott Maxwell, John Callas, Bruce Banerdt and Ashley Stroupe, are scheduled for the following times: 7 p.m. on Jan. 23; 1:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Jan. 24; and 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Jan. 25.
For more information about visiting Griffith Observatory, see http://www.griffithobs.org/ .
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"Scientists detect methane on Mars"
"Nasa scientists are expected to reveal that methane gas has been detected on Mars, raising hopes of finding evidence of life on the Red Planet, it was reported.
According to The Sun, the American space agency will announce that organisms just below the Martian soil were creating a "haze of methane" around the planet. The gas was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes, the newspaper said......"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gsRpNOXTjanP-JSrXX_wa4tT0yig
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2133475.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/4243321/Mars-methane-discovery-hints-at-presence-of-life.html
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NASA Science Update -- Something in the Mars Atmosphere
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4628:nasa-science-update-something-in-the-mars-atmosphere&catid=1
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NASA Celebrates Mars Exploration Rovers 5th Anniversary
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4629
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Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report
Mars Rover Team Diagnosing Unexpected Behavior
CORRECTION: In paragraph 3--Early Tuesday, Spirit reported that it had followed the commands, and in fact had located the sun, but not in its expected location.
PASADENA, Calif. - The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive.
On Sunday, during the 1,800th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars, information radioed from Spirit indicated the rover had received its driving commands for the day but had not moved. That can happen for many reasons, including the rover properly sensing that it is not ready to drive. However, other behavior on Sol 1800 was even more unusual: Spirit apparently did not record the day's main activities into the non-volatile memory, the part of its memory that persists even when power is off.
On Monday, Spirit's controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation. Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday, Spirit reported that it had followed the commands, and in fact had located the sun, but not in its expected location.
"We don't have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the team that writes and checks commands for the rovers. "Our next steps will be diagnostic activities."
Among other possible causes, the team is considering a hypothesis of transitory effects from cosmic rays hitting electronics. On Tuesday, Spirit apparently used its non-volatile memory properly.
Despite the rover's unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers' Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, "Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on Mars in January 2004 and have operated 20 times longer than their original prime missions.
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Hope Spirit is all right. But what a journey that little rover and it's companion Opportunity have had.
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Hope Spirit is all right. But what a journey that little rover and it's companion Opportunity have had.
I can only imagine how long MSL will work. :)
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Hope Spirit is all right. But what a journey that little rover and it's companion Opportunity have had.
I can only imagine how long MSL will work. :)
Actually it better... the one down side to having both of the MER rovers work for so long is that it sets the bar very high for the followon MSL... The bigger, badder more expensive machine will be deemed a partial failure if it does not at least equal the time on Mars that the rovers accomplish...
but --- no pressure.. ;)
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These two sure are amazing. It's just awesome how long they have lasted.
Hope Spirit gets better! :D
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One of the greatest benefits of MER is that we now have data on the systems that have been able to operate in the Martian environment for 5 years. The data gathered will be very useful by the engineers that will design future systems and vehicles. As good as simulations are, there is nothing like the real thing.
I know we need to progress towards precise landings of larger vehicles like MSL so ultimately we can get humans to do the exploration. However, in a perfect world, it would be cool to have a 10 more Spirit's and Opportunities doing some basic recon work.
Hoping Spirit and Opportunity keep on truckin'!
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NEWS RELEASE: 2009-041 March 5, 2009
NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Faces Circuitous Route
PASADENA, Calif. -- Loose soil piled against the northern edge of a low plateau called "Home Plate" has blocked NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit from taking the shortest route toward its southward destinations for the upcoming Martian summer and following winter.
The rover has begun a trek skirting at least partway around the plateau instead of directly over it.
However, Spirit has also gotten a jump start on its summer science plans, examining a silica-rich outcrop that adds information about a long-gone environment that had hot water or steam. And even a circuitous route to the destinations chosen for Spirit would be much shorter than the overland expedition Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is making on the opposite side of Mars.
Both rovers landed on Mars in 2004 for what were originally planned as three-month missions there.
Spirit spent 2008 on the northern edge of Home Plate, a flat-topped deposit about the size of a baseball field, composed of hardened ash and rising about 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the ground around it. There, the north-facing tilt positioned Spirit's solar arrays to catch enough sunshine for the rover to survive the six-month-long Martian winter.
The scientists and engineers who operate the rovers chose as 2009 destinations a steep mound called "Von Braun" and an irregular, 45-meter-wide (150-foot-wide) bowl called "Goddard." These side-by-side features offer a promising area to examine while energy is adequate during the Martian summer and also to provide the next north-facing winter haven beginning in late 2009. Von Braun and Goddard intrigue scientists as sites where Spirit may find more evidence about an explosive mix of water and volcanism in the area's distant past. They are side-by-side, about 200 meters, or yards, south of where Spirit is now.
It's mid-spring now in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The sun has climbed higher in the sky over Spirit in recent weeks.
The rover team tried to drive Spirit onto Home Plate, heading south toward Von Braun and Goddard. They tried this first from partway up the slope where the rover had spent the winter. Only five of the six wheels on Spirit have been able to rotate since the right-front wheel stopped working in 2006. With five-wheel drive, Spirit couldn't climb the slope. In January and February, Spirit descended from Home Plate and drove eastward about 15 meters (about 50 feet) toward a less steep on-ramp. Spinning wheels in loose soil led the rover team to choose another of its options.
"Spirit could not make progress in the last two attempts to get up onto Home Plate," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for both rovers. "Alternatively, we are driving Spirit around Home Plate to the east. Spirit will have to go around a couple of small ridges that extend to the northeast, and then see whether a route east of Home Plate looks traversable. If that route proves not to be traversable, a route around the west side of Home Plate is still an option."
During the drive eastward just north of Home Plate in January, Spirit stopped to use tools on its robotic arm to examine a nodular, heavily eroded outcrop dubbed "Stapledon," which had caught the eye of rover-team scientist Steve Ruff when he looked at images and infrared spectra Spirit took from its winter position.
"It looked like the material east of Home Plate that we found to be rich in silica," said Ruff, of Arizona State University, Tempe. "The silica story around Home Plate is the most important finding of the Spirit mission so far with regard to habitability. Silica this concentrated forms around hot springs or steam vents, and both of those are favorable environments for life on Earth."
Sure enough, Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer found Stapledon to be rich in silica, too.
"Now we have found silica on a second side of Home Plate, expanding the size of the environment we know was affected by hot springs or steam vents," Ruff said. "The bigger this system, the more water was involved, the more habitable this system may have been."
The contact measurement with the X-ray spectrometer also gave the team confidence in its ability to identify silica-rich outcrops from a distance with the rover's thermal emission spectrometer, despite some dust that has accumulated on a periscope mirror of that instrument. Researchers plan to use Spirit's thermal emission spectrometer and panoramic camera to check for more silica-rich outcrops on the route to Von Braun and Goddard. However, the team has set a priority to make good progress toward those destinations. Winds cleaned some dust off Spirit's solar panels on Feb. 6 and Feb. 14, resulting in a combined increase of about 20 percent in the amount of power available to the rover.
Opportunity, meanwhile, shows signs of increased friction in its right-front wheel. The team is driving the rover backwards for a few sols, a technique that has helped in similar situations in the past, apparently by redistributing lubricant in the wheel. Opportunity's major destination is Endeavour Crater, about 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter and still about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away to the southeast. Opportunity has been driving south instead of directly toward Endurance, to swing around an area where loose soil appears deep enough to potentially entrap the rover.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is at http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
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NEWS RELEASE: 2009 053
March 18, 2009
One Mars Rover Sees a Distant Goal; The Other Takes a New Route
PASADENA, Calif. -- On a plain that stretches for miles in every direction, the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater that has been Opportunity's long-term destination for six months.
Opportunity's twin, Spirit, also has a challenging destination, and last week switched to a different route for making progress.
Endeavour Crater, 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter, is still 12 kilometers (7 miles) away from Opportunity as the crow flies, and at least 30 percent farther away on routes mapped for evading hazards on the plain. Opportunity has already driven about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) since it climbed out of Victoria Crater last August after two years of studying Victoria, which is less than one-twentieth the size of Endeavour.
"It's exciting to see our destination, even if we can't be certain whether we'll ever get all the way there," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for the twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. "At the pace we've made since leaving Victoria, the rest of the trek will take more than a Martian year." A Martian year lasts about 23 months.
The image with portions of Endeavour's rim faintly visible can be seen online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/images/mer20090318.html .
Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments, said, "We can now see our landfall on the horizon. It's far away, but we can anticipate seeing it gradually look larger and larger as we get closer to Endeavour. We had a similar experience during the early months of the mission watching the Columbia Hills get bigger in the images from Spirit as Spirit drove toward them."
Both rovers landed on Mars in January 2004 to begin missions designed to last for three months. Both are still active after more than five years.
For the next several days, the rover team plans to have Opportunity use the tools on its robotic arm to examine soil and rock at an outcrop along the route the rover is taking toward Endeavour.
"We're stopping to taste the terrain at intervals along our route so that we can watch for trends in the composition of the soil and bedrock," Squyres said. "It's part of systematic exploration."
The pause for using the tools on the arm also provides two other benefits. Opportunity's right-front wheel has been drawing more electric current than usual, an indication of friction within the wheel. Resting the wheel for a few days is one strategy that has in the past helped reduce the amount of current drawn by the motor. Also, on March 7, the rover did not complete the backwards-driving portion of its commanded drive due to unanticipated interaction between the day's driving commands and onboard testing of capabilities for a future drive. The team is analyzing that interaction before it will resume use of Opportunity's autonomous-driving capabilities.
Meanwhile, on March 10, the rover team decided to end efforts to drive Spirit around the northeastern corner of a low plateau called "Home Plate" in the inner basin of the Columbia Hills, on the other side of Mars from Opportunity. Spirit has had the use of only five wheels since its right-front wheel stopped working in 2006. Consequently, it usually drives backwards, dragging that wheel, so it can no longer climb steep slopes.
Callas said, "After several attempts to drive up-slope in loose material to get around the northeast corner of Home Plate, the team judged that route to be impassable."
The new route to get toward science targets south of Home Plate is to go around the west side of the plateau.
Squyres said, "The western route is by no means a slam dunk. It is unexplored territory. There are no rover tracks on that side of Home Plate like there are on the eastern side. But that also makes it an appealing place to explore. Every time we've gone someplace new with Spirit since we got into the hills, we've found surprises."
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Amazing, it seems just yesterday that Opportunity was getting out of Victoria, and it has already surpassed 3 km... built to last :D
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NEWS RELEASE: 2009-066 April 13, 2009
Spirit Healthy but Computer Reboots Raise Concerns
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report
The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is examining data received from Spirit in recent days to diagnose why the rover apparently rebooted its computer at least twice over the April 11-12 weekend.
"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges. We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and twin-rover Opportunity. "The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we diagnose the problem."
Spirit communicated with controllers Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but some of the communication sessions were irregular. One of the computer resets apparently coincided in timing with operation of the rover's high-gain dish antenna.
The rover team has the advantage of multiple communication options. Spirit can communicate directly with Earth via either the pointable high-gain antenna or, at a slower data rate, through a low-gain antenna that does not move. Additionally, communications can be relayed by Mars orbiters, using the UHF (ultra-high frequency) transceiver, a separate radio system on the rover.
"To avoid potential problems using the pointable antenna, we might consider for the time being just communicating by UHF relay or using the low-gain antenna," Callas said.
Spirit finished its three-month prime mission on Mars five years ago and has kept operating through multiple mission extensions.
The rover's onboard software has been updated several times to add new capabilities for the mission, most recently last month. The team is investigating whether the unexpected behavior in recent days could be related to the new software, but the same software is operating on Opportunity without incident.
"We are aware of the reality that we have an aging rover, and there may be age-related effects here," Callas said.
In the past five weeks, Spirit has made 119 meters (390 feet) of progress going counterclockwise around a low plateau called "Home Plate" to get from the place where it spent the past Martian winter on the northern edge of Home Plate toward destinations of scientific interest south of the plateau. On March 10, after several attempts to get past obstacles at the northeastern corner of Home Plate, the rover team decided to switch from a clockwise route to the counterclockwise one. Subsequent events have included Spirit's longest one-day drive since the rover lost use of one of its wheels three years ago, plus detailed inspection of light-toned soil exposed by the dragging of the inoperable wheel.
Halfway around Mars, meanwhile, Opportunity has continued progress on a long-term trek toward Endeavour Crater, a bowl 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter and still about 12 kilometers (12 miles) away. Last week, a beneficial wind removed some dust from Opportunity's solar array, resulting in an increase by about 40 percent in the amount of electrical output from the rover's solar panels.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
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News release: 2009-067 April 15, 2009
Mars Spacecraft Teams on Alert for Dust-Storm Season
PASADENA, Calif. -- Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports.
On April 21, Mars will be at the closest point to the sun in the planet's 23-month, elliptical orbit. One month later, the planet's equinox will mark the start of summer in Mars' southern hemisphere. This atmospheric-warming combination makes the coming weeks the most likely time of the Martian year for dust storms severe enough to minimize activities of the rovers.
"Since the rovers are solar powered, the dust in the atmosphere is extremely important to us," said Bill Nelson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., chief of the engineering team for Spirit and Opportunity.
Unexplained computer reboots by Spirit in the past week are not related to dust's effects on the rover's power supply, but the dust-storm season remains a concern. Spirit received commands Tuesday to transmit more engineering data in coming days to aid in diagnosis of the reboots.
After months of relatively clear air, increased haze in March reduced Spirit's daily energy supply by about 20 percent and Opportunity's by about 30 percent. Widespread haze resulted from a regional storm that made skies far south of the rovers very dusty. Conditions at the rovers' sites remained much milder than the worst they have endured. In July 2007, nearly one Martian year ago, airborne dust blocked more than 99 percent of the direct sunlight at each rover's site.
The rovers point cameras toward the sun to check the clarity of the atmosphere virtually every day. These measurements let the planning team estimate how much energy the rovers will have available on the following day. Observations of changes in the Martian atmosphere by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in 2006, and NASA's Mars Odyssey, which reached Mars in 2001, are available to supplement the rover's own skywatch.
The Mars Color Imager camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sees the entire planet every day at resolution comparable to weather satellites around Earth.
"We can identify where dust is rising into the atmosphere and where it is moving from day to day," said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, principal investigator for Mars Color Imager. "Our historical baseline of observing Martian weather, including data from the Mars Global Surveyor mission from 1998 to 2007, helps us know what to expect. Weather on Mars is more repetitive from year to year than weather on Earth. Global dust events do not occur every Mars year, but if they do occur, they are at this time of year."
Two other instruments -- the Thermal Emission Imaging System on Mars Odyssey and the Mars Climate Sounder on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- monitor changes in airborne dust or dust-related temperatures in Mars' upper atmosphere. Orbiters also aid surface missions with radio relays, imaging to aid drive plans, and studies of possible future landing sites.
When orbital observations indicate a dust-raising storm is approaching a rover, the rover team can take steps to conserve energy. For example, the team can reduce the length of time the rover will be active or can shorten or delete some communication events.
In recent weeks, frequent weather reports from Bruce Cantor of Malin's Mars Color Imager team let the rover team know that the March increase in haziness was not the front edge of a bad storm. "Bruce's weather reports have let us be more aggressive about using the rovers," said Mark Lemmon, a rover-team atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, College Station. "There have been fewer false alarms. Earlier in the mission, we backed off a lot on operations whenever we saw a small increase in dust. Now, we have enough information to know whether there's really a significant dust storm headed our way."
At other times, the weather reports prompt quick precautionary actions. On Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008, the rover team received word from Cantor of a dust storm nearing Spirit. The team deleted a communication session that Sunday and sent a minimal-activity set of commands that Monday. Without those responses, Spirit would likely have depleted its batteries to a dangerous level.
Winds that can lift dust into the air can also blow dust off the rovers' solar panels. The five-year-old rover missions, originally planned to last for three months, would have ended long ago if beneficial winds didn't occasionally remove some of the dust that accumulates on the panels. A cleaning event in early April aided Opportunity's power output, and Spirit got two minor cleanings in February, but the last major cleaning for Spirit was nearly a full Martian year ago.
Nelson said, "We're all hoping we'll get another good cleaning."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is at http://www.nasa.gov/rovers . Dust reports from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, operated by Arizona State University, Tempe, are at http://themis.asu.edu/dustmaps/. Weather reports from the Mars Color Imager team are at http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html.
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Team Continues Analyzing Spirit Computer Reboots and Amnesia Events
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report
After three days of completing Earth-commanded activities without incident last week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had a bout of temporary amnesia Friday, April 17, and rebooted its computer Saturday, April 18, behavior similar to events about a week earlier.
Engineers operating Spirit are investigating the reboots and the possibly unrelated amnesia events, in which Spirit unexpectedly fails to record data into the type of memory, called flash, where information is preserved even when power is off. Spirit has had three of these amnesia events in the past 10 days, plus one on Jan. 25. No causal link has been determined between the amnesia events and the reboots.
The most recent reboot put Spirit back into an autonomous operations mode in which the rover keeps itself healthy. Spirit experienced no problems in this autonomous mode on Sunday. The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., revised plans today for regaining Earth control of Spirit's operations and resuming diagnostic and recovery activities by the rover.
"We are proceeding cautiously, but we are encouraged by knowing that Spirit is stable in terms of power and thermal conditions and has been responding to all communication sessions for more than a week now," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.
During the past week of diagnostic activities, the rover has successfully moved its high-gain dish antenna and its camera mast, part of checking whether any mechanical issues with those components may be related to the reboots, the amnesia events, or the failure to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions two weeks ago.
Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides of the planet through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope with various symptoms of aging on both rovers.
The current diagnostic efforts with Spirit are aimed at either recovering undiminished use of the rover or, if some capabilities have been diminished, to determine the best way to keep using the rover.
Laubach said, "For example, if we do determine that we can no longer use the flash memory reliably, we could design operations around using the random-access memory." Spirit has 128 megabytes of random-access memory, or RAM, which can store data as long as the rover is kept awake before its next downlink communications session.
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I know that the radiation environment on Mars' surface is harsher than on Earth because the planet doesn't have a magnetic field. Could solar radiation eventually mess around with the chemical composition of the flash chips so that it is no longer possible to burn data onto them?
Considering that the MERs were only planned to last six months, they have managed, what, twelve times their paper lifespan? I would say that we couldn't complain if Spirit finally succumbs now.
And I still don't get, after these two were so successful, why more were not sent to Mars.
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And I still don't get, after these two were so successful, why more were not sent to Mars.
Because they are limited in the instruments that they can carry. No need to send the same instruments to other places on Mars
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Because they are limited in the instruments that they can carry. No need to send the same instruments to other places on Mars
Well, that is based on the assumption that Mars is, broadly, homogenous on a global scale and that there is thus nothing new to see (and scan) in different areas. Has that been determined?
I accept that the MERs are small, light and limited (especially compared to monsters like MSL). However, there is something to be said about using a lot of lighter, cheaper (in spacecraft terms) probes with which you have a degree of confidence than a single super-expensive heavyweight that you could all-too-easily shoot into the wrong place due to lack of prior data.
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Because they are limited in the instruments that they can carry. No need to send the same instruments to other places on Mars
Well, that is based on the assumption that Mars is, broadly, homogenous on a global scale and that there is thus nothing new to see (and scan) in different areas. Has that been determined?
I accept that the MERs are small, light and limited (especially compared to monsters like MSL). However, there is something to be said about using a lot of lighter, cheaper (in spacecraft terms) probes with which you have a degree of confidence than a single super-expensive heavyweight that you could all-too-easily shoot into the wrong place due to lack of prior data.
I'd be 40-50% on that argument ben, but I'd rather see core drillers, like those planned, to get 'to the bottom' of things. ;)
Nothing wrong having a rover slowly move around for months and years, limited to the same place +/- a few kilometers, eating up personnel time and $$ as they drove for all that time only collecting images. But Phoenix, despite its issues, provide LOTS of added science, and it was fixed. I'd rather send 2 of those again (with sample containers that worked) in different spots, too see how far the ice goes. That way you can plan for ISRU using the ice one day, although as pointed out in another thread, the use of atmospheric CO2 is more beneficial. Come to think of it, I need to respond to that thread...lol.
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April 24, 2009
Spirit Resumes Driving While Analysis of Problem Behaviors Continues
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove on Thursday for the first time since April 8, acting on commands from engineers who are still investigating bouts of amnesia and other unusual behavior exhibited by Spirit in the past two weeks.
The drive took Spirit about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) toward destinations about 150 meters (about 500 feet) away. The rover has already operated more than 20 times longer than its original prime mission on Mars.
This week, rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., judged that it would be safe to send Spirit commands for Thursday's drive. They also anticipated that, if the rover did have another amnesia event, the day's outcome could be helpful in diagnosing those events.
Three times in the past two weeks, Spirit has failed to record data from a day's activity period into non-volatile flash memory. That is a type of computer memory where information is preserved even when power is off, such as when the rover naps to conserve power.
"We expect we will see more of the amnesia events, and we want to learn more about them when we do," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.
The team is also investigating two other types of problems Spirit has experienced recently: failing to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions about two weeks ago and rebooting its computer on April 11, 12 and 18. Engineers have not found any causal links among these three types of events. After checking last week whether moving the rover's high-gain antenna could trigger problems, routine communication via that dish antenna resumed Monday.
Spirit has maintained stable power and thermal conditions throughout the problem events this month, although power output by its solar panels has been significantly reduced since mid-2007 by dust covering the panels.
"We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again," Laubach said. "Given Spirit's limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the south, there would be risks associated with not driving."
The team has made a change in Spirit's daily routine in order to aid the diagnostic work if the rover experiences another failure to record data into flash memory.
To conserve energy, Spirit's daily schedule since 2004 has typically included a nap between the rover's main activities for the day and the day's main downlink transmission of data to Earth. Data stored only in the rover's random-access memory (RAM), instead of in flash memory, is lost during the nap, so when Spirit has a flash amnesia event on that schedule, the team gets no data from the activity period. The new schedule puts the nap before the activity period. This way, even if there is a flash amnesia event, data from the activity period would likely be available from RAM during the downlink.
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides of the planet through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope with various symptoms of aging on both rovers.
This week, Opportunity completed drives of 96 meters (315 feet) Tuesday, 137 meters (449 feet) Wednesday and 95 meters (312 feet) Thursday in its long-term trek toward a crater more than 20 times larger than the biggest it has visited so far.
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The MER Spirit robot on Mars is in a precarious position currently that could ultimately hasten its end-of-mission.
It appears that it may well be 'grounded' on a number of martian pebbles with increased wheel slippage being recorded at greater than 90% :-((
Images from Spirit show at least one wheel nearly buried by 'martian soil'.
Recent martian winds have cleared dust from solar panels leading to an increase in electrical energy available but , if it cannot be freed from its current predicament, then when the Martian winter re-appears , it could spell end of mission for this vehicle as solar panels could not be aligned to the best possible advantage positions ?
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Spirit is up to 652wh a day after the last cleaning event. That's over twice what it had at the beginning of last winter. It should be fine as long as another dust storm doesn't dump a bunch of junk on the panels before winter.
Opportunity took six months to escape from Purgatory and her front wheels were buried pretty good for a while. Don't count Spirit out yet.
On another note, Opportunity's front right wheel is getting worse, so the twins might be equally gimpy soon.
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Yikes...I hadn't checked the MER page in a couple weeks. This does not look good.
For reference, this is the front hazcam, looking forward. The rover is attempting to drive backwards, due to the dead front, right wheel motor.
(http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/f/1899/2F294958090EFFB1DNP1254L0M1-BR.JPG)
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May 11, 2009
Soft Ground Puts Spirit in Danger Despite Gain in Daily Energy
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report
PASADENA, Calif. -- The five wheels that still rotate on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit have been slipping severely in soft soil during recent attempts to drive, sinking the wheels about halfway into the ground.
The rover team of engineers and scientists has suspended driving Spirit temporarily while studying the ground around the rover and planning simulation tests of driving options with a test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"Spirit is in a very difficult situation," JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, said Monday. "We are proceeding methodically and cautiously. It may be weeks before we try moving Spirit again. Meanwhile, we are using Spirit's scientific instruments to learn more about the physical properties of the soil that is giving us trouble."
Both Spirit and Opportunity have operated more than five years longer than their originally planned missions of three months on Mars and have driven much farther than designed. The rover team has so far developed ways to cope with various symptoms of aging on both rovers.
Spirit has been driving counterclockwise from north to south around a low plateau called "Home Plate" for two months. The rover progressed 122 meters (400 feet) on that route before reaching its current position.
In the past week, the digging-in of Spirit's wheels has raised concerns that the rover's belly pan could now be low enough to contact rocks underneath the chassis, which would make getting out of the situation more difficult. The right-front wheel on Spirit stopped working three years ago. Driving with just five powered wheels while dragging or pushing an immobile wheel adds to the challenge of the situation.
Favorably, three times in the past month, wind has removed some of the dust accumulated on Spirit's solar panels. This increases the rover's capability for generating electricity.
"The improved power situation buys us time," Callas said. "We will use that time to plan the next steps carefully. We know that dust storms could return at any time, although the skies are currently clear."
Behavioral problems that Spirit exhibited in early April -- episodes of amnesia, computer resets and failure to wake for communications sessions -- have not recurred in the past three weeks, though investigations have yet to diagnose the root causes.
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I'm sorry Spirit, you've done us proud, but I'd say you lived a good life. Don't go 'diggin' your own grave...just call it a day and enjoy the view. (my 2 cents)
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I'm not sure why you'd say just shut it down... It makes more sense to see if there might be a way out and 'die trying' instead of just giving. up -- the end result would be the same either way.
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'die trying' instead of just giving. up
I completly agree with this. Spirit still can send us much data if he manages to get out from this. Beside, there's no honor in that death :)
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'die trying' instead of just giving. up
I completly agree with this. Spirit still can send us much data if he manages to get out from this. Beside, there's no honor in that death :)
I said don't DIG its own grave, but enjoy the view...not shut down!
Geez.
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If you don't try to get out, then it eventually dies in place. If you try to get out, you either 1) don't get out and eventually die in place or 2) get out and keep roving.
All we're saying is -- try to get out. The worst that can happen is exactly the same as if you don't try at all.
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I know that this isn't possible with the MERs but maybe, for MSL and future ground-crawling probes, a secondary 'walk' propulsion system should be considered. Basically, you lock the wheels and use the active suspension as if they were legs. Very slow, but it might mitigate problems like the ones Spirit currently is experiencing.
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If you don't try to get out, then it eventually dies in place. If you try to get out, you either 1) don't get out and eventually die in place or 2) get out and keep roving.
All we're saying is -- try to get out. The worst that can happen is exactly the same as if you don't try at all.
But don't you think there would be a better science return on the money that is currently being spent supporting Spirit. If this money is diverted to some other science program because Spirit is shut down, won't we (both as the science community and taxpayers) get more out of it
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Nobody in NASA has proposed shutting Spirit down at this time, so I guess I'm not following your hypothesis.
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We are still getting plenty of data from both of them. If they get Spirit unstuck they get even more data, if they don't get it unstuck then they still get some data until it dies. Also they are funded through the end of 2009 anyway, so that money can't go anywhere else. Might as well use it trying to save Spirit.
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I wasn't recommending that Spirit be turned off nor was I suggesting that there is a plan to do so. I was simply stating that you can't get too emotionally attached to a robotic spacecraft.
You have to evaluate the benefit - cost ratio of anything you do. While there are intangible benefits like the public outreach that MER has, at some point the amount of science she can do may not be worth the effort required to keep the lights on.
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I certainly don't see signs of emotional attachment here ;) The rover is stuck. One suggestion was to just let it sit and die. Others of us are saying it might be better to take time, plan a method of escape, and at least give it a try.
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I would contend that a working science platform on another planet will NEVER get to the point that the business case says to turn the lights off. This isn't a budget sink, since they die naturally.
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Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report May 18, 2009
Mars and Earth Activities Aim to Get Spirit Rolling Again
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's rover project team is using the Spirit rover and other spacecraft at Mars to begin developing the best maneuvers for extracting Spirit from the soft Martian ground where it has become embedded.
A diagnostic test on May 16 provided favorable indications about Spirit's left middle wheel. The possibility of the wheel being jammed was one factor in the rover team's May 7 decision to temporarily suspend driving Spirit after that wheel stalled and other wheels had dug themselves about hub-deep into the soil. The test over the weekend showed electrical resistance in the left middle wheel is within the expected range for a motor that has not failed.
"This is not a full exoneration of the wheel, but it is encouraging," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We're taking incremental steps. Next, we'll command that wheel to rotate a degree or two. The other wheels will be kept motionless, so this is not expected to alter the position of the vehicle."
Another reason to suspend driving is the possibility that the wheels' digging into the soil may have lowered the body of the rover enough for its belly pan to be in contact with a small mound of rocks. The rover team is using Opportunity to test a procedure for possible use by Spirit: looking underneath the rover with the microscopic imager camera that is mounted on the end of the rover's arm. This might be a way to see whether Spirit is, in fact, touching the rocks beneath it.
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is also aiding in the Spirit recovery plan. As a result of winds blowing dust off Spirit's solar panel four times in the past month, Spirit now has enough power to add an extra communication session each day. The Odyssey project has made the orbiter available for receiving extra transmissions from Spirit. The transmissions include imaging data from Spirit's examinations of soil properties and ground geometry.
Rover team members are using that data and other information to construct a simulation of Spirit's situation in a rover testing facility at JPL. The team is testing different materials to use as soil that will mimic the physical properties of the Martian soil where Spirit is embedded. Later, the team will test maneuvers to get the rover free. Weeks of testing are anticipated before any attempt to move Spirit.
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Teamwork on Mars! Excellent! ;D
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Over on the New Administrator thread, someone was complaining about MERs continuing while their pet advanced prop project was skimping by, something about no new science.
While I agree that the amount of new science is nowhere near its peak, it is far more than zero.
More importantly, these developments represent new engineering, which is more valuable than new (planetary) science in both human and robotic exploration.
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This is starting to look like a really unfunny cosmic joke. Spirit's solar arrays are almost completely clean, and she's getting over 700wh a day. And can't move. At least there should be enough power to survive next winter without having to find a friendly slope to park on.
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is Spirit sending atmospheric and temperature data back to earth....it the thing cannot move, it could atleast provide us with that data....lets launch another one to free that one.....LOL
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Yes, at the very least we have a weather station. I wouldn't be surprised if it could survive another five years in that role. It's still useful data, but at the same time it should save a lot of money because you don't need many personnel to run a weather station.
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at the very least it will provide constant historical data that can be used for future unmanned/manned missions
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RELEASE: 09-117
NASA ROVER SEES VARIABLE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY AT MARTIAN CRATER
PASADENA, Calif. -- One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a
compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions
of years at a Martian crater.
The Mars rover, Opportunity, surveyed the rim and interior of Victoria
Crater on the Red Planet from September 2006 through August 2008. Key
findings from that work, reported in the May 22 edition of the
journal Science, reinforce and expand what researchers learned from
Opportunity's exploration of two smaller craters after landing on
Mars in 2004.
The rover revealed the effects of wind and water. The data show water
repeatedly came and left billions of years ago. Wind persisted much
longer, heaping sand into dunes between ancient water episodes. These
activities still shape the landscape today. At Victoria, steep cliffs
and gentler alcoves alternate around the edge of a bowl about a half
a mile in diameter. The scalloped edge and other features indicate
the crater once was smaller than it is today, but wind erosion has
widened it gradually.
"What drew us to Victoria Crater is the thick cross-section of rock
layers exposed there," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in
Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is the principal investigator for the science
payloads on Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit. "The impact that
excavated the crater millions of years ago provided a golden
opportunity, and the durability of the rover enabled us to take
advantage of it."
Imaging the crater's rim and interior, Opportunity inspected layers in
the cliffs around the crater, including layered stacks more than 30
feet thick. Distinctive patterns indicate the rocks formed from
shifting dunes that later hardened into sandstone, according to
Squyres and 33 co-authors of the findings.
Instruments on the rover's arm studied the composition and detailed
texture of rocks just outside the crater and exposed layers in one
alcove called Duck Bay. Rocks found beside the crater include pieces
of a meteorite, which may have been part of the impacting space rock
that made the crater.
Other rocks on the rim of the crater apparently were excavated from
deep within it when the object hit. These rocks bear a type of
iron-rich small spheres, or spherules, that the rover team nicknamed
"blueberries" when Opportunity first saw them in 2004. The spherules
formed from interaction with water penetrating the rocks. The
spherules in rocks deeper in the crater are larger than those in
overlying layers, suggesting the action of groundwater was more
intense at greater depth.
Inside Duck Bay, the rover found that, in some ways, the lower layers
differ from overlying ones. The lower layers showed less sulfur and
iron, more aluminum and silicon. This composition matches patterns
Opportunity found earlier at the smaller Endurance Crater, about 4
miles away from Victoria, indicating the processes that varied the
environmental conditions recorded in the rocks were regional, not
just local.
Opportunity's first observations showed interaction of volcanic rock
with acidic water to produce sulfate salts. Dry sand rich in these
salts blew into dunes. Under the influence of water, the dunes
hardened to sandstone. Further alteration by water produced the
iron-rich spherules, mineral changes, and angular pores left when
crystals dissolved away. A rock from space blasted a hole about 2,000
feet wide and 400 feet deep. Wind erosion chewed at the edges of the
hole and partially refilled it, increasing the diameter by about 25
percent and reducing the depth by about 40 percent.
Since leaving Victoria Crater about eight months ago, Opportunity has
been on its way to study a crater named Endeavour that is about 20
times bigger than Victoria. The rover has driven about one-fifth of
what could be a 10-mile trek to this new destination.
The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue to produce scientific
results while operating far beyond their design life. The mission,
designed to last 90 days, celebrated its fifth anniversary in
January. Both rovers show signs of aging but are still capable of
exploration and scientific discovery.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars
rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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Yes, at the very least we have a weather station. I wouldn't be surprised if it could survive another five years in that role. It's still useful data, but at the same time it should save a lot of money because you don't need many personnel to run a weather station.
They wont fund it for 5 years as a weather station. Maybe one but afterwards they will more than likely retire it.
These rovers have broken so many records and given back insane amounts of science. But they are expensive to operate and a 90 day mission lasting this long means big bills and with more missions on the horizon I think they are in budget risk even if they could move.
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I just reread Steve Squyres book "Roving Mars."
My favorite quote, when they were arguing for several days about how much time to spend on science experiments in Eagle crater:
"We have to be on our way out of this crater by Sol 60 ... There's a big world out there and Opportunity isn't going to last forever."
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They wont fund it for 5 years as a weather station. Maybe one but afterwards they will more than likely retire it.
Pioneer? Voyager? MGS? DIXI? The only reason you terminate a spacecraft is when it runs out of consumables (GEOs, the JAXA comet hunter, Galileo). You're way off. Obviously there won't be more people than necessary, but they'll never euthanize it.
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They wont fund it for 5 years as a weather station. Maybe one but afterwards they will more than likely retire it.
These rovers have broken so many records and given back insane amounts of science. But they are expensive to operate and a 90 day mission lasting this long means big bills and with more missions on the horizon I think they are in budget risk even if they could move.
You forget: there's still a perfectly good camera on these guys, even if they do stop dead in their tracks. They can record ground-level dust storms, possible moisture build-up on the lens. Lots they could do while awaiting big brother.
Another thing they could do is just spin one wheel and see what comes to the surface! Poor-man's grinding/digging tool. :)
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Another thing they could do is just spin one wheel and see what comes to the surface! Poor-man's grinding/digging tool. :)
That's what they did with Spirit and why Spirit has a dead front-right wheel.
They quickly found out that doing this was killer for the wheels and why they haven't done it since. I'm not sure if even they did it with Opportunity.
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Didn't some of the Apollo surface equipment get turned off due to cost? I read that in a Patrick Moore book actually.
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The only reason you terminate a spacecraft is when it runs out of consumables (GEOs, the JAXA comet hunter, Galileo). You're way off. Obviously there won't be more people than necessary, but they'll never euthanize it.
Hmmm, this blog entry (http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001673/) suggests that's exactly what was ordered for ISEE-3/ICE.
Then again, I can't find any other evidence if that was true after a quick google search.
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FWIW, I see from NASA Watch that the MSL has been named 'Curiosity'.
Is there even a 'NET' launch date for this mission yet?
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That blog entry about ISEE-3/ICE pretty much proves my point. It sounds like its execution was ordered in a far different funding environment than today. But they talk about how to use it in terms of delta-V remaining, which is one of the only meaningful ways to consider the age of spacecraft.
Ben, there aren't really NETs for planetary windows: they are already known. In this case, it's the 2011 Mars window, which is around the end of the year. About the only time I can think of a NET for a planetary is if you're already inside the window and something like weather or additional testing or scrub recovery is causing an uncertain next attempt.
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FWIW, I see from NASA Watch that the MSL has been named 'Curiosity'.
Is there even a 'NET' launch date for this mission yet?
It was originally this year, but after review, they pushed it back by a launch window to make sure time constraints didn't adversely affect chance of mission success. The timing was getting extremely tight at that time.
But NASA did move forward with a naming competition through cooperation with Disney (using branding from the movie WALL-E) aimed generating interest and educating kids.
Pioneer? Voyager? MGS? DIXI? The only reason you terminate a spacecraft is when it runs out of consumables (GEOs, the JAXA comet hunter, Galileo). You're way off. Obviously there won't be more people than necessary, but they'll never euthanize it.
Ulysses is an even better example. It's not just on the margins. It's taking remarkable effort to keep it alive. The RTG isn't even producing enough power for its x-band antenna. It only communicates in brief snippets, and only in real-time because they don't have enough bandwidth to send recorded data. They're so low on power that rather than use the intended electrical heaters to keep their hydrazine maneuvering fuel from freezing in the lines, they're venting small amounts of fuel just like homeowners in cold environments sometimes leave a tap dripping to keep the pipes under the house from freezing.
That was the last update as of March, at least. Ulysses is currently in its 19th year of a five year mission.
If they can use that much effort (and time on the DSN) to get only tiny tidbits of information from a probe truly on its deathbed, then surely they'll be able to spare some to get data from a stationary but otherwise functional rover.
That sort of situation should dramatically drop the costs, too. There would be no long-term science planning, and no driving planning. Nearly everything could be automated. There'd be a little bit of time on the DSN to pay for, plus a couple engineers to keep an eye on it.
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NEWS RELEASE: 2009-102 June 25, 2009
Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.
In April, Spirit entered an area composed of three or more layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket. Scientists dubbed the site "Troy." Spirit's rotating wheels dug themselves more than hub deep at the site. The rover team has spent weeks studying Spirit's situation and preparing a simulation of this Martian driving dilemma to test escape maneuvers using an engineering test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
A rock seen beneath Spirit in images from the camera on the end of the rover's arm may be touching Spirit's belly. Scientists believe it appears to be a loose rock not bearing the rover's weight. While Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate, approximately 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) southeast of where Spirit landed in January 2004.
"By serendipity, Troy is one of the most interesting places Spirit has been," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We are able here to study each layer, each different color of the interesting soils exposed by the wheels."
One of the rover's wheels tore into the site, exposing colored sandy materials and a miniature cliff of cemented sands. Some disturbed material cascaded down, evidence of the looseness that will be a challenge for getting Spirit out. But at the edge of the disturbed patch, the soil is cohesive enough to hold its shape as a steep cross-section.
Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to examine tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil at Troy. Stretched-color images from the panoramic camera show the tints best.
"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and cemented by the action of thin films of water. We're still at a stage of multiple working hypotheses," said Arvidson. "This may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of Home Plate…or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the wind got to it?"
Team members from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston feel initial readings suggest that iron is mostly present in an oxidized form as ferric sulfate and that some of the differences in tints at Troy observed by the panoramic camera may come from differences in the hydration states of iron sulfates.
While extraction plans for the rover are developed and tested during the coming weeks, the team plans to have Spirit further analyze the soil from different depths. This research benefits from having time and power. In April and May, winds blew away most of the dust that had accumulated on Spirit's solar panels.
"The exceptional amount of power available from cleaning of Spirit's solar arrays by the wind enables full use of all of the rover's science instruments," said Richard Moddis of the Johnson team. "If your rover is going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so scientifically interesting."
The rover team has developed a soil mix for testing purposes that has physical properties similar to those of the soil under Spirit at Troy. This soil recipe combines diatomaceous earth, powdered clay and play sand. A crew is shaping a few tons of that mix this week into contours matching Troy's. The test rover will be commanded through various combinations of maneuvers during the next few weeks to validate the safest way to proceed on Mars.
Spirit's right-front wheel has been immobile for more than three years, magnifying the challenge. While acknowledging a possibility that Spirit might not be able to leave Troy, the rover team remains optimistic. Diagnostic tests on Spirit in early June provided encouragement that the left-middle wheel remains useable despite an earlier stall.
"With the improved power situation, we have the time to explore all the possibilities to get Spirit out," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We are optimistic. The last time Spirit spun its wheels, it was still making progress. The ground testing will help us avoid doing things that could make Spirit's situation worse."
Images and further information about Spirit and Opportunity are available at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/
What they don't show you is that a bunch of the MER people at JPL have taken to wearing some cool "Free Spirit" t-shirts to go along with all of this effort. Here's another view of the engineering rover today.
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INTERNET ADVISORY: 2009-113 July 21, 2009
Tests on Earth to Help Free Spirit Rover on Mars: Live Webcast, Chat
The team that operates rovers on Mars is using a test rover in southern California to assess maneuvers the Mars rover Spirit might use to get out of soft, loose soil where its wheels have sunk hub-deep. A live videocast and chat from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will give viewers a chance to ask questions of rover team members working to get Spirit rolling again.
The live event will air on the "NASAJPL" channel available on Ustream Web TV at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl on Thursday, July 23, beginning at 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT and 2200 UTC).
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on Mars in January 2004 for what were planned as three-month missions to study sites on opposite sides of the planet. Both are still active and returning streams of scientific information. Spirit has not driven since May 6, 2009, when it had become partially embedded in the soil. To minimize the risk of worsening Spirit's predicament, operators decided to conduct a series of experiments with a test rover before driving Spirit again.
Participants in the July 23 event include:
John Callas, project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
Ashley Stroupe, JPL rover planner, deputy lead for "Free Spirit" testing
Viewers may submit questions over Ustream or via Twitter. Twitter users may send their questions to @NASAJPL using the hashtag #FreeSpirit. In addition, if you are unable to take part in the live chat, you may submit questions in advance to [email protected] and watch the archived video at a later time.
Information about Spirit and Opportunity is available at http://www.nasa.gov/rovers . Updates about testing of possible maneuvers for freeing Spirit are at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit .
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
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Opportunity has spotted another apparent meteorite on the surface, this one relatively large (about 70 cm long).They'll spend a couple days examining it, then head onward towards Endeavor Crater. Meanwhile, they've got the cover on the Mini-TES spectrometer open in hopes that if another cleaning event of the solar panels occurs it will remove some of the dust from Mini-TES, also.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090803-opportunity-meteorite.html
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol1954
Spirit continues to do extensive remote observations while the team finishes putting together an escape plan and running the testbed rover through it. Spirit also experienced a couple stalls of the elevation actuator on the robotic arm.
Ironically Spirit, although stuck and having faced such a dire power situation over the winter, is generating over 900 Watt-hours per day. Opportunity, which needs the energy for driving, is getting 400-500 Watt-hours per day.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M09-214
NASA'S STUCK MARTIAN ROVER SPIRIT TOPIC OF MEDIA CALL NOV. 12
WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST on
Thursday, Nov. 12, to discuss attempts to free the Mars rover Spirit
from sandy soil where the venerable robot has been stuck for the past
six months.
The participants are:
- Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program, NASA
Headquarters in Washington
- John Callas, project manager, Mars Exploration Rovers, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
- Ashley Stroupe, rover driver, Mars Exploration Rovers, JPL
- Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator, Mars Exploration
Rovers, Washington University in St. Louis
To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the JPL
media relations office at 818-354-5011 for the call-in number and
passcode.
At the beginning of the briefing, related images and supporting
material will be available online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/telecon/tel20091110.html
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
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I realize this isn't typical stuff for NSF but for whatever it's worth, Unmannedspaceflight.com is reporting that Spirit has started some movement but it "only involved steering, not driving the wheels"
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Wow...I'd forgotten how long it's been since I've check the MER site for updates.
Just noticed yet another meteorite had been found by Opportunity, dust factors are getting a little high for both rovers at the moment, and Steven Squyres has been awarded the 2009 Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society for excellence in public communication.
The Planetary Society Blog has a couple animations up on it from the first movements of Spirit:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002196/
*fingers crossed*
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News release: 2009-164 Nov. 12, 2009
NASA to Begin Attempts to Free Sand-Trapped Mars Rover
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-164
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.
Spirit has been lodged at a site scientists call "Troy" since April 23. Researchers expect the extraction process to be long and the outcome uncertain based on tests here on Earth this spring that simulated conditions at the Martian site.
"This is going to be a lengthy process, and there's a high probability attempts to free Spirit will not be successful" said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "After the first few weeks of attempts, we're not likely to know whether Spirit will be able to free itself."
Spirit has six wheels for roving the Red Planet. The first commands will tell the rover to rotate its five working wheels forward approximately six turns. Engineers anticipate severe wheel slippage, with barely perceptible forward progress in this initial attempt. Since 2006, Spirit's right-front wheel has been inoperable, possibly because of wear and tear on a motor as a result of the rover's longevity.
Spirit will return data the next day from its first drive attempt. The results will be assessed before engineers develop and send commands for a second attempt. Using results from previous commands, engineers plan to continue escape efforts until early 2010.
"Mobility on Mars is challenging, and whatever the outcome, lessons from the work to free Spirit will enhance our knowledge about how to analyze Martian terrain and drive future Mars rovers," McCuisition said. "Spirit has provided outstanding scientific discoveries and shown us astounding vistas during its long life on Mars, which is more than 22 times longer than its designed life. "
In the spring, Spirit was driving backward and dragging the inoperable right front wheel. While driving in April, the rover's other wheels broke through a crust on the surface that was covering a bright-toned, slippery sand underneath. After a few drive attempts to get Spirit out in the subsequent days, it began sinking deeper in the sand trap. Driving was suspended to allow time for tests and reviews of possible escape strategies.
"The investigations of the rover embedding and our preparations to resume driving have been extensive and thorough," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We've used two different test rovers here on Earth in conditions designed to simulate as best as possible Spirit's predicament. However, Earth-based tests cannot exactly replicate the conditions at Troy."
Data show Spirit is straddling the edge of a 26-foot-wide crater that had been filled long ago with sulfate-bearing sands produced in a hot water or steam environment. The deposits in the crater formed distinct layers with different compositions and tints, and they are capped by a crusty soil. It is that soil that Spirit's wheels broke through. The buried crater lies mainly to Spirit's left. Engineers have plotted an escape route from Troy that heads up a mild slope away from the crater.
"We'll start by steering the wheels straight and driving, though we may have to steer the wheels to the right to counter any downhill slip to the left," said Ashley Stroupe, a JPL rover driver and Spirit extraction testing coordinator. "Straight-ahead driving is intended to get the rover's center of gravity past a rock that lies underneath Spirit. Gaining horizontal distance without losing too much vertical clearance will be a key to success. The right front wheel's inability to rotate greatly increases the challenge."
Spirit has been examining its Martian surroundings with tools on its robotic arm and its camera mast. The rover's work at Troy has augmented earlier discoveries it made indicating ancient Mars had hot springs or steam vents, possible habitats for life. If escape attempts fail, the rover's stationary location may result in new science findings.
"The soft materials churned up by Spirit's wheels have the highest sulfur content measured on Mars," said Ray Arvidson a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis and deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and Opportunity. "We're taking advantage of its fixed location to conduct detailed measurements of these interesting materials."
Spirit and its twin rover landed on Mars in January 2004. They have explored Mars for five years, far surpassing their original 90-day mission. Opportunity currently is driving toward a large crater called Endeavor.
NASA's JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For updates about Spirit's progress, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers or http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
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Rear Wheel Trouble Continues
December 10, 2009
Results of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on Sol 2109 (Dec. 8, 2009) continue to indicate a troubled wheel, which may leave the rover with only four operable wheels.
The Sol 2109 plan included a check of the grind motor of Spirit's rock abrasion tool (RAT) because it shares the same motor controller as the right-rear wheel. It also included rotor resistance tests on the right-rear motor at three temperatures using opposite voltage polarity from earlier tests, backward and forward commanded motion of the right-rear wheel, and a check of rotor resistance on all other operating wheels. The RAT motor appears okay, although a more exhaustive test will be tried later. The right-rear wheel rotor resistance tests continue to show very elevated resistance, although not as high as in previous tests, and exhibiting a curious voltage-dependent effect. No motion of the right-rear wheel occurred during the backward commanded motion. The forward motion was not executed since the initial backward motion did not occur. The rotor resistances on all the other operating wheels are nominal.
The plan ahead, still being developed, will likely include more rotor resistance tests, an attempt to apply higher voltage to the right-rear wheel to see if any movement will occur, and a check of the right-front wheel to confirm its status and to see if it may offer insight into the right-rear wheel's condition. Further ahead, steering tests will be considered to explore an external jam as a possible explanation.
Concurrent with this, the project is exploring whether any meaningful rover motion would be possible with only four operable wheels. Spirit lost the use of its right front wheel in 2006.
Because of the current rover tilt, the environmental conditions and dust accumulation on the solar arrays, Spirit is at risk of inadequate power for surviving through the next southern Mars winter, which reaches solstice on May 13, 2009. Even if extrication is not possible, some limited rover motion may be able to improve rover tilt and increase the chance of winter survival.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-191&icid='NewsFeaturesHome'
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Well, that's too bad. I guess it is just a little past the warranty, though. Good thing Opportunity still seems to be highly functional. When is MSL Curiosity supposed to land? Sometime dutring the end of 2012? I'd give at least even odds of one the rovers being at least partly functional by the time MSL lands.
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It's too bad they couldn't bring one back. It would be good to examine all the damage for use on future designs.
Tough little robots. They did a good job building them.
I wish the MSL was inexpensive enough to have identical follow-on rovers at multiple sites.
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Some unexpected news on Spirit:
"The right-front wheel, which stopped operating on Sol 779 (March 13, 2006), surprised engineers by indicating normal resistance and turning slightly during a resistance test for that wheel."
Link: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20091215a.html
crossing my fingers...
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Some unexpected news on Spirit:
...
Link: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20091215a.html
'Unexpected' is an understatement. WTF?! seems more appropriate.
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Some unexpected news on Spirit:
...
Link: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20091215a.html
'Unexpected' is an understatement. WTF?! seems more appropriate.
There's a simple explanation. The little Martian bug that built it's nest in that wheel has moved the other wheel to take up residence at a new locale.
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Occam's razor at its sharpest!
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NASA's Mars Rover Has Uncertain Future as Sixth Anniversary Nears
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/dec/HQ_09-297_Mars_Rovers_Year6.html
RELEASE : 09-297 NASA's Mars Rover Has Uncertain Future as Sixth Anniversary Nears PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit will mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public on Sunday. However, the upcoming Martian winter could end the roving career of the beloved, scrappy robot.
Spirit successfully landed on the Red Planet at 8:35 p.m. PST on Jan. 3, 2004, and its twin Opportunity arrived at 9:05 p.m. Jan. 24, 2004. The rovers began missions intended to last for three months but which have lasted six Earth years, or 3.2 Mars years. During this time, Spirit has found evidence of a steamy and violent environment on ancient Mars that was quite different from the wet and acidic past documented by Opportunity, which has been operating successfully as it explores halfway around the planet.
A sand trap and balky wheels are challenges to Spirit's mobility that could prevent NASA's rover team from using a key survival strategy for the rover. The team may not be able to position the robot's solar panels to tilt toward the sun to collect power for heat to survive the severe Martian winter.
Nine months ago, Spirit's wheels broke through a crusty surface layer into loose sand hidden underneath. Efforts to escape this sand trap barely have budged the rover. The rover's inability to use all six wheels for driving has worsened the predicament. Spirit's right-front wheel quit working in 2006, and its right-rear wheel stalled a month ago. Surprisingly, the right-front wheel resumed working, though intermittently. Drives with four or five operating wheels have produced little progress toward escaping the sand trap. The latest attempts resulted in the rover sinking deeper in the soil.
"The highest priority for this mission right now is to stay mobile, if that's possible," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He is principal investigator for the rovers.
If mobility is not possible, the next priority is to improve the rover's tilt, while Spirit is able to generate enough electricity to turn its wheels. Spirit is in the southern hemisphere of Mars, where it is autumn, and the amount of daily sunshine available for the solar-powered rover is declining. This could result in ceasing extraction activities as early as January, depending on the amount of remaining power. Spirit's tilt, nearly five degrees toward the south, is unfavorable because the winter sun crosses low in the northern sky.
Unless the tilt can be improved or luck with winds affects the gradual buildup of dust on the solar panels, the amount of sunshine available will continue to decline until May 2010. During May, or perhaps earlier, Spirit may not have enough power to remain in operation.
"At the current rate of dust accumulation, solar arrays at zero tilt would provide barely enough energy to run the survival heaters through the Mars winter solstice," said Jennifer Herman, a rover power engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The team is evaluating strategies for improving the tilt even if Spirit cannot escape the sand trap, such as trying to dig in deeper with the wheels on the north side. In February, NASA will assess Mars missions, including Spirit, for their potential science versus costs to determine how to distribute limited resources. Meanwhile, the team is planning additional research about what a stationary Spirit could accomplish as power wanes.
"Spirit could continue significant research right where it is," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the rovers. "We can study the interior of Mars, monitor the weather and continue examining the interesting deposits uncovered by Spirit's wheels."
A study of the planet's interior would use radio transmissions to measure wobble of the planet's axis of rotation, which is not feasible with a mobile rover. That experiment and others might provide more and different findings from a mission that has already far exceeded expectations.
"Long-term change in the spin direction could tell us about the diameter and density of the planet's core," said William Folkner of JPL. He has been developing plans for conducting this experiment with a future, stationary Mars lander. "Short-period changes could tell us whether the core is liquid or solid," he said.
In 2004, Opportunity discovered the first mineralogical evidence that Mars had liquid water. The rover recently finished a two-year investigation of a half-mile wide crater called Victoria and now is headed toward Endeavor crater, which is approximately seven miles from Victoria and nearly 14 miles across. Since landing, Opportunity has driven more than 11 miles and returned more than 132,000 images.
For more information about the rovers, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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Update from the CNN page, but also about moving forward with NASA & ESA merging their Mars exploration goals:
"The European Space Agency's council and their program board have agreed to the terms that we're working with and have endorsed this partnership to go forward. So we are starting the new year with a renewed excitement for missions beginning in 2016 to be done in a joint partnership between Europe and NASA," McCuistion said.
Full text:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/11/mars.exploration/index.html
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61-iIiDK8M0
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The Youtube pictures are blocked in the UK.
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The Youtube pictures are blocked in the UK.
You might want to consider using HotSpotShield, it helped me see Hulu movies outside US and access blocked sites from China.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: 10-016
ROVER GIVES NASA AN "OPPORTUNITY" TO VIEW INTERIOR OF MARS
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity is
allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars.
Perched on a rippled Martian plain, a dark rock not much bigger than a
basketball was the target of interest for Opportunity during the past
two months. Dubbed "Marquette Island," the rock is providing a better
understanding of the mineral and chemical makeup of the Martian
interior.
"Marquette Island is different in composition and character from any
known rock on Mars or meteorite from Mars," said Steve Squyres of
Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is principal investigator
for Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. "It is one of the coolest
things Opportunity has found in a very long time."
During six years of roving, Opportunity has found only one other rock
of comparable size that scientists conclude was ejected from a
distant crater. The rover studied the first such rock during its
initial three-month mission. Called "Bounce Rock," that rock closely
matched the composition of a meteorite from Mars found on Earth.
Marquette Island is a coarse-grained rock with a basalt composition.
The coarseness indicates it cooled slowly from molten rock, allowing
crystals time to grow. This composition suggests to geologists that
it originated deep in the crust, not at the surface where it would
cool quicker and have finer-grained texture.
"It is from deep in the crust and someplace far away on Mars, though
exactly how deep and how far we can't yet estimate," said Squyres.
The composition of Marquette Island, as well as its texture,
distinguishes it from other Martian basalt rocks that rovers and
landers have examined. Scientists first thought the rock could be
another in a series of meteorites that Opportunity has found.
However, a much lower nickel content in Marquette Island indicates a
Martian origin. The rock's interior contains more magnesium than in
typical Martian basalt rocks Spirit has studied. Researchers are
determining whether it might represent the precursor rock altered
long ago by sulfuric acid to become the sulfate-rich sandstone
bedrock that blankets the region of Mars that Opportunity is
exploring.
"It's like having a fragment from another landing site," said Ralf
Gellert of the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada. Gellert is
lead scientist for the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on
Opportunity's robotic arm. "With analysis at an early stage, we're
still working on some riddles about this rock."
The rover team used Opportunity's rock abrasion tool to grind away
some of Marquette Island's weathered surface and expose the interior.
This was the 38th rock target Opportunity has ground into, and one of
the hardest. The tool was designed to grind into one Martian rock,
and this rock may not be its last.
"We took a conservative approach on our target depth for this grind to
ensure we will have enough of the bit left to grind the next hard
rock that Opportunity comes across," said Joanna Cohen of Honeybee
Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corp., in New York, which built and
operates the tool.
Opportunity currently is about 30 percent of the way on a 12-mile trek
begun in mid-2008 from a crater it studied for two years. It is en
route toward a much larger crater, Endeavour. The rover traveled 3.3
miles in 2009, farther than in any other year on Mars. Opportunity
drove away from Marquette Island on Jan. 12.
"We're on the road again," said Mike Seibert, a rover mission manager
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The year
ahead will include lots more driving, if all goes well. We'll keep
pushing for Endeavour crater but watch for interesting targets along
the way where we can stop and smell the roses."
Since landing on Mars in 2004, Opportunity has made numerous
scientific discoveries, including the first mineralogical evidence
that Mars had liquid water. After working 24 times longer than
originally planned, Opportunity has driven more than 11 miles and
returned more than 133,000 images. JPL manages the rovers for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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^ And THAT, ladies and gentlemen of Congress, is rock-solid example of why we didn't abandon these craft on the surface of Mars each of the last four budget cycles. That kind of fortuitous science will likely be extremely hard to replicate.
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^ And THAT, ladies and gentlemen of Congress, is rock-solid example of why we didn't abandon these craft on the surface of Mars each of the last four budget cycles. That kind of fortuitous science will likely be extremely hard to replicate.
Agreed!
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RELEASE: 10-024
NOW A STATIONARY RESEARCH PLATFORM, NASA'S MARS ROVER SPIRIT STARTS A NEW CHAPTER IN RED PLANET SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
WASHINGTON -- After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red
Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a
fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific
explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past
several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.
The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to
position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit
survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from
its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several
months to years.
"Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long
life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program
at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We told the world last year that
attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It
looks like Spirit's current location on Mars will be its final
resting place."
Ten months ago, as Spirit was driving south beside the western edge of
a low plateau called Home Plate, its wheels broke through a crusty
surface and churned into soft sand hidden underneath.
After Spirit became embedded, the rover team crafted plans for trying
to get the six-wheeled vehicle free using its five functioning wheels
-the sixth wheel quit working in 2006, limiting Spirit's mobility.
The planning included experiments with a test rover in a sandbox at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., plus analysis,
modeling and reviews. In November, another wheel quit working, making
a difficult situation even worse.
Recent drives have yielded the best results since Spirit became
embedded. However, the coming winter mandates a change in strategy.
It is mid-autumn at the solar-powered robot's home on Mars. Winter
will begin in May. Solar energy is declining and expected to become
insufficient to power further driving by mid-February. The rover team
plans to use those remaining potential drives for improving the
rover's tilt. Spirit currently tilts slightly toward the south. The
winter sun stays in the northern sky, so decreasing the southward
tilt would boost the amount of sunshine on the rover's solar panels.
"We need to lift the rear of the rover, or the left side of the rover,
or both," said Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL. "Lifting the
rear wheels out of their ruts by driving backward and slightly uphill
will help. If necessary, we can try to lower the front right of the
rover by attempting to drop the right-front wheel into a rut or dig
it into a hole."
At its current angle, Spirit probably would not have enough power to
keep communicating with Earth through the Martian winter. Even a few
degrees of improvement in tilt might make enough difference to enable
communication every few days.
"Getting through the winter will all come down to temperature and how
cold the rover electronics will get," said John Callas, project
manager at JPL for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "Every bit
of energy produced by Spirit's solar arrays will go into keeping the
rover's critical electronics warm, either by having the electronics
on or by turning on essential heaters."
Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research.
"There's a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle
that we had put off during the years of driving," said Steve Squyres,
a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for
Spirit and Opportunity. "Degraded mobility does not mean the mission
ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science."
One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the
rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This
requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the
surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a
few inches.
"If the final scientific feather in Spirit's cap is determining
whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful
-- it's so different from the other knowledge we've gained from
Spirit," said Squyres.
Tools on Spirit's robotic arm can study variations in the composition
of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. Stationary science
also includes watching how wind moves soil particles and monitoring
the Martian atmosphere.
Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. They have been
exploring for six years, far surpassing their original 90-day
mission. Opportunity currently is driving toward a large crater
called Endeavor and continues to make scientific discoveries. It has
driven approximately 12 miles and returned more than 133,000 images.
JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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It's sad, but even robots are mortal. At least Spirit is still able to do good science from where it is. ;) We've learned a lot from these rovers. MSL will be hard-pressed to greatly surpass the contributions of both Spirit and Opportunity. Heck, it's possible both Spirit and Opportunity will be at least partly functional when Curiosity (the name for the MSL) finally arrives! Still, the increased power (and especially increased consistency) available should make Curiosity more productive, since it won't have to worry as much about conserving power and pointing solar panels in the right direction. I'm hoping for a whole decade of science from Curiosity!
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Kinda wish we had a whole lot more of these. Their longevity is a tribute to all those involved. The lessons still being learned about Mars and the machines themselves is increadible.
This is being covered on another thread, but imagine the increased efficiency if the operator was sitting on Phobos or Marse orbit rather than on Earth.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLR1CTnW3g4
Download in HD (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=886) from JPL.
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http://www.xkcd.org/695/
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png)
http://www.xkcd.org/695/
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You just got an "aww" here.
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You just got an "aww" here.
Well... Sometimes you succeed sometimes you not. I'm not speculating this any further. It works for somebody, but not for hardcore persons with too tight stocing cap.
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You just got an "aww" here.
Well... Sometimes you succeed sometimes you not. I'm not speculating this any further. It works for somebody, but not for hardcore persons with too tight stocing cap.
No, it's good (at least to me). :)
Oh well. Still an awesome feat to make them as robust as that. Another lesson learned: pit stops required on Mars. :)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLR1CTnW3g4
Download in HD (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=886) from JPL.
Awesome video! Very personal, as well as with some great animations and clips of the test rover. This is perfect for sharing with less nerdy friends and family.
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News release: 2010-094 March 23, 2010
NASA Mars Rover Getting Smarter as it Gets Older
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-094&cid=release_2010-094
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, now in its seventh year on Mars, has a new capability to make its own choices about whether to make additional observations of rocks that it spots on arrival at a new location.
Software uploaded this winter is the latest example of NASA taking advantage of the twin Mars rovers' unanticipated longevity for real Martian test drives of advances made in robotic autonomy for future missions.
Now, Opportunity's computer can examine images that the rover takes with its wide-angle navigation camera after a drive, and recognize rocks that meet specified criteria, such as rounded shape or light color. It can then center its narrower-angle panoramic camera on the chosen target and take multiple images through color filters.
"It's a way to get some bonus science," said Tara Estlin of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She is a rover driver, a senior member of JPL's Artificial Intelligence Group and leader of development for this new software system.
The new system is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS. Without it, follow-up observations depend on first transmitting the post-drive navigation camera images to Earth for ground operators to check for targets of interest to examine on a later day. Because of time and data-volume constraints, the rover team may opt to drive the rover again before potential targets are identified or before examining targets that aren't highest priority.
The first images taken by a Mars rover choosing its own target show a rock about the size of a football, tan in color and layered in texture. It appears to be one of the rocks tossed outward onto the surface when an impact dug a nearby crater. Opportunity pointed its panoramic camera at this unnamed rock after analyzing a wider-angle photo taken by the rover's navigation camera at the end of a drive on March 4. Opportunity decided that this particular rock, out of more than 50 in the navigation camera photo, best met the criteria that researchers had set for a target of interest: large and dark.
"It found exactly the target we would want it to find," Estlin said. "This checkout went just as we had planned, thanks to many people's work, but it's still amazing to see Opportunity performing a new autonomous activity after more than six years on Mars."
Opportunity can use the new software at stopping points along a single day's drive or at the end of the day's drive. This enables it to identify and examine targets of interest that might otherwise be missed.
"We spent years developing this capability on research rovers in the Mars Yard here at JPL," said Estlin. "Six years ago, we never expected that we would get a chance to use it on Opportunity."
The developers anticipate that the software will be useful for narrower field-of-view instruments on future rovers.
Other upgrades to software on Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, since the rovers' first year on Mars have improved other capabilities. These include choosing a route around obstacles and calculating how far to reach out a rover's arm to touch a rock. In 2007, both rovers gained the know-how to examine sets of sky images to determine which ones show clouds or dust devils, and then to transmit only the selected images. The newest software upload takes that a step further, enabling Opportunity to make decisions about acquiring new observations.
The AEGIS software lets scientists change the criteria it used for choosing potential targets. In some environments, rocks that are dark and angular could be higher-priority targets than rocks that are light and rounded, for example.
This new software system has been developed with assistance from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project and with funding from the New Millennium Program, the Mars Technology Program, the JPL Interplanetary Network Development Program, and the Intelligent Systems Program. The New Millennium Program tests advanced technology in space flight. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
More information about the Mars rovers is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers . More information about AEGIS is at: http://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/newsandevents/newsdetails/?NewsID=677 .
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Mars rover Spirit misses communications session and may be in hibernation.
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Mars rover Spirit misses communications session and may be in hibernation.
Come on kid, you can do it...
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News release: 2010-168B May 19, 2010
NASA's Mars Rovers Set Surface Longevity Record
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-168b&cid=release_2010-168b
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project will pass a historic Martian longevity record on Thursday, May 20. The Opportunity rover will surpass the duration record set by NASA's Viking 1 Lander of six years and 116 days operating on the surface of Mars. The effects of favorable weather on the red planet could also help the rovers generate more power.
Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, began working on Mars three weeks before Opportunity. However, Spirit has been out of communication since March 22. If it awakens from hibernation and resumes communication, that rover will attain the Martian surface longevity record.
Spirit's hibernation was anticipated, based on energy forecasts, as the amount of sunshine hitting the robot's solar panels declined during autumn on Mars' southern hemisphere. Unfortunately, mobility problems prevented rover operators from positioning Spirit with a favorable tilt toward the north, as during the first three winters it experienced. The rovers' fourth winter solstice, the day of the Martian year with the least sunshine at their locations, was Wednesday, May 12 (May 13 Universal time).
"Opportunity, and likely Spirit, surpassing the Viking Lander 1 longevity record is truly remarkable, considering these rovers were designed for only a 90-day mission on the surface of Mars," Callas said. "Passing the solstice means we're over the hump for the cold, dark, winter season."
Unless dust interferes, which is unlikely in the coming months, the solar panels on both rovers should gradually generate more electricity. Operators hope that Spirit will recharge its batteries enough to awaken from hibernation, start communicating and resume science tasks.
Unlike recent operations, Opportunity will not have to rest to regain energy between driving days. The gradual increase in available sunshine will eventually improve the rate of Opportunity's progress across a vast plain toward its long-term destination, the Endeavour Crater.
This month, some of Opportunity's drives have been planned to end at an energy-favorable tilt on the northern face of small Martian plain surface ripples. The positioning sacrifices some distance to regain energy sooner for the next drive. Opportunity's cameras can see a portion of the rim of Endeavour on the horizon, approximately eight miles away, across the plain's ripples of windblown sand.
"The ripples look like waves on the ocean, like we're out in the middle of the ocean with land on the horizon, our destination," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is the principal investigator for Opportunity and Spirit. "Even though we know we might never get there, Endeavour is the goal that drives our exploration."
The team chose Endeavour as a destination in mid-2008, after Opportunity finished two years examining the smaller Victoria Crater. Since then, the goal became even more alluring when orbital observations found clay minerals exposed at Endeavour. Clay minerals have been found extensively on Mars from orbit, but have not been examined on the surface.
"Those minerals form under wet conditions more neutral than the wet, acidic environment that formed the sulfates we've found with Opportunity," said Squyres. "The clay minerals at Endeavour speak to a time when the chemistry was much friendlier to life than the environments that formed the minerals Opportunity has seen so far. We want to get there to learn their context. Was there flowing water? Were there steam vents? Hot springs? We want to find out."
Launched in 1975, Project Viking consisted of two orbiters, each carrying a stationary lander. Viking Lander 1 was the first successful mission to the surface of Mars, touching down on July 20, 1976. It operated until Nov. 13, 1982, more than two years longer than its twin lander or either of the Viking orbiters.
The record for longest working lifetime by a spacecraft at Mars belongs to a later orbiter: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor operated for more than 9 years after arriving in 1997. NASA's Mars Odyssey, in orbit since in 2001, has been working at Mars longer than any other current mission and is on track to take the Mars longevity record late this year.
Science discoveries by the Mars Exploration Rover have included Opportunity finding the first mineralogical evidence that Mars had liquid water, and Spirit finding evidence for hot springs or steam vents and a past environment of explosive volcanism.
JPL manages the Mars rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the rovers, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers . The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
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RELEASE: 10-182
NASA'S HIBERNATING MARS ROVER MAY NOT CALL HOME
WASHINGTON -- NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars
Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its
toughest challenge yet -- trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.
The rover team anticipated Spirit would go into a low-power
"hibernation" mode since the rover was not able to get to a favorable
slope for its fourth Martian winter, which runs from May through
November. The low angle of sunlight during these months limits the
power generated from the rover's solar panels. During hibernation,
the rover suspends communications and other activities so available
energy can be used to recharge and heat batteries, and to keep the
mission clock running.
On July 26, mission managers began using a paging technique called
"sweep and beep" in an effort to communicate with Spirit.
"Instead of just listening, we send commands to the rover to respond
back to us with a communications beep," said John Callas, project
manager for Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "If the rover is awake and hears us,
she will send us that beep."
Based on models of Mars' weather and its effect on available power,
mission managers believe that if Spirit responds, it most likely will
be in the next few months. However, there is a very distinct
possibility Spirit may never respond.
"It will be the miracle from Mars if our beloved rover phones home,"
said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program in
Washington. "It's never faced this type of severe condition before --
this is unknown territory."
Because most of the rover's heaters were not being powered this
winter, Spirit is likely experiencing its coldest internal
temperatures yet -- minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit. During three
previous Martian winters, Spirit communicated about once or twice a
week with Earth and used its heaters to stay warm while parked on a
sun-facing slope for the winter. As a result, the heaters were able
to keep internal temperatures above minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spirit is designed to wake up from its hibernation and communicate
with Earth when its battery charge is adequate. But if the batteries
have lost too much power, Spirit's clock may stop and lose track of
time. The rover could still reawaken, but it would not know the time
of day, a situation called a "mission-clock fault." Spirit would
start a new timer to wake up every four hours and listen for a signal
from Earth for 20 minutes of every hour while the sun is up.
The earliest date the rover could generate enough power to send a beep
to Earth was calculated to be around July 23. However, mission
managers don't anticipate the batteries will charge adequately until
late September to mid-October. It may be even later if the rover is
in a mission-clock fault mode. If Spirit does wake up, mission
managers will do a complete health check on the rover's instruments
and electronics.
Based on previous Martian winters, the rover team anticipates the
increasing haziness in the sky over Spirit will offset longer
daylight for the next two months. The amount of solar energy
available to Spirit then will increase until the southern Mars summer
solstice in March 2011. If we haven't heard from it by March, it is
unlikely that we will ever hear from it.
"This has been a long winter for Spirit, and a long wait for us," said
Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for NASA's two rovers who
is based at Cornell University. "Even if we never heard from Spirit
again, I think her scientific legacy would be secure. But we're
hopeful we will hear from her, and we're eager to get back to doing
science with two rovers again."
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, began exploring Mars in January 2004
on missions planned to last three months. Spirit has been nearly
stationary since April 2009, while Opportunity is driving toward a
large crater named Endeavour. Opportunity covered more distance in
2009 than in any prior year. Both rovers have made important
discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been
favorable for supporting microbial life.
NASA's JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about the rovers, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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Exactly how far away is Opportunity from Endeavor Crater?
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Exactly how far away is Opportunity from Endeavor Crater?
There are nice updated maps (up to a few days ago) in UMSF:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=162233
It appears Opportunity is about halfway between Victoria and Endeavour.
More official, detailed maps at JPL's site: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-opportunity-all.html
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Opportunity Rover Reaches Halfway Point of Long Trek.
When NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity left Victoria Crater two years ago this month, the rover science team chose Endeavour Crater as the rover's next long-term destination. With a drive of 111 meters (364 feet) on Monday, Sept. 8, Opportunity reached the estimated halfway point of the approximately 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) journey from Victoria to the western rim of Endeavour.
Opportunity completed its three-month prime mission on Mars in April 2004. During its bonus extended operations since then, it spent two years exploring in and around Victoria Crater. Victoria is about 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter. At about 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter, Endeavour is about 28 times wider. After the rover science team selected Endeavour as a long-term destination, observations of Endeavour's rim by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed the presence of clay minerals. This finding makes the site an even more compelling science destination. Clay minerals, which form exclusively under wet conditions, have been found extensively on Mars from orbit, but have not been examined on the surface.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more about the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, see http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.
Source. (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-292)
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Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite.
Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover's science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite.
"The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite," said science-team member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Opportunity has found four iron meteorites during the rover's exploration of the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004. Examination of these rocks has provided information about the Martian atmosphere, as well as the meteorites themselves.
The newfound rock has been given the informal name "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen.
Opportunity has driven 23.3 kilometers (14.5 miles) on Mars. The drive to this rock will take the total combined distance driven by Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, to more than 31 kilometers (19.26 miles).
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was planned as a three-month mission. For more information about the mission, see http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.
Source (with accompanying image). (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-309)
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Seriously, it looks like Mars is littered with these iron meteorites!
I'd hazard a guess that over a ton of free iron/nickel (not just ore!) has been found since the two rovers have started, all well within the area an unpressurized manned rover could cover in half a day. Irregular ingots, practically ready for secondary industry.
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NASA Trapped Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_10-278_Stuck_Spirit.html
PASADENA, Calif. -- The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and on a continuing basis.
Stratified soil layers with different compositions close to the surface led the rover science team to propose that thin films of water may have entered the ground from frost or snow. The seepage could have happened during cyclical climate changes during periods when Mars tilted farther on its axis. The water may have moved down into the sand, carrying soluble minerals deeper than less-soluble ones. Spin-axis tilt varies over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years.
The relatively insoluble minerals near the surface include what is thought to be hematite, silica and gypsum. Ferric sulfates, which are more soluble, appear to have been dissolved and carried down by water. None of these minerals is exposed at the surface, which is covered by wind-blown sand and dust.
"The lack of exposures at the surface indicates the preferential dissolution of ferric sulfates must be a relatively recent and ongoing process since wind has been systematically stripping soil and altering landscapes in the region Spirit has been examining," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Analysis of these findings appears in a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research published by Arvidson and 36 co-authors about Spirit's operations from late 2007 until just before the rover stopped communicating in March.
The twin Mars rovers finished their three-month prime missions in April 2004, then kept exploring in bonus missions. One of Spirit's six wheels quit working in 2006.
In April 2009, Spirit's left wheels broke through a crust at a site called "Troy" and churned into soft sand. A second wheel stopped working seven months later. Spirit could not obtain a position slanting its solar panels toward the sun for the winter, as it had for previous winters. Engineers anticipated it would enter a low-power, silent hibernation mode, and the rover stopped communicating March 22. Spring begins next month at Spirit's site, and NASA is using the Deep Space Network and the Mars Odyssey orbiter to listen if the rover reawakens.
Researchers took advantage of Spirit's months at Troy last year to examine in great detail soil layers the wheels had exposed, and also neighboring surfaces. Spirit made 13 inches of progress in its last 10 backward drives before energy levels fell too low for further driving in February. Those drives exposed a new area of soil for possible examination if Spirit does awaken and its robotic arm is still usable.
"With insufficient solar energy during the winter, Spirit goes into a deep-sleep hibernation mode where all rover systems are turned off, including the radio and survival heaters," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. "All available solar array energy goes into charging the batteries and keeping the mission clock running."
The rover is expected to have experienced temperatures colder than it has ever before, and it may not survive. If Spirit does get back to work, the top priority is a multi-month study that can be done without driving the rover. The study would measure the rotation of Mars through the Doppler signature of the stationary rover's radio signal with enough precision to gain new information about the planet's core. The rover Opportunity has been making steady progress toward a large crater, Endeavour, which is now approximately 5 miles away.
Spirit, Opportunity, and other NASA Mars missions have found evidence of wet Martian environments billions of years ago that were possibly favorable for life. The Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008 and observations by orbiters since 2002 have identified buried layers of water ice at high and middle latitudes and frozen water in polar ice caps. These newest Spirit findings contribute to an accumulating set of clues that Mars may still have small amounts of liquid water at some periods during ongoing climate cycles.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the rovers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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Sensor on Mars Rover to Measure Radiation Environment
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-376&cid=release_2010-376
About eight months before the NASA rover Curiosity touches down on Mars in August 2012, the mission's science measurements will begin much closer to Earth.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission's Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, will monitor naturally occurring radiation that can be unhealthful if absorbed by living organisms. It will do so on the surface of Mars, where there has never before been such an instrument, as well as during the trip between Mars and Earth.
RAD's measurements on Mars will help fulfill the mission's key goals of assessing whether Curiosity's landing region on Mars has had conditions favorable for life and for preserving evidence about life. This instrument also will do an additional job. Unlike any of the nine others in this robotic mission's science payload, RAD has a special task and funding from the part of NASA that is planning human exploration beyond Earth orbit. It will aid design of human missions by reducing uncertainty about how much shielding from radiation future astronauts will need. The measurements between Earth and Mars, as well as the measurements on Mars, will serve that purpose.
"No one has fully characterized the radiation environment on the surface of another planet. If we want to send humans there, we need to do that," said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler of the Boulder, Colo., branch of the Southwest Research Institute.
Whether the first destination for human exploration beyond the moon is an asteroid or Mars, the travelers will need protection from the radiation environment in interplanetary space. Hassler said, "The measurements we get during the cruise from Earth to Mars will help map the distribution of radiation throughout the solar system and be useful in mission design for wherever we send astronauts."
RAD will monitor high-energy atomic and subatomic particles coming from the sun, from distant supernovas and from other sources. These particles constitute the radiation that could be harmful to any microbes near the surface of Mars or to astronauts on a Mars mission. Galactic cosmic rays, coming from supernova explosions and other events extremely far from our own solar system, are a variable shower of charged particles. In addition, the sun itself spews electrons, protons and heavier ions in "solar particle events" fed by solar flares and ejections of matter from the sun's corona. Astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on an interplanetary spacecraft or on Mars during solar particle events.
Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere provide effective shielding for our home planet against the possible deadly effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events. Mars, though, lacks a global magnetic field and has only about one percent as much atmosphere as Earth. Just to find high-enough radiation levels on Earth for checking and calibrating RAD, the instrument team needed to put it inside major particle-accelerator research facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Africa.
An instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which reached Mars in 2001, assessed radiation levels above the Martian atmosphere. Current estimates of the radiation environment at the planet's surface rely on modeling of how the thin atmosphere affects the energetic particles, but uncertainty in the modeling remains large. "A single energetic particle hitting the top of the atmosphere can break up into many particles -- a cascade of lower-energy particles that might be more damaging to life than a single high-energy particle," Hassler noted.
The 1.7-kilogram (3.8-pound) RAD instrument has an upward-pointing, wide-angle telescope with detectors for charged particles with masses up to that of iron. It can also detect secondary neutrons coming from both the Mars atmosphere above and Mars surface material below. Hassler's international RAD team includes experts in instrument design, astronaut safety, atmospheric science, geology and other fields.
Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder and in San Antonio, Texas, and Christian Albrechts University, in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center: Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt. The team assembling and testing the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., installed RAD onto Curiosity last month for the late-2011 launch.
RAD measurements during the trip from Earth to Mars will enable correlations with instruments on other spacecraft that monitor solar particle events and galactic cosmic rays in Earth's neighborhood, then will yield data about the radiation environment farther from Earth.
Once on Mars, the rover's prime mission will last a full Martian year -- nearly two Earth years. A one-time set of measurements by RAD would not suffice for determining the radiation environment on the surface, because radiation levels vary on time frames both longer than a year and shorter than an hour. Operational planning for Curiosity anticipates that RAD will record measurements for 15 minutes of every hour throughout the prime mission.
Radiation levels probably make the surface of modern Mars inhospitable for microbial life. The measurements from RAD will feed calculations of how deeply a possible future robot on a life-detection mission might need to dig or drill to reach a microbial safe zone. For assessing whether the surface radiation environment could have been hospitable for microbes in Mars' distant past, researchers will combine RAD's measurements with estimates of how the activity of the sun and the atmosphere of Mars have changed in the past few billion years.
"The primary science goal of Curiosity is to determine whether its landing site is, or ever was, a habitable environment, a place friendly to life," said JPL's Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory. "That involves looking both for conditions that would support life as well as for those that would be hazardous to life or its chemical predecessors. Natural, high-energy radiation is just such a hazard, and RAD will give us the first look at the present level of this radiation and help us to better estimate radiation levels throughout Mars' history."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the mission, see http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]
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NASA Mars Rover Images Honor Apollo 12
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-388&cid=release_2010-388
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.
Opportunity drove past "Yankee Clipper" crater on Nov. 4 and reached "Intrepid crater" on Nov. 9. For NASA's Apollo 12, the second mission to put humans onto the moon, the command and service module was called Yankee Clipper, piloted by Dick Gordon, and the lunar module was named Intrepid, piloted by Alan Bean and commanded by the late Pete Conrad. The Intrepid landed on the moon with Bean and Conrad on Nov. 19, 1969, while Yankee Clipper orbited overhead. Their landing came a mere four months after Apollo 11's first lunar landing.
This week, Bean wrote to the Mars Exploration Rover team: "I just talked with Dick Gordon about the wonderful honor you have bestowed upon our Apollo 12 spacecraft. Forty-one years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had not gone before. We were anxious to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give it your best effort."
Rover science team member James Rice, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., suggested using the Apollo 12 names. He was applying the rover team's convention of using names of historic ships of exploration for the informal names of craters that Opportunity sees in the Meridian Planum region of Mars.
"The Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the dates. When we were approaching these craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo 12," Rice said. He sent Bean and Gordon photographs that Opportunity took of the two craters.
The images are available online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13593 and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13596. Intrepid crater is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. Yankee Clipper crater is about half that width.
After a two-day stop to photograph the rocks exposed at Intrepid, Opportunity continued on a long-term trek toward Endeavour crater, a highly eroded crater about 1,000 times wider than Intrepid. Endeavour's name comes from the ship of James Cook's first Pacific voyage.
During a drive of 116.9 meters (383.5 feet) on Nov. 14, Opportunity's "odometer" passed 25 kilometers (15.53 miles). That is more than 40 times the driving-distance goal set for Opportunity to accomplish during its original three-month prime mission in 2004.
Mars Exploration Project Manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "Importantly, it's not how far the rovers have gone but how much exploration and science discovery they have accomplished on behalf of all humankind."
At the beginning of Opportunity's mission, the rover landed inside "Eagle crater," about the same size as Intrepid crater. The team's name for that landing-site crater paid tribute to the lunar module of Apollo 11, the first human landing on the moon. Opportunity spent two months inside Eagle crater, where it found multiple lines of evidence for a wet environment in the area's ancient past.
The rover team is checking regularly for Opportunity's twin, Spirit, in case the increasing daily solar energy available at Spirit's location enables the rover to reawaken and resume communication. No signal from Spirit has been received since March 22. Spring began last week in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
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Jan. 20, 2011
Mars Sliding Behind Sun After Rover Anniversary
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-022&cid=release_2011-022
PASADENA, Calif. -- The team operating NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will temporarily suspend commanding for 16 days after the rover's seventh anniversary next week, but the rover will stay busy.
For the fourth time since Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 24, Pacific Time), the planets' orbits will put Mars almost directly behind the sun from Earth's perspective.
During the days surrounding such an alignment, called a solar conjunction, the sun can disrupt radio transmissions between Earth and Mars. To avoid the chance of a command being corrupted by the sun and harming a spacecraft, NASA temporarily refrains from sending commands from Earth to Mars spacecraft in orbit and on the surface. This year, the commanding moratorium will be Jan. 27 to Feb. 11 for Opportunity, with similar periods for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Downlinks from Mars spacecraft will continue during the conjunction period, though at a much reduced rate. Mars-to-Earth communication does not present risk to spacecraft safety, even if transmissions are corrupted by the sun.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will scale back its observations of Mars during the conjunction period due to reduced capability to download data to Earth and a limit on how much can be stored onboard.
Opportunity will continue sending data daily to the Odyssey orbiter for relay to Earth. "Overall, we expect to receive a smaller volume of daily data from Opportunity and none at all during the deepest four days of conjunction," said Alfonso Herrera, a rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The rover team has developed a set of commands to be sent to Opportunity in advance so that the rover can continue science activities during the command moratorium.
"The goal is to characterize the materials in an area that shows up with a mineralogical signal, as seen from orbit, that's different from anywhere else Opportunity has been," said JPL's Bruce Banerdt, project scientist for Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit. The area is at the southeastern edge of a crater called "Santa Maria," which Opportunity approached from the west last month.
Drives last week brought Opportunity to the position where it will spend the conjunction period. From that position, the rover's robotic arm can reach an outcrop target called "Luis de Torres." The rover's Moessbauer spectrometer will be placed onto the target for several days during the conjunction to assess the types of minerals present. The instrument uses a small amount of radioactive cobalt-57 to elicit information from the target. With a half-life of less than a year, the cobalt has substantially depleted during Opportunity's seven years on Mars, so readings lasting several days are necessary now to be equivalent to much shorter readings when the mission was newer.
Opportunity will also make atmospheric measurements during the conjunction period. After conjunction, it will spend several more days investigating Santa Maria crater before resuming a long-term trek toward Endurance crater, which is about 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter and, at its closest edge, about 6 kilometers (4 miles) from Santa Maria.
Opportunity's drives to the southeastern edge of Santa Maria brought the total distance driven by the rover during its seventh year on Mars to 7.4 kilometers (4.6 miles), which is more than in any previous year. The rover's total odometry for its seventh anniversary is 26.7 kilometers (16.6 miles).
Opportunity and Spirit, which landed three weeks apart, successfully completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004, then began years of bonus extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit's most recent communication was on March 22, 2010. On the possibility that Spirit may yet awaken from a low-power hibernation status, NASA engineers continue to listen for a signal from that rover.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
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Color View from Orbit Shows Mars Rover Beside Crater
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-072&cid=release_2011-072
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has nearly completed its three-month examination of a crater informally named "Santa Maria," but before the rover resumes its overland trek, an orbiting camera has provided a color image of Opportunity beside Santa Maria.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired the image on March 1, while Opportunity was extending its robotic arm to take close-up photos of a rock called "Ruiz Garcia." From orbit, the tracks Opportunity made as it approached the crater from the west are clearly visible. Santa Maria crater is about 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter.
The HiRISE image is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13803 . March 1 corresponded to the 2,524th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars. A raw image from Opportunity's front hazard-avoidance camera from the same day, showing the arm extended to Ruiz Garcia, is at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/f/2524/1F352255948EFFB1F5P1110L0M1.HTML . To complete the scale of imaging, a raw image taken by Opportunity's microscopic imager that day, showing textural detail of the rock, is at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/2524/1M352254519EFFB1F5P2935M2M1.HTML .
Opportunity completed its three-month prime mission on Mars in April 2004 and has been working in bonus extended missions since then. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006, has also completed its prime mission and is operating in an extended mission.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Exploration Rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is NASA's industry partner for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project and built that spacecraft.
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The amount of solar energy
available to Spirit then will increase until the southern Mars summer
solstice in March 2011. If we haven't heard from it by March, it is
unlikely that we will ever hear from it.
Is it game over for Spirit then? :(
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The amount of solar energy
available to Spirit then will increase until the southern Mars summer
solstice in March 2011. If we haven't heard from it by March, it is
unlikely that we will ever hear from it.
Is it game over for Spirit then? :(
Basically in that position now:
"Spirit's most recent communication was on March 22, 2010. On the possibility that Spirit may yet awaken from a low-power hibernation status, NASA engineers continue to listen for a signal from that rover."
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Alternatives Have Begun in Bid to Hear from Spirit
March 18, 2011
PASADENA, Calif. -- Hopes for reviving NASA's Spirit Mars rover dimmed further with passage last week of the point at which the rover's locale received its maximum sunshine for the Martian year.
The rover team has tried to contact Spirit for months with strategies based on the possibility that increasing energy availability might wake the rover from hibernation. The team has now switched to communication strategies designed to address more than one problem on the rover. If no signal is heard from Spirit in the next month or two, the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will shift to single-rover operations, continuing to operate Spirit's active twin, Opportunity.
"The commands we are sending starting this week should work in a multiple-fault scenario where Spirit's main transmitter is no longer working and the mission clock has lost track of time or drifted significantly," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
Spirit landed on Mars Jan. 4, 2004 Universal Time (Jan. 3, Pacific Time) for a mission designed to last for three months. After accomplishing its prime-mission goals, Spirit worked for more than five years in bonus-time extended missions.
Spirit has not communicated since March 22, 2010. Power output from its solar array had been waning prior to that, and the rover had been expected to go into a low-power hibernation mode. With drive motors on two of its six wheels no longer working, Spirit had been unable in preceding months to maneuver much in its sand-trap location. The rover could not get to a favorable tilt for its solar panels as Martian winter approached.
During the Martian winter with most heaters turned off, Spirit experienced colder internal temperatures than in any of its three previous winters on Mars. The cold could have damaged any of several electronic components that, if damaged, would prevent reestablishing communication with Spirit.
However, attempts to regain contact have continued for more than eight months in the possibility that the seasonal increase in solar energy available at Spirit's location would revive the rover. NASA's Deep Space Network of antennas in California, Spain and Australia has been listening for Spirit daily. The rover team has also sent commands to elicit a response from the rover even if the rover has lost track of time, or if its receiver has degraded in frequency response.
The available solar energy at Spirit's site was estimated to peak on March 10. Revised commanding began March 15, including instructions for the rover to be receptive over UHF relay to hailing from the Mars orbiters for extended periods of time and to use a backup transmitter on the rover.
Spirit and Opportunity both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Opportunity landed three weeks after Spirit.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-087
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"Spirit's most recent communication was on March 22, 2010. On the possibility that Spirit may yet awaken from a low-power hibernation status, NASA engineers continue to listen for a signal from that rover."
What a piece of junk! It only worked for 24 times longer than it was supposed to!
Hope my boss doesn't hear about that. ;)
Nice job, Spirit!
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what better way to surpass expectations and get more funding, than to lower expectations to the minimum?
I have my doubts the scientists who created the rovers really expected them to last for only a few months, as they announced.
anyway, can someone help me?
I run across a conspirationist who thinks its "weird" that the rovers send no videos, only images, since they are so easy to manipulate.
I told him the bandwidth is very limited and to increase the bandwidth, they would need more power, which is actually very limited, since they run on solar power in a place with far less sun energy than Earth.
Does anyone has more info about the subject? How much energy you need for what bandwidth, etc?
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what better way to surpass expectations and get more funding, than to lower expectations to the minimum?
I have my doubts the scientists who created the rovers really expected them to last for only a few months, as they announced.
anyway, can someone help me?
I run across a conspirationist who thinks its "weird" that the rovers send no videos, only images, since they are so easy to manipulate.
I told him the bandwidth is very limited and to increase the bandwidth, they would need more power, which is actually very limited, since they run on solar power in a place with far less sun energy than Earth.
Does anyone has more info about the subject? How much energy you need for what bandwidth, etc?
It is more than just that
Not just bandwidth. Increased Data storage onboard, since it can't be realtime broadcast.
UHF relay is intermittent due to infrequent overpasses of relay spacecraft (MRO & Mars Odyssey). Xband direct would require a 2 axis stabilized antenna.
It needs more power. It can not rove, photo and transmit at the same time. Hence there is no reason for video, if the photos are taken while stationary.
There are many more other reasons.
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what better way to surpass expectations and get more funding, than to lower expectations to the minimum?
I have my doubts the scientists who created the rovers really expected them to last for only a few months, as they announced.
anyway, can someone help me?
I run across a conspirationist who thinks its "weird" that the rovers send no videos, only images, since they are so easy to manipulate.
I told him the bandwidth is very limited and to increase the bandwidth, they would need more power, which is actually very limited, since they run on solar power in a place with far less sun energy than Earth.
Does anyone has more info about the subject? How much energy you need for what bandwidth, etc?
It is more than just that
Not just bandwidth. Increased Data storage onboard, since it can't be realtime broadcast.
UHF relay is intermittent due to infrequent overpasses of relay spacecraft (MRO & Mars Odyssey). Xband direct would require a 2 axis stabilized antenna.
It needs more power. It can not rove, photo and transmit at the same time. Hence there is no reason for video, if the photos are taken while stationary.
There are many more other reasons.
Hi, you may try to find the book Roving Mars by MER's PI Steve Squyres (ISBN 1-4013-0851-1). It's a great book of how the whole project goes from the first concepts (in 1997!) to the first year of the project (2005), with many good descriptions of the designing, building and running of the whole program. If you need to debunk your friend's conspiracy, this should be enough. In addition, it's a great read too!
Hopefully this will helps. :)
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what about my little conspiracy? The one where I think NASA and the scientists working on the Mars rovers probably knew the rovers WOULD work more than only 6 months, but they set the bar pretty low so anything more would be an overachievement resulting in more funds (you see, Congressmen? NASA can be efficient!)
Any probability that expectations were set much lower than what we should really expect from the rovers, so their success was even more stupendous than they should be already??
I mean... if the scientists said "we expect the rovers to function for at least 3 years), the chances of them failing before that and be considered a failure would be LARGE.
if you set from the start a short date validity, the chances they will surpass that date and thus be considered a major success is LARGE.
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what about my little conspiracy?
Not true
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what about my little conspiracy? The one where I think NASA and the scientists working on the Mars rovers probably knew the rovers WOULD work more than only 6 months, but they set the bar pretty low so anything more would be an overachievement resulting in more funds (you see, Congressmen? NASA can be efficient!)
The short expectation was primarily based on the expectation of accumulation of dust on the solar cells. I remember one scientist on the project saying something to the effect that, "we know they are going to be born with a terminal illness". What they didn't expect were these "cleaning events" which seem to happen intermittently and substantially clean the panels. I haven't been following closely enough to know if they've conclusively determined what causes these cleaning events, be it a gust of wind or one of those Mars whirlwinds passing over the rovers or something else.
Note that Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) is expected to operate for one Martian year or more because it's RTG doesn't suffer from the dust effect that can hinder electricity production from the solar cells.
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what about my little conspiracy? The one where I think NASA and the scientists working on the Mars rovers probably knew the rovers WOULD work more than only 6 months, but they set the bar pretty low so anything more would be an overachievement resulting in more funds (you see, Congressmen? NASA can be efficient!)
Any probability that expectations were set much lower than what we should really expect from the rovers, so their success was even more stupendous than they should be already??
I mean... if the scientists said "we expect the rovers to function for at least 3 years), the chances of them failing before that and be considered a failure would be LARGE.
if you set from the start a short date validity, the chances they will surpass that date and thus be considered a major success is LARGE.
The longer than planned longevity for the MER's is not all that unique. Many comsats and intel satellites have lasted long beyond their planned lifetimes, providing a cost benefit to the operators. Also, both the Pioneer and Voyager probes lasted far beyond their lifetimes.
Designing equipment that is robust as possible given weight and cost constraints is probably the common thread, not conspiracy.
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what about my little conspiracy?
Not true
why?
was it just luck that they worked 24 times longer than expected? Most conspiracies theories fall because of Occam´s Razor. Big conspiracies are less probable to occur or be hidden than what really ocurred (like sending men to the moon)
but a small "conspiracy" involving only a few people that could properly determine how much time the rovers would be able to last on Mars surface, its probably more probable an explanation than they outlasting the initial estimates by 24 times!
unless a better explanation exists. And it has been provided by Lee Jay. Thanks.
@Brihath: my use of the word "conspiracy" may not even have been the best one. Maybe we could better define what a conspiracy is.
If many comsats and intel satellites survive for much longer than their planned lifetimes, that means the space industry in general sets the bar LOW. They are either pessimistic, dont understand their own devices and thus cant properly calculate how long their will last (very unlikely), or know that setting a low bad, and then far exceeding the expectations is a very good thing for an industry that survives on low numbers of high value products and services.
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but a small "conspiracy" involving only a few people that could properly determine how much time the rovers would be able to last on Mars surface, its probably more probable an explanation than they outlasting the initial estimates by 24 times!
Yes, it is luck!
No, there is no conspiracy and it is not a "few" people, it is many. The 90 day mission life was design requirement and not a prediction. It determined the minimal lifespan of the rovers. The design requirement set a minimum level to how robust the parts were made. It also determined the testing levels. The cost ceiling of the project and weight constraints also set a ceiling on robustness. After the 90 requirement was met for parts, weight and cost also come into play.
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If many comsats and intel satellites survive for much longer than their planned lifetimes, that means the space industry in general sets the bar LOW. They are either pessimistic, dont understand their own devices and thus cant properly calculate how long their will last (very unlikely), or know that setting a low bad, and then far exceeding the expectations is a very good thing for an industry that survives on low numbers of high value products and services.
No, it does not. There are just as many with shorter lifetimes. Look up bell curve.
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Aceshigh - See if your local library has Roving Mars and give it a read, or if you're really interested, buy a copy.
When finished, you will really understand that they designed them with a notional lifetime of 1 year, but reasonably expected they would not last that long because of dust exposure.
For that reason, they baselined the mission for 90 days, as they believed they get enough solar power in the worst case dust scenarios to last at least that long. If they didn't last at least that long, the mission would be considered a partial failure.
They expected they would last that long, however, and their budget included several mission extensions. First an additional 90 days. After those 6 months were up, they would assess the condition and approve up to another 6 months.
All of that was in the mission plan ahead of time.
After 1 year, they considered the health of the rovers speculative, but were hoping to be able to ask Congress for a special appropriation to keep funding operations if it seemed possible.
They were fortunate in that the weather turned out to be favorable after landing. However, once they reached two years of operations, they were genuinely beyond what they had expected to achieve.
The dust devils that turned out to occasionally clear settled dust off the solar panels was a curve ball. No one expected that.
Mechanically they performed better than expected in most regards, too. That's part good design, and part luck. No one intends for their design to fail, but in complex robots, you usually expect something unseen to jump up and bite you. That hasn't really happened.
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There are many more other reasons.
Including the lack of perceived need. There was minimal value to video.
Then they started seeing dust devils in the stills from the MER's.
MSL will have low framerate (10 fps, I think) video in no small part to be able to study the dust devils better.
Oh...I forgot in my other post:
Lowballing performance estimates so you can wow people later (the "Scotty" principal) only works to a very limited degree.
If you lowball what you think you can achieve, and another proposal team doesn't, Congress is going to say, "These guys can accomplish twice as much for the same price. Try again next time."
You'll never get the chance to cash in on the under-promise, over-deliver glory.
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was it just luck that they worked 24 times longer than expected?
No, you aren't understanding the 90 day requirement.
If you build car that must (with say 99% certainty) last for 100,000 miles, how long do you think the average example will last ?
The MERs were built to last at least 90 days, with as much certainty as possible, in an environment with a great deal of uncertainty.
They also got lucky at a number of points, either one could have died years ago with only minor differences in circumstances.
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Let me be another to recommend the book Roving Mars. It has been a while since I read it but if I remember correctly there was a discussion on getting the most solar cell area. The thinking was that the mission would likely end because of dust build up before something else might kill the rovers. Thus the more solar cells the rover had the longer the mission could go on. They had quite cleverly figured out how to fold additional panels in. Also gave the rovers a futuristic swept wing look as Squires points out in the book.
Aside from the cleaning events and the power issues it is still remarkable that they have held on this long. Mars is covered in very fine dust that can work its way into the rovers and abrade the machinery. It is also very cold. After a couple hundred days the rovers were solidly into borrowed time as other things might break down and end the rovers.
I would also recommend the book "Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission" It has a similar feel to Squire's book but is about the MER's ancestor.
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^ Your memory is correct.
To pre-empt another common question, they did also consider wipers and blowers to remove dust, but concluded the complexity of packaging, deploying them, ensuring they were reliable, and the impact to mass and cost were less favorable than increasing solar panel area to deal with the gradual reduction of power due to dust.
And I might add, the Mars Exploration Rovers are a beautiful example of a functional design choice leading to appealing aesthetics. The swept foldout panels that resulted partially from the tetrahedral descent stage shape make them look far sleeker and sexier than pretty much any other rover so far built or conceived (in my opinion, including ATHLETE)
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News release: 2011-133 May 4, 2011
Mars Tribute Marks Memories of Shepard's Flight
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-133&cid=release_2011-133
The team exploring Mars via NASA's Opportunity rover for the past seven years has informally named a Martian crater for the Mercury spacecraft that astronaut Alan Shepard christened Freedom 7. On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted Freedom 7 in America's first human spaceflight.
The team is using Opportunity this week to acquire images covering a cluster of small, relatively young craters along the rover's route toward a long-term destination. The cluster's largest crater, spanning about 25 meters (82 feet), is the one called "Freedom 7." The diameter of Freedom 7 crater, about 25 meters (82 feet), happens to be equivalent to the height of the Redstone rocket that launched Shepard's flight.
"Many of the people currently involved with the robotic investigations of Mars were first inspired by the astronauts of the Mercury Project who paved the way for the exploration of our solar system," said Scott McLennan of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who is this week's long-term planning leader for the rover science team. Shepard's flight was the first of six Project Mercury missions piloted by solo astronauts.
An image of Freedom 7 crater taken this week is online at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13988.
Rover team member James Rice of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., said, "The first 50 years of American manned spaceflight have been built upon immeasurable courage, dedication, sacrifice, vision, patriotism, teamwork and good old-fashioned hard work, all terms that embody and define the United States and her people. Alan Shepard's brave and historic 15-minute flight in Freedom 7 put America in space, and then a scant eight years later, Americans were standing upon the surface of the moon." Shepard himself would later walk on the moon when he commanded the Apollo 14 mission in early 1971, less than 10 years after his Freedom 7 flight. He died on July 21, 1998.
By taking advantage of seeing many craters of diverse ages during drives toward major destinations, the Opportunity mission is documenting how impact craters change with time. The cluster that includes Freedom 7 crater formed after sand ripples in the area last migrated, which is estimated to be about 200,000 years ago.
"This cluster has about eight craters, and they're all the same age," said Matt Golombek, rover team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "They're from an impactor that broke up in the atmosphere, which is quite common."
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit has not communicated with Earth since March 2010. Opportunity remains active. It has driven 28.6 kilometers (17.8 miles) total on Mars, including 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) since leaving "Santa Maria" crater on March 24, 2011, after studying that crater for three months.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
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No surprise really but still :
"...The space agency for months tried every trick to listen for Spirit to no avail. Project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the last commands will be sent up Wednesday. Though orbiting spacecraft will continue to listen through the end of May, chances are slim that Spirit will respond..."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_MARS_ROVERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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RELEASE: 11-167
NASA CONCLUDES ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT MARS ROVER SPIRIT
WASHINGTON -- NASA is ending attempts to regain contact with the
long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, which last communicated on
March 22, 2010.
A transmission that will end on Wednesday, May 25, will be the last in
a series of attempts. Extensive communications activities during the
past 10 months also have explored the possibility that Spirit might
reawaken as the solar energy available to it increased after a
stressful Martian winter without much sunlight. With inadequate
energy to run its survival heaters, the rover likely experienced
colder internal temperatures last year than in any of its prior six
years on Mars. Many critical components and connections would have
been susceptible to damage from the cold.
Engineers' assessments in recent months have shown a very low
probability for recovering communications with Spirit. Communications
assets that have been used by the Spirit mission in the past,
including NASA's Deep Space Network of antennas on Earth, plus two
NASA Mars orbiters that can relay communications, now are needed to
prepare for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. MSL is scheduled
to launch later this year.
"We're now transitioning assets to support the November launch of our
next generation Mars rover, Curiosity," said Dave Lavery, program
executive for solar system exploration. "However, while we no longer
believe there is a realistic probability of hearing from Spirit, the
Deep Space Network may occasionally listen for any faint signals when
the schedule permits."
Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, for a mission designed to last
three months. After accomplishing its prime-mission goals, Spirit
worked to accomplish additional objectives. Its twin, Opportunity,
continues active exploration of Mars.
For more information on the Mars rovers, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
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Farewell Spirit and thank you to the Rover team at JPL for the work they do. :(
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Like having a picture window viewing onto an alien world. Looking out, that world seems somewhat less alien.
A great machine.. a marvelous technical accomplishment.
--- CHAS
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Farewell to a brave little machine - may you rest in peace.
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Farewell, Spirit.
Today also marks the 3-year anniversary of Phoenix's landing on Mars
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May 25, 2011
NASA's Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-160&cid=release_2011-160
NASA has ended operational planning activities for the Mars rover Spirit and transitioned the Mars Exploration Rover Project to a single-rover operation focused on Spirit's still-active twin, Opportunity.
This marks the completion of one of the most successful missions of interplanetary exploration ever launched.
Spirit last communicated on March 22, 2010, as Martian winter approached and the rover's solar-energy supply declined. The rover operated for more than six years after landing in January 2004 for what was planned as a three-month mission. NASA checked frequently in recent months for possible reawakening of Spirit as solar energy available to the rover increased during Martian spring. A series of additional re-contact attempts ended today, designed for various possible combinations of recoverable conditions.
"Our job was to wear these rovers out exploring, to leave no unutilized capability on the surface of Mars, and for Spirit, we have done that," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Spirit drove 4.8 miles (7.73 kilometers), more than 12 times the goal set for the mission. The drives crossed a plain to reach a distant range of hills that appeared as mere bumps on the horizon from the landing site; climbed slopes up to 30 degrees as Spirit became the first robot to summit a hill on another planet; and covered more than half a mile (nearly a kilometer) after Spirit's right-front wheel became immobile in 2006. The rover returned more than 124,000 images. It ground the surfaces off 15 rock targets and scoured 92 targets with a brush to prepare the targets for inspection with spectrometers and a microscopic imager.
"What's really important is not only how long Spirit worked or how far Spirit drove, but also how much exploration and scientific discovery Spirit accomplished," Callas said.
One major finding came, ironically, from dragging the inoperable right-front wheel as the rover was driving backwards in 2007. That wheel plowed up bright white soil. Spirit's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer revealed that the bright material was nearly pure silica.
"Spirit's unexpected discovery of concentrated silica deposits was one of the most important findings by either rover," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. "It showed that there were once hot springs or steam vents at the Spirit site, which could have provided favorable conditions for microbial life."
The silica-rich soil neighbors a low plateau called Home Plate, which was Spirit's main destination after the historic climb up Husband Hill. "What Spirit showed us at Home Plate was that early Mars could be a violent place, with water and hot rock interacting to make what must have been spectacular volcanic explosions. It was a dramatically different world than the cold, dry Mars of today," said Squyres.
The trove of data from Spirit could still yield future science revelations. Years of analysis of some 2005 observations by the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer and Moessbauer Spectrometer produced a report last year that an outcrop on Husband Hill bears a high concentration of carbonate. This is evidence of a wet, non-acidic ancient environment that may have been favorable for microbial life.
"What's most remarkable to me about Spirit's mission is just how extensive her accomplishments became," said Squyres. "What we initially conceived as a fairly simple geologic experiment on Mars ultimately turned into humanity's first real overland expedition across another planet. Spirit explored just as we would have, seeing a distant hill, climbing it, and showing us the vista from the summit. And she did it in a way that allowed everyone on Earth to be part of the adventure."
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She hadn't updated her blog in nearly five years:
http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/
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She sure was a good creature.
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Opportunity should be officially at the rim of Endeavor crater this week!
The NASA Mars rover Opportunity has gained a view of Endeavour crater from barely more than a football-field's distance away from the rim. The rim of Endeavour has been the mission's long-term goal since mid-2008.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110808a.html
I admit I'd effectively stopped checking for updates on the rovers on a regular basis. When they set out, and even when they announced they were halfway there, Endeavor seemed impossibly far away, yet here Opportunity is!
There's a photo in the press release above. Unsurprisingly, the giant and eroded crater seems less forboding than previous craters.
To catch up on a couple past press releases since Spirit's mission was officially concluded:
Opportunity tops 20 miles:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110719a.html
Opportunity heads towards Spirit Point; 2 miles to go:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20110608a.html
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I admit I'd effectively stopped checking for updates on the rovers on a regular basis. When they set out, and even when they announced they were halfway there, Endeavor seemed impossibly far away, yet here Opportunity is!
Judging by what both of these rovers have achieved so far it doesn’t really surprise me oppy is nearly there. Love the fact that they named the first stopping point after Spirit.
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The raw images are up for sol 2679 on marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. Spectacular looking shots of the area. Can't wait for the color pics.
I also admit I hadn't been following the rovers as religiously as I had during the first part of the mission....but now the Marsrovers site at JPL is back on my radar. And I'll check unmannedspaceflight.com for the first time in a few moons.
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Sol 2679 (Note: I'm just going to post the one image I find the prettiest so we can have a running looking at how the landscapes changing. There are MANY more images on NASA's site)
Nav Camera - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n2679.html
Panoramic Camera - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2679.html
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"Opportunity began performing activities requested by the science team during Sol 2680. "
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Don't forget that latest and complete image downloads are hosted at http://www.exploratorium.edu/mars/raw_data.html (often more up-to-date than the curated images that appear in the JPL gallery). This is the site that the image mavens at USF visit for source for their neat manipulations. Some fantastic events are at hand as Opportunity approaches and then mounts the low, whitish deposit ahead in a day or two. This material is unlike any seen so far in her mission, and may contain clays and other water-weathered products. Stay tuned!
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NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface
After a journey of almost three years, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet’s Endeavour crater to study rocks never seen before.
...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20110810.html (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20110810.html)
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I can't find any Sol 2680 images but there are Sol 2681 images up on exploratorium
Many thanks to MarsInMyLifetime for pointing me to this tool ...
http://www.greuti.ch/oppy/html/filenames_ltst.htm
Put the file name in and it will tell you which Sol its from
Nav Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-10/
Forward Haz Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-10/
Rear Haz Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-10/
Pan Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-10/
(Note: Not all the images on exploratorium may be from the same Sol, use the link above to check)
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I see a rock. Not exactly a shuttle mission is it :D
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I see a rock. Not exactly a shuttle mission is it :D
On another planet. Yeah, not quite a shuttle mission.
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Greetings from Mars.
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Greetings from Mars.
Nice!
Here's a colorized picture of Odyssey crater, too.
http://twitpic.com/6400zr
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A common question people have is what color is Mars. Although there is a range of colors, the most accurate description is that it is butterscotch. I think these two images are fairly accurate.
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Sol 2683
Nav Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-12/
Rear Haz Camera - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-12/
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Sol 2685
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-14/
Front Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-14/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-14/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-15/
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Sol 2686
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-15/
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Sol 2688
Attempted to drive to the rock known as Tisdale however the drive faulted out after only ~50cm.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/103772691575746560 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/103772691575746560)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-17/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-17/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-17/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-17/
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What's a good filter set to get a color picture? I know only really the "left" filter wheel has good coverage in the visible range.
Has anyone here done much with combining frames with different filters from the MER rovers into a color image? I tried the other day with Photoshop, but it didn't look very realistic (I think my "red" filter had too long of a wavelength... or maybe it was the gamma not be adjusted properly per-filter... the "blueberries" looked bright blue!).
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The MER raw images are contrast-stretched before being posted online so it's not a simple matter of stuffing 3 frames together, even if they're red, green and blue. Takes fiddling around with both the highest value (each filter brightest part of image is stretched to white) and lowest (clipped to black). Similar to Cassini, except with Cassini the problem is not as bad as the black space present in images for the most part guarantees that the dark end of the images at least will not be touched.
As for the color filter set, you'd want L4 (red), L5 (green), L6 (blue) but even if you had calibrated filters, you'd still need fiddling around because the wavelengths are not quite right for sRGB colorspace. Typically only L2 (infrared), L5 and L7 (violet) filters are available.
I haven't done any color work with MERs for a very long time until just recently, here's a couple of images I made:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=25273
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n15/ugordan/sol2688_2.jpg
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Good work! Thanks!
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Are there any pictures yet of the view into Endeavour?
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Sol 2689
Another light (restricted) sol. Measurement of tau and sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104101307002011648 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104101307002011648)
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Regarding the tau measurement: what exactly is tau that the rover measures?
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A measure of atmospheric opacity, i.e. how much dust is in the air.
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A measure of atmospheric opacity, i.e. how much dust is in the air.
Sorry, I should've been more specific. I figured tau is some kind of optical thickness. But which one: towards zenith, some other constant elevation, the Sun at local noon, average towards the Sun during the day or some other? Also, at which wavelength? Probably in the visual range but do you know more exactly?
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Sol 2690
Attempted another drive to Tisdale, drive faulted again but good progress was made towards it
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104500286881660928 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104500286881660928)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-19/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-19/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-19/
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sols 2682-2689, August 10-17, 2011 Opportunity's Studying Small Crater on Rim of Large Crater
Opportunity has begun the exploration of the rim of Endeavour crater.
The rover is examining the ejected material from a small crater on the rim of Endeavour, named "Odyssey." This small crater has exhumed and exposed the ancient Noachian material of Endeavour's rim. Opportunity is in the process of approaching a large block of ejected material for further in-situ (contact) investigation.
On Sols 2683 and 2685 (Aug. 11 and 13, 2011), the rover performed a pair of drives to position herself for a close approach to the rock target. On Sol 2688 (Aug. 16, 2011), the planned approach drive stopped early because the rover's visual odometry could not measure progress accurately due to a lack of visual features in the camera field of view. The approach to the rock target is rescheduled in the plan ahead. There was a modest dust cleaning event between Sols 2681 and 2683 (Aug. 9 and Aug. 11, 2011).
As of Sol 2689 (Aug. 17, 2011), solar array energy production was 399 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.03 and a slightly improved solar array dust factor of 0.569.
Total odometry is 20.83 miles (33,519.03 meters, or 33.52 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html
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Sol 2691
Took an image of the interesting rock 'Tisdale 2' in all 13 pancam filters.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104883915889704960 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/104883915889704960)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-20/
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Sol 2692
A short turn and bump to get Tisdale 2 into the arm's work volume
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105213537500143616 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105213537500143616)
Looks like a certain mars rover went for a joy ride :D
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-21/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-21/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-21/
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Sol 2693
Completed the 360 degree navcam pan of the current site
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105590562513616896 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105590562513616896)
Some nice images today
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-22/
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Do scientists expect to see clay minerals at the "Tisdale" rock? Or are they expecting to see clay further out at other places on the rim?
Here's hoping for some earth shaking discoveries. These threads are at least something of an antidote to the post shuttle retirement blues :)
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These threads are at least something of an antidote to the post shuttle retirement blues :)
Now that you mention that, I don't think anyone ever expected even one of the rovers to outlive the shuttle program when they were launched (post-Columbia).
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Is there any detail avaiable about cleaning the solar cells... they looking quite good and free of dust for such a long time on Mars.
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Is there any detail avaiable about cleaning the solar cells... they looking quite good and free of dust for such a long time on Mars.
There is. Dust Devils and strong winds have helped to clean the panels now and then. These so-called cleaning events had been unexpected, and have been vital in making the very very long mission extensions of these rovers possible. Attached is a before and after picture; source is the wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_event (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_event)
A NASA Update on one of the events:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer-20090212.html (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer-20090212.html)
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Cool! Thanx.
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Sol 2694
Microscopic imaging and APXS measurement of Tisdale 2
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105968320506888193 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/105968320506888193)
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Sol 2695
Took colour pancam images of 'Tisdale 3' & 'Blake River' and then more microscopic images of 'Tisdale 2'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/106332263607828480 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/106332263607828480)
Some nice images again
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-24/
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Sol 2696
More microscopic images and APXS measurements of Tisdale 2
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/106818891539415040 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/106818891539415040)
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sols 2690-2696, August 18-24, 2011 Opportunity Studies Rocks on Crater Rim
Opportunity has begun the in-situ (contact) investigation of rocks around the rim of Endeavour crater.
On Sol 2690 (Aug. 18, 2011), the rover began the approach to a large ejecta block, named "Tinsdale 2" with a 4-meter (13-foot) drive. On Sol 2692 (Aug. 20, 2011), Opportunity completed the approach to Tinsdale 2 with a turn-around to face the rock and a short 2-meter (7-foot) forward approach to the target.
On Sol 2694 (Aug. 22, 2011), Opportunity started the multi-sol, multi-target in-situ (contact) investigation with a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a set of surface targets collectively named "Timmins," followed by a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration.
On Sol 2695 (Aug. 23, 2011), the rover collected another MI mosaic on a different target spot, again followed by an overnight APXS integration.
On Sol 2696 (Aug. 24, 2011), Opportunity did it again with another set of MI mosaics and an APXS integration.
As of Sol 2695 (Aug. 23, 2011), solar array energy production was 366 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.07 and a solar array dust factor of 0.546.
Total odometry is 20.83 miles (33,525.53 meters, or 33.53 kilometers).
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Sol 2697
Another image of 'Tisdale 2' taken with all filters, then bumped forward ~15cm so that the arm can reach the top.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107172570578685952 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107172570578685952)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-26/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-26/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-08-26/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-27/
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Sol 2698
A light sol tosol, an horizon survey image and atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107572578389995520 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107572578389995520)
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Sol 2699
Microscopic images and APXS measurement of the top of Tisdale 2
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107931532878020608 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/107931532878020608)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-28/
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-181
NASA ANNOUNCES MEDIA TELECONFERENCE ABOUT OPPORTUNITY ROVER
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a media teleconference on Thursday,
Sept. 1, at 12:30 p.m. PDT to discuss progress of NASA's Mars
Exploration Rover Opportunity. Opportunity reached the Martian
Endeavour crater earlier this month after years of driving.
The teleconference participants are:
-- Dave Lavery, program executive, Mars Exploration Rovers, NASA
Headquarters, Washington
-- Steve Squyres, principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers,
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
-- Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator, Mars Exploration
Rovers, Washington University in St. Louis.
-- John Callas, project manager, Mars Exploration Rovers, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the JPL
Media Relations Office at 818-354-5011 not later than 11 a.m. on
Thursday for the call-in number and passcode.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime
missions on Mars in April 2004. They continued to work for years in
bonus mission extensions. Spirit finished communicating in 2010,
after six years of operation.
Opportunity, still very active, reached the rim of Endeavour crater on
Aug. 9. The arrival gives the rover access to geology different from
any it explored during its first 90 months on Mars.
For live audio streaming of the teleconference, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
More information about the twin rovers, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
-end-
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When will we see a beautiful color panorama of the view of Endeavour?
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Sol 2700
Just an atmospheric tau measurement tosol. (And possibly continuing to take APXS data?)
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108271981710938112 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108271981710938112)
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Sol 2701
More microscopic images and APXS measurements of Tisdale 2. Also 2 more images for the 'Stoughton' colour mosaic
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108554012898496512 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108554012898496512)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-30/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-31/
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Are there any new findings to be announced on Thursday? Anything shocking or earth (mars) shaking?
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Are there any new findings to be announced on Thursday? Anything shocking or earth (mars) shaking?
They don't do big news over teleconference. They hold a press conference at HQ with reporters in the room. So the answer is probably no.
Instead, what you'll hear is a discussion of what they are doing and what they plan on doing next and what they hope to find. Squyres is a master at this.
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Sol 2702
More microscopic images and APXS measurements of Tisdale 2 + a full colour image of target named Trailbreaker
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108986611089420288 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/108986611089420288)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-08-31/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-08-31/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-08-31/
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I never seem to get over the fact that we are looking at images from another planet. Truly remarkable.
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Amazing little robot. How long will it last ? Could it survive until MSL land ? two rovers would be amazing...
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Amazing little robot. How long will it last ? Could it survive until MSL land ?
At this point, barring any catastrophic failures or other snafus, I think it's pretty realistic to expect both MER-B and MSL roving around at the same time.
Continuous Mars surface operations since 2004, how cool is that?
two rovers would be amazing...
We already had that the whole time until about last year so that wouldn't be a precedent.
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It's amazing that they were hoping for 90 days from them and now we are up to 7 years from oppy.
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Sol 2703
~12m drive east, passing the rock garden to allow drives north to find the Philosilicates!
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/109335181655150592 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/109335181655150592)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-01/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-09-01/
Forward Haz Cam -http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-01/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-09-01/
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Teleconference Notes:
URL for resources: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/telecon/20110901.html
Dave Lavery
On Sol 2703 of the 90 sol mission
Returned unprecedented science results and info on Mars
Mid way through the mission we explored Victoria crater for 2 years
3 years and 19km later we arrived at Endeavour Crater
Potential to be the most revealing destination we've visited
Looking at this phase as a whole new mission
Region around endeavour has the potential to reveal whole new science results
No longer driving a sports car were driving a 1964 mustang that hasn’t been restored
Drive backward sometimes to evenly distribute lubricant
Science instruments now take hours rather than minutes
Entirely new software which gives us more autonomy
Treated every extra day as an unexpected gift
John Callas
3 years ago we were deciding what to do and the science team identified this giant crater 20km away as our destination
Didn’t expect to get there
3 years later we've arrived
Have more than doubled the odometery than what we had at Victoria
Trek to endeavour wasn’t easy
Had to divert away to avoid some hazards like large ripple dunes
right front wheel had elevated drive currents like on Spirit before the wheel failed
taken mitigation steps
1) drive backwards
[Connection dropped, missed a few mins]
So far the wheel issue has been contained
Lost steering in right front a few years ago
Have issue in a arm join making it a 4 degree of freedom arm
Seeing some paralysis in some neurological systems
Flex cable in robotic arm shows some fraying
Suspect cable will degrade further
Try to minimise use of actuators, e.g. the pan cam mast assembly use is minimised by carefully planning moves
This actuator has the most use cycles
When we stow the camera bar instead of rotating down to -90 we only go to -70 degrees
Stowing it keeps dust of the optics
If it fails at -70 degrees we can still do driving and science
Batteries are in good health
Retain a good charge still
Have dust on the solar arrays
Have the same amount of dust as 1 year ago
Martian fall and winter are approaching
dust in the atmosphere is trending up a little over past years
should have enough energy to ride out the winter, if power becomes an issue we have mitigation steps
Ray Arvidson
Excitement level in the teams is way up
We transversed a boundary between sedimentary rocks and were now in much older terrain
Endeavour is about 22km across
Its an ancient crater
Looks like rocks have been cut by a river channel
Left Tisdale 2 today and going inward to Cape York
Botnay Bay
These rocks have been eroded by wind
Made a decision not to stop
Saw cape York on the horizon
Promised to stop at other rim segments on the south when we leave Cape York
Steve Squyres
Findings:
From first rocks on the rim of endeavour (tisdale 2)
A piece of rock blasted out of odyssey crater
Findings feel like the beginning of the mission
Everything is new and strange
Not ready yet to draw any firm conclusions
Pic 1
Tisdale 2
1.5m across
30cm high
Excavated from beneath the surface of odyssey
Texture looks like lots of small rocks stuck together
Typical find them on the rims of impact craters
They get broken up and heated then fuse together
Haven’t seen many breccias on Mars
Black line shows places we can touch with the arm
Pic 2
Shows location of microscopic images
Theres some variety of colour, may mean different make up
Pic 3
Shows a classic breccia texture
Graph 1
Data from alpha particle x ray spectrometer
Measures composition of the rock
4 curves
compare composition of Tisdale to 4 other rocks
Black - typical soil at spirit landing
Red - landing at spirit landing
Green - A rock we found sometime back with oppy
Blue - Gibraltar
At 0 it means that rock has the same composition as Tisdale
2 messages from this graph
This rock doesn’t look like any others we’ve seen
Some of the major elements are very similar
Most interesting things
On the right of the plot this rock has LOTS of Zinc, more than any other
puzzling over what this means
On earth zinc means the rock is easily moved around by water
formed on earth by hydrothermal activity
Its a clue we may be dealing with a hydrothermal system here
Zinc in this rock is way higher than anything we've seen on Mars before
Can check
Does the zinc vary from place to place
Does zinc correlate with other elements that are easily transported by water
Need to go look at other rocks like bedrock
We think the best place to find bedrock is in the northeast
So thats where were going
Once we find bedrock we'll take a look
Will use the RAT
Didn’t use it on Tisdale as its too rough
Need to find flatter rocks
Replay Number: 1888-568-0523
Questions
Q: Details on what kind of hydrothermal this might represent what temp would such system develop ?
A: hard to say exactly what the source of heat would be. The impact would generate a lot of heat. A lot of kinetic energy would have gone into heat. Temp is tough, will be looking at it. What you find on earth is the amount of Zinc and chlorine vary with each other depending on the amount of heat present.
Q: Would this kind of hydrothermal system generate water ?
A: Don’t know. Not close to answering this.
Q: Compare this site to the landing site for MSL?
A: This is quite different from the landing site for MSL. At MSL site your looking at minerals formed in standing bodies of water. Under very different conditions from here. Here we have some of the most ancient pieces of Mars.
Q: Going to Cape Tripulation ?
A: Too early to say. Don’t know how long we'll need to solve the problems here. It is the best destination after this though.
Q: What geothermal features are you talking about?
A: Don't know how to answer. Can imagine may ways, water and rocks can interact. Way to early to speculate.
Q: If this turns out to be a hydrothermal system what does it tell us?
A: Interesting question is what is the chemistry of the water like? See strong evidence in other places that the water was very acidic. (Basically sulphuric acid) There is pretty strong evidence from orbit that there are clay minerals somewhere at the rim of endeavour. These can form in acid. This points to water with different chemistry
Q: Comment on the team that got you this far?
A: The rover doesn’t have a lot of redundancy, so if we loose a system we have to figure out how to get by without it. Spent 7.5 years with the vehicle and know it well. Team has been very innovative. Have put new software on the rover. Added some autonomy to pick its own science targets. Team still in love with the rover.
Q: Other places you could go?
A: Thats looking far into the future. Could work along the rim of Endeavour. May be interesting things inside the crater. But think it would be the same as we've seen for the past 7.5 years. Hope is that we can climb Cape Tripulation.
Q: Soil consistency?
A: Hard packed soil. Wheel tracks are very shallow. We have a little bit of skid down hill. Slopes are around 5 – 10 degrees. Looks like clear sailing ahead. Need to be on the lookout for sand traps.
Q: Clay minerals?
A: Mother load is on Cape Tripulation
Q: Victoria wasn’t as exciting as this one, why ?
A: Endeavour crater is fundamentally different. There are two layers, a sulphate rich upper layer. A lower layer thats something else. Victoria was formed in the upper layer, so we saw the same rocks as before. Endeavour crater is formed in the ancient rocks and this crater has lifted them up.
Q: Do we know as much about the moon as Mars?
A: Know far more about the moon, due to 6 Apollo landings bringing samples back. Need to do a sample return to match our understanding of Mars to the moon.
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RELEASE: 11-284
NASA'S MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY BEGINS STUDY OF MARTIAN CRATER
WASHINGTON - The initial work of NASA's Mars rover Opportunity at its
new location on Mars shows surface compositional differences from
anything the robot has studied in its first 7.5 years of exploration.
Opportunity arrived three weeks ago at the rim of a 14-mile-wide
(22-kilometer-wide) crater named Endeavour. The first rock it
examined is flat-topped and about the size of a footstool. It was
apparently excavated by an impact that dug a crater the size of a
tennis court into the crater's rim. The rock was informally named
"Tisdale 2."
"This is different from any rock ever seen on Mars," said Steve
Squyres, principal investigator for Opportunity at Cornell University
in Ithaca, N.Y. "It has a composition similar to some volcanic rocks,
but there's much more zinc and bromine than we've typically seen. We
are getting confirmation that reaching Endeavour really has given us
the equivalent of a second landing site for Opportunity."
The diversity of fragments in Tisdale 2 could be a prelude to other
minerals Opportunity might find at Endeavour. In the past two weeks,
researchers have used an instrument on the rover's robotic arm to
identify elements at several spots on Tisdale 2. Scientists have also
examined the rock using the rover's microscopic imager and multiple
filters of its panoramic camera.
Observations by Mars orbiters suggest that rock exposures on
Endeavour's rim date from early in Martian history and include clay
minerals that form in less-acidic wet conditions, possibly more
favorable for life. Discontinuous ridges are all that remains of the
ancient crater's rim. The ridge at the section of the rim where
Opportunity arrived is named "Cape York." A gap between Cape York and
the next rim fragment to the south is called "Botany Bay."
"On the final traverses to Cape York, we saw ragged outcrops at Botany
Bay unlike anything Opportunity has seen so far, and a bench around
the edge of Cape York looks like sedimentary rock that's been cut and
filled with veins of material possibly delivered by water," said Ray
Arvidson, the rover's deputy principal investigator at Washington
University in St. Louis. "We made an explicit decision to examine
ancient rocks of Cape York first."
The science team selected Endeavour as Opportunity's long-term
destination after the rover climbed out of Victoria crater three
years ago this week. The mission spent two years studying Victoria,
which is about one twenty-fifth as wide as Endeavour. Layers of
bedrock exposed at Victoria and other locations Opportunity has
visited share a sulfate-rich composition linked to an ancient era
when acidic water was present. Opportunity drove about 13 miles (21
kilometers) from Victoria to reach Endeavour. It has driven 20.8
miles (33.5 kilometers) since landing on Mars.
"We have a very senior rover in good health for having already worked
30 times longer than planned," said John Callas, project manager for
Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,
Calif. "However, at any time, we could lose a critical component on
an essential rover system, and the mission would be over. Or, we
might still be using this rover's capabilities beneficially for
years. There are miles of exciting geology to explore at Endeavour
crater."
Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed three-month prime
missions in April 2004 and continued working for years of extended
missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments
on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial
life. Spirit ended communications in March 2010.
"This is like having a brand new landing site for our veteran rover,"
said Dave Lavery, program executive for NASA's Mars Exploration
Rovers at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It is a remarkable bonus
that comes from being able to rove on Mars with well-built hardware
that lasts."
NASA will launch its next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, between
Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011. It will land on Mars in August 2012. JPL
manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington.
For more about Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
-
sols 2697-2702, August 25-31, 2011 Finishing Work at Tinsdale 2
Opportunity is continuing the in-situ (contact) investigation of rocks around the rim of Endeavour crater.
On Sol 2697 (Aug. 25, 2011), the rover bumped a mere 0.15 meters (about 6 inches) to reposition at the large ejecta block, named "Tinsdale 2." This allowed Opportunity to reach targets on the top of the blocky rock. On Sol 2699 (Aug. 28, 2011), the rover used the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD, robotic arm) to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a new target, called "Shaw 1," then place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same target for an overnight integration. On Sol 2700 (Aug. 29, 2011), another set of diagnostic tests were performed on the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument. Preliminary test results continue to show no performance from the instrument. On Sol 2701 (Aug. 30, 2011), Opportunity again collect MI mosaics and performed an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) placement on target "Shaw 2."
With in-situ work completing at "Tinsdale 2" the plan ahead is for Opportunity to drive away and head to the northeast where the iron magnesium smectite clays are seen from orbit.
As of Sol 2702 (Aug. 31, 2011), solar array energy production was 352 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.07 and a solar array dust factor of 0.540.
Total odometry is 20.83 miles (33,525.68 meters, or 33.53 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2704
Completed 360 degree navcam panorama of the current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/109724018449465345 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/109724018449465345)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-09-02/
-
Teleconference Notes:
URL for resources: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/telecon/20110901.html
{snip}
Thanks for the notes Aaron!
-
Sol 2705
A quiet weekend sol with just an atmospheric tau measurement
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110071473443577856 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110071473443577856)
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Sol 2706
Small colour mosaic labelled HBC(?) and colour images of rocks called Marion & Kirkland Lake
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110430587923341312 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110430587923341312)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-04/
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Sol 2707
A small colour mosaic taken of Tisdale_1 then a drive of ~19m North-East along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110795910337929216 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/110795910337929216)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-09-05/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-05/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-09-05/
-
Sol 2708
Just a couple of calibration images and some atmospheric tau measurements tosol.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/111167871899541505 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/111167871899541505)
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Sol 2709
Took a 2x2 colour pancam mosaic of Oppy's next target for investigation, 'Chester Lake'.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/111562244336267265 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/111562244336267265)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-07/
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News release: 2011-281 Sept. 8, 2011
Tributes to Terrorism Victims are on Mars
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-281&cid=release_2011-281
In September 2001, Honeybee Robotics employees in lower Manhattan were building a pair of tools for grinding weathered rinds off rocks on Mars, so that scientific instruments on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity could inspect the rocks' interiors.
That month's attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, less than a mile away, shook the lives of the employees and millions of others.
Work on the rock abrasion tools needed to meet a tight schedule to allow thorough testing before launch dates governed by the motions of the planets. The people building the tools could not spend much time helping at shelters or in other ways to cope with the life-changing tragedy of Sept. 11. However, they did find a special way to pay tribute to the thousands of victims who perished in the attack.
An aluminum cuff serving as a cable shield on each of the rock abrasion tools on Mars was made from aluminum recovered from the destroyed World Trade Center towers. The metal bears the image of an American flag and fills a renewed purpose as part of solar system exploration.
Honeybee Robotics collaborated with the New York mayor's office; a metal-working shop in Round Rock, Texas; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and the rover missions' science leader, Steve Squyres, at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
"It's gratifying knowing that a piece of the World Trade Center is up there on Mars. That shield on Mars, to me, contrasts the destructive nature of the attackers with the ingenuity and hopeful attitude of Americans," said Stephen Gorevan, Honeybee founder and chairman, and a member of the Mars rover science team.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2011, Gorevan was six blocks from the World Trade Center, riding his bicycle to work, when he heard an airliner hit the first tower. "Mostly, what comes back to me even today is the sound of the engines before the first plane struck the tower. Just before crashing into the tower, I could hear the engines being revved up as if those behind the controls wanted to ensure the maximum destruction. I stopped and stared for a few minutes and realized I felt totally helpless, and I left the scene and went to my office nearby, where my colleagues told me a second plane had struck. We watched the rest of the sad events of that day from the roof of our facility."
At Honeybee's building on Elizabeth Street, as in the rest of the area, normal activities were put on hold for days, and the smell from the collapse of the towers persisted for weeks.
Steve Kondos, who was at the time a JPL engineer working closely with the Honeybee team, came up with the suggestion for including something on the rovers as an interplanetary memorial. JPL was building the rovers and managing the project.
To carry out the idea, an early hurdle was acquiring an appropriate piece of material from the World Trade Center site. Through Gorevan's contacts, a parcel was delivered to Honeybee Robotics from the mayor's office on Dec. 1, 2001, with a twisted plate of aluminum inside and a note: "Here is debris from Tower 1 and Tower 2."
Tom Myrick, an engineer at Honeybee, saw the possibility of machining the aluminum into the cable shields for the rock abrasion tools. He hand-delivered the material to the machine shop in Texas that was working on other components of the tools. When the shields were back in New York, he affixed an image of the American flag on each.
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on June 10, 2003. Opportunity's launch followed on July 7. Both rovers landed the following January and completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004. Nobody on the rover team or at Honeybee spoke publicly about the source of the aluminum on the cable shields until later that year.
"It was meant to be a quiet tribute," Gorevan told a New York Times reporter writing a November 2004 story about Manhattan's participation in the rover missions. "Enough time has passed. We want the families to know."
Since landing on the Red Planet, both rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit ended communications in March 2010. Opportunity is still active, and researchers plan to use its rock abrasion tool on selected targets around a large crater that the rover reached last month.
One day, both rovers will be silent. In the cold, dry environments where they have worked on Mars, the onboard memorials to victims of the Sept. 11 attack could remain in good condition for millions of years.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for NASA.
-
Sol 2710
Bumped forward ~1m to get Chester Lake into the arms work space
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/112071287534403584 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/112071287534403584)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-09-09/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-09-09/
Forward Haz Cam -http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/
-
sols 2703-2709, September 01-07, 2011 Work Continues on Crater Rim
Opportunity is moving to other in-situ (contact) targets of interest around the region, called Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater.
On Sol 2703 (Sept. 1, 2011), the rover made the first of two drives to move to the northeast, traveling over 27 meters (89 feet). On Sol 2707 (Sept. 5, 2011), Opportunity completed a 20-meter (66-foot) drive to approach an exposed outcrop. The outcrop, called "Chester Lake" offers several targets for in-situ (contact) investigation by the instruments on the rover's robotic arm.
As of Sol 2709 (Sept. 7, 2011), solar array energy production was 336 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.00 and a solar array dust factor of 0.531.
Total odometry is 20.86 miles (33,573.63 meters, or 33.57 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2711
Took a small pancam mosaic of a target called 'Kirkland Lake'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/112265709702221824 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/112265709702221824)
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Sol 2713
Took microscopic images and started a APXS measurement of Chester Lake. A colour image of 'Salibury1' also taken.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/113154740992479232 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/113154740992479232)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-11/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-09-11/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-11/
-
Memorial Image Taken on Mars on September 11, 2011
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-286&cid=release_2011-286
PASADENA, Calif. -- A view of a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center towers was taken on Mars yesterday, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
The memorial, made from aluminum recovered from the site of the twin towers in weeks following the attacks, serves as a cable guard on a tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and bears an image of the American flag.
The view combining exposures from two cameras on the rover is online at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14750 .
The memorial is on the rover's rock abrasion tool, which was being made in September 2001 by workers at Honeybee Robotics in lower Manhattan, less than a mile from the World Trade Center.
Opportunity's panoramic camera and navigation camera photographed the tool on Sept. 11, 2011, during the 2,713th Martian day of the rover's work on Mars. Opportunity completed its three-month prime mission on Mars in April 2004 and has worked for more than seven years since then in bonus extended missions.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information about Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, is online at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
-
Sorry to deviate from Racshot's posted images & texts,
but I just saw this wonderful DVD put out by Walt Disney Pictures, called
"Roving Mars", in which the two MER rovers, Spirit & Opportunity
are the (pun intended) stars.
Yes, astronomer Steve Squyres, and former NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, make their presence known in this DVD.
What amazes me is the info about the 'last minute' problems
with the parachute development that nearly scrubbed the launch attempts
of the two rovers in 2003.
It's a miracle that they pulled off the proverbial 'last minute'
development of replacement parachutes to make the landing of the rovers possible.
And it's nice to see the actual rovers in their ground test runs
moving painfully slowly. (Those of you who were anxious/impatient about when the rover Opportunity would arrive at its present crater site should view the DVD to get an actual idea of how slow the rover actually moves.)
It was wonderful to see realistic computer-generated animations
(based on actual imagery) of the rover Opportunity's travel route.
Albeit, the Disney movie only covered the time frame from Opportunity's
arrival at Eagle Crater to its investigation of Endurance Crater.
The only beef with the DVD is the Hollywood 'sound effects' for a spacecraft in the hard vacuum of space.
-
Sorry to deviate from Racshot's posted images & texts,
but I just saw this wonderful DVD put out by Walt Disney Pictures, called
"Roving Mars", in which the two MER rovers, Spirit & Opportunity
are the (pun intended) stars.
Yes, astronomer Steve Squyres, and former NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, make their presence known in this DVD.
What amazes me is the info about the 'last minute' problems
with the parachute development that nearly scrubbed the launch attempts
of the two rovers in 2003.
It's a miracle that they pulled off the proverbial 'last minute'
development of replacement parachutes to make the landing of the rovers possible.
And it's nice to see the actual rovers in their ground test runs
moving painfully slowly. (Those of you who were anxious/impatient about when the rover Opportunity would arrive at its present crater site should view the DVD to get an actual idea of how slow the rover actually moves.)
It was wonderful to see realistic computer-generated animations
(based on actual imagery) of the rover Opportunity's travel route.
Albeit, the Disney movie only covered the time frame from Opportunity's
arrival at Eagle Crater to its investigation of Endurance Crater.
The only beef with the DVD is the Hollywood 'sound effects' for a spacecraft in the hard vacuum of space.
Haha no problem, anyone can post
I looked at that DVD but couldn't find a European (Region 2) version.
I've read the book Roving Mars though and its fantastic, covers the same things you mentioned :)
-
...
The only beef with the DVD is the Hollywood 'sound effects' for a spacecraft in the hard vacuum of space.
Rabbit-trail, I know, but space isn't entirely a vacuum... Plasma (the solar wind, actually) permeates interplanetary space, with a different plasma environment near planets and another plasma environment in interstellar space. "In plasmas, ion acoustic waves are frequently referred to as acoustic waves or even just sound waves." "An ion acoustic wave is a longitudinal oscillation of the ions (and the electrons) much like acoustic waves traveling in neutral gas."
And actually, thrusters and such do interact with this plasma environment... An experiment was done where Shuttle's thrusters punched a whole in the ionosphere above Tasmania, once.
Do the sound effects in a video like that accurately reflect exactly what it'd sound like if you had an instrument to measure these plasma waves at the position where the virtual camera is? Probably not, but you could practically write a Ph.D. thesis on the topic. I see nothing wrong with a little artistic license for the sake of communicating with the audience what is going on versus nothing at all.
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Sol 2714
Colour pancam images of targets Kinojevus, Brett Lake & Larder Lake. Continued APXS measurement of Chester Lake.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/113519936260935680 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/113519936260935680)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-12/
-
Sol 2715
Attempted to use the RAT to grind into Chester Lake. There are no images of the hole to confirm success yet. Also took the first 5 frames of a colour pan of Endeavour, image of Boston Creek & sky radiance images.
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-13/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-14/
-
I talked to Squyres this afternoon and he could barely contain his excitement. He said that it's like having a whole new space mission again.
-
Sol 2716
Full colour pancam images of 'Skead - Kirkland Lake' & 'Biscotasing Halliday'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/114238795146203136 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/114238795146203136)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-15/
-
I talked to Squyres this afternoon and he could barely contain his excitement. He said that it's like having a whole new space mission again.
:) And there's a whole planet still left to explore!
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Sol 2717
Brushed the Salisbury1 target on Chester Lake, then took microscopic images and started a APXS measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/114606150120505344 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/114606150120505344)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-16/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-16/
-
Sol 2718
Took the second part of a colour pan of Endeavour Crater and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115012208638951424 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115012208638951424)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-17/
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sols 2710-2716, September 08-15, 2011 Opportunity Studies 'Chester Lake' Rock Outcrop
Opportunity is in position at a target called "Chester Lake" at Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater.
On Sol 2710 (Sept. 8, 2011), the rover pumped forward just over a meter (3 feet) to put some surface targets within reach of the rover's robotic arm. On Sol 2713 (Sept. 11, 2011), Opportunity took a color photograph of the flag and aluminum plate on the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) at the end of the robotic arm.
The aluminum was recovered from the New York World Trade Center site after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and used to manufacture part of the RAT on both Mars rovers. Also on that sol, Opportunity collected Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaics of surface targets and then placed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the surface for an overnight integration.
On Sol 2715 (Sept. 13, 2011), the rover performed a seek-scan with the RAT in preparation for brushing a surface target with the RAT. The brushing is planned for Sol 2717 (Sept. 15, 2011).
As of Sol 2716 (Sept. 14, 2011), solar array energy production was 334 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.887 and a solar array dust factor of 0.520.
Total odometry is 20.86 miles (33,574.75 meters, or 33.58 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2719
Used the RAT to grind a hole into Chester Lake
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115353810578309120 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115353810578309120)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-18/
-
Sol 2720
Took multiple images of Solander Point so that super resolution images of it can be made.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115689028359176192 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/115689028359176192)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-19/
-
Sol 2721
Took colour pancam images of the RAT hole & Solander Point, image of Biscotasing Halliday & horizon survey images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/116063326114549760 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/116063326114549760)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-20/
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Sol 2722
Took images to check the status of the RAT grinding head and then started an APXS measurement of the RAT hole.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/116429424890609665 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/116429424890609665)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-21/
-
Sol 2723
Took a full colour pancam image of 'Chester Lake 2' and continued the APXS integration of the RAT hole.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/116778945201963008
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-22/
-
Sol 2724
Planned to brush the RAT hole then MI and APXS it. However only tau images have arrived so far (possible runout?)
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/117158841761804288 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/117158841761804288)
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sols 2717-2722, September 15-20, 2011 Opportunity Continues to Study 'Chester Lake' Rock Outcrop
Opportunity is still positioned at the target called "Chester Lake" at Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater.
On Sol 2717 (Sept. 15, 2011), the rover successfully brushed the surface target, "Salisbury 1," followed by a mosaic of images collected by the Microscopic Imager (MI) and then a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On Sol 2719 (Sept. 17, 2011), Opportunity used the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to grind the surface target. A set of MI images were taken of the freshly ground surface. On Sol 2722 (Sept. 20, 2011), post-grind images were taken of the RAT grind bit and the APXS was placed into the ground target for integration.
As of Sol 2722 (Sept. 20, 2011), solar array energy production was 321 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.895 and a solar array dust factor of 0.511.
Total odometry is 20.86 miles (33,574.75 meters, or 33.58 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2725
Looks like another runout sol. I think we are still in restricted sols so it makes sense that it would be.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/117577252975292416 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/117577252975292416)
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Sol 2726
Brushed the RAT hole in Chester Lake and then took microscopic images and started an APXS measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118429978068140032 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118429978068140032)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-26/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-26/
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Sol 2727
Took some colour pancam images of dunes inside Endeavour crater & continued the APXS measurement of Chester Lake
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118430746829520896 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118430746829520896)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-27/
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Sol 2728
The plan was to start a Mössbauer integration but from the data returned it looks like another runout sol.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118701681419632640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/118701681419632640)
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Sol 2729
Took more microscopic & pancam images of the RAT hole then put the Mössbauer instrument on it.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119053948945580032 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119053948945580032)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-28/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-09-28/
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Sol 2730
Continued Mössbauer integration & took pancam images of Destor, Kapuskasing and superres of Sutherland Point.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119352742551633920 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119352742551633920)
Pan cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-29/
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Sol 2731
Continued Mössbauer integration, took more superres images of Sutherland Point and 'drive direction' images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119752904725901313 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/119752904725901313)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-30/
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sols 2723-2730, September 21-28, 2011 Opportunity Studies Rock Interior
Opportunity is still positioned at the target called "Chester Lake" at Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater. The rover continues with the in-situ (contact) science investigation of the surface rock called "Salisbury 1."
On Sol 2726 (Sept. 24, 2011), the previously ground Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) hole was re-brushed to remove excessive tailings. Microscopic Imager (MI) images were collected confirming the successful brushing. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was placed down on the target for a post-brush integration.
On Sol 2729 (Sept. 27, 2011), the APXS was retracted from the RAT hole, a Pancam 13-filter image set was taken. Then, along with more MI images, a test of the MI poker was performed. The test results indicate normal operation of the poker. The Mössbauer (MB) spectrometer was placed down in the hole for a multi-sol integration.
As of Sol 2729 (Sept. 27, 2011), solar array energy production was 313 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.882 and a solar array dust factor of 0.514.
Total odometry is 20.86 miles (33,574.75 meters, or 33.58 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html
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Sol 2732
Continued Mössbauer integration and took another drive direction mosaic, this time in colour.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/120225422238691328 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/120225422238691328)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-01/
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Sol 2733
A light weekend sol, continued Mössbauer integration and measured atmospheric tau.
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Planetary News: Space Missions (2011)
Mars Exploration Rovers Update:
Opportunity Digs In at Endeavour Crater, Team Remembers 9/11
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0930_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
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Sol 2734
Took more microscopic images of Chester Lake followed by another APXS mesurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/120954933234249728 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/120954933234249728)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-03/
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Sol 2735
Drove ~11m back towards Odyssey Crater. Now close to the large boulders on its east side
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121239388209414145 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121239388209414145)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-04/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-04/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-04/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-04/
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Sol 2736
Took a drive direction mosaic & colour images of Kirkland Lake.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121590828446654464 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121590828446654464)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-05/
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Sol 2737
Drove ~25m north towards Shoemaker Ridge.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121955549637115904 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/121955549637115904)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-06/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-06/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/nav_hazcam/2011-10-06/
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Sol 2738
Drove another ~28m north along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/122313142373068800 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/122313142373068800)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-07/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-07/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-07/
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sols 2731-2737, September 29 - October 06, 2011 Opportunity is on the Move Again
Opportunity finished her in-situ work at the target called "Chester Lake" at Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater and is on the move again.
On Sol 2726 (Sept. 24, 2011), the rover performed another test of the Microscopic Imager (MI) poker, then collected a MI mosaic and placed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on a target for an integration. On the next sol, Opportunity got on her way to further explore around Cape York. The rover drove about 39 feet (12 meters) heading toward a feature called, "Kirkland Lake" for some imaging. On Sol 2737 (Oct. 6, 2011), Opportunity turned and began the approach to the feature named, "Shoemaker Ridge" with over a 92-feet (28-meter) drive.
As of Sol 2737 (Oct. 6, 2011), solar array energy production was 320 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.840 and a solar array dust factor of 0.513.
Total odometry is 20.89 miles (33,615.74 meters, or 33.62 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2739
Took a small mosaic of Sutherland Point/Nobby's Head. Then drove a further 75+m along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/122698842356453377 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/122698842356453377)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-08/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-08/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-08/
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Its pretty obvious by now that if there are fossils on Mars, they will be rare and hard to find.
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That's like saying that if some rover landed in Sahara and roved around the thereabouts for years that it'd be proof life on Earth would be rare and hard to find.
Neglecting the fact MERs never were designed to look for past or present life or the fact any such life was likely to only be microbial, i.e. even if there were fossilized microbes in the rocks the rovers would be oblivious to them.
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Its pretty obvious by now that if there are fossils on Mars, they will be rare and hard to find.
The rover, Opportunity, took an image way back in 2004 of something
'anomalous' embedded in a salty layer.
It looked like a piece of tortellini 'pasta' encased in those saline/mineral layers it imaged.
Now I cannot find the link nor the URL, but if someone can be so kind as to find it?
Obviously, the object is/was most likely (but not 100 percent certainly)
a mundane areological deposit that just happened to be intruded in that unique way, but I could be wrong.
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Its pretty obvious by now that if there are fossils on Mars, they will be rare and hard to find.
No more than here on Earth, if you went on a 35km walk, how many fossils would you find? If the rover could flip over rocks, hammer away at outcrops and kicked the dirt as it traveled, it may be a different outcome. I`m an outdoor person and I have not found a fossil within 100km from where I live in the last 20 years, and I do look. I have some nice fossils collected, but they are from over 300km away. The same limestone formation I found then at, runs very close to here (Niagara Escarpment), but there are no fossils here! They are there, but, deep in the formation. When I was eight years old, I was in Germany visiting and to make a long story short, we were looking at a stupid dumb bug and noticed a fossil behind the bush on an outcrop. This fossil was really in plain site for thousands of years, except for the bush.
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Sol 2740
Took post-drive hazcams and a 360 degree navcam pan from the location driven to yestersol.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123052504920502272 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123052504920502272)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-09/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-09/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-09/
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Sol 2741
A light end of weekend sol, just some calibration images taken.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123443469371969536 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123443469371969536)
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Sol 2742
Drove a curious zig-zag path ~15m one way then ~22m in another after taking some navcams.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123878731822530561 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/123878731822530561)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-11/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-11/
Foward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-11/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-11/
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Sol 2743
Took some pancam images including some to look for north facing slopes that'll be needed over winter.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124214551553126400 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124214551553126400)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-12/
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Sol 2744
Drove another 60+m along Shoemaker ridge to further explore and map Cap York before winter.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124560078656385025 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124560078656385025)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-13/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-13/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-13/
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sols 2738-2744, October 07-13, 2011 Opportunity Keeps Rolling With an Eye on Future Havens for Next Winter
Opportunity is moving generally north across Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater with an eye ahead to the next winter.
With her solar arrays dustier and atmospheric opacity higher than in past years, the winter will be more challenging. So, Opportunity has been surveying regions with favorable northerly tilts so she can spend the winter months actively exploring.
On Sol 2738 (Oct. 7, 2011), the rover drove north toward the feature "Shoemaker Ridge" with a 28-meter (92-foot) drive. On the next sol, Opportunity continued her scouting trek with a 78-meter (256-foot) drive to the north-northeast. On Sol 2742 (Oct. 11, 2011), the rover conducted a reconnaissance of the local area with a zigzag drive totaling almost 40 meters (131 feet). The plan ahead is more northward driving surveying Cape York.
As of Sol 2744 (Oct. 13, 2011), solar array energy production was 316 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.791 and a solar array dust factor of 0.498.
Total odometry is 20.98 miles (33,761.36 meters, or 33.7 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2745
Completed the 360 degree navcam pan of the current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124936402088624130 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/124936402088624130)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-14/
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Rover's Eye View of Three-Year Trek on Mars
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=114782241
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Sol 2746
Drove another 50m along Cape York
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/125295191727931392 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/125295191727931392)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-15/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-15/
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Sol 2747
Completed the 360 degree navcam pan of the current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/125670320358166528 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/125670320358166528)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-16/
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Sol 2748
Took an image of the foreground through all 13 pancam filters.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126037038209314816 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126037038209314816)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-17/
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Imagery of the clay deposits. Which image is it?
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Imagery of the clay deposits. Which image is it?
Not quite sure what you mean ?
This is the link to the previous image ...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-17/1P372134562ESFBP00P2559R7M1.JPG
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Sol 2749
Drove another ~50m along Cape York towards the northern end wintering grounds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126592001545220096
(https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126592001545220096)
and from Scott Maxwell
We now officially have winter plans: heading for the north side of Cape York. Nice northerly (sunny) tilts + good science = our winter home.
https://twitter.com/#!/marsroverdriver/status/126462884476747776 (https://twitter.com/#!/marsroverdriver/status/126462884476747776)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-19/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-19/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-19/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-19/
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Imagery of the clay deposits. Which image is it?
Probably lots of the recent images. The problem is, nobody knows what they look like.
The phyllosilicates were detected from orbit by CRISM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISM), which has a resolution of ~18m/pixel. That doesn't mean one 18 meter square of solid phyllosilicate though, it just means there is enough on average to have a detectable signature in CRISM.
AFAIK none of Opportunities functioning instruments can readily distinguish phyllosilicates, so the science team will have to do some detective work to figure out where they are. There is some informed speculation over on unmannedspaceflight.com, for example in this thread http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6667&st=105&start=105
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Sol 2750
Took a 360 degree navcam pan of current site & more navcam images of the sun for MSL.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126930152948121600 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/126930152948121600)
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Nice interview with Scott Maxwell
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/planning-for-winter-another-chat-with-scott/
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Sol 2751
Took pancam images of Hooggenoeg, Tjakastad & Moodies then drove ~50m further along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/127286017588854784 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/127286017588854784)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-21/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-21/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-21/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-21/
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Sols 2745-2750, October 14-19, 2011
Opportunity Past 21 Miles of Driving! Will Spend Winter at Cape York
The project has made the decision that Opportunity will winter over on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater where northern tilts are favorable for energy production.
On Sol 2746 (Oct. 15, 2011), Opportunity drove 167 feet (51 meters) to the north/northeast. On Sol 2749 (Oct. 18, 2011), the rover drove another 167 feet (51 meters) to the northeast. The plan ahead is to continue to drive toward the north end of Cape York and to capture any opportunistic in-situ (contact) science alone the way. Light-toned veins in the rock outcrop, possibly fracture fill, have been seen around Cape York. If Opportunity encounters one of these veins along the way, a brief robotic-arm science campaign may be conducted.
As of Sol 2750 (Oct. 19, 2011), solar array energy production was 312 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.764 and a solar array dust factor of 0.491.
Total odometry is 21.08 miles (33,931.24 meters, or 33.93 kilometers).
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Sol 2752
Took a full colour pancam image of the foreground and a navcam movie of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/127679703103438848 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/127679703103438848)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-22/
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Sol 2753
Took a 2 frame colour mosaic of target havelock and a full colour image of Fairview.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128030336562110464 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128030336562110464)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-23/
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Sol 2754
Drove ~58m further north along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128387747412066304 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128387747412066304)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-24/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-24/
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Sol 2755
Completed navcam pan of current site and took a full colour image of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128758118053191681 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/128758118053191681)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-25/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-25/
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Sol 2756
Took colour image of target 'New Consort' then drove ~39m further north along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129304750310162432 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129304750310162432)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-26/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-26/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-26/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-26/
(How cool are the images showing Opportunitys tracks in the distance ? )
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Sol 2757
Just an atmospheric tau measurement tosol. (She is in restricted sols right now)
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129479828121456640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129479828121456640)
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sols 2751-2756, October 20-25, 2011
Opportunity Continues to Drive North
The seasonal plan is for Opportunity to winter over on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater where northern tilts are favorable for energy production.
As such, the project has been driving the rover in the direction of the north end of the cape with a route along the west side that creates opportunities for science along the way. The science team is on the lookout for veins of light-toned material, putative fracture-fill.
On Sol 2751 (Oct. 20, 2011), Opportunity traveled over 161 feet (49 meters) in the northeasterly direction. The three-sol plan over the weekend had Opportunity heading just west of north with almost a 197-foot (60-meter) drive. With that drive, the rover exceeded 21 miles (34 kilometers) of odometry. On Sol 2756 (Oct. 25, 2011), the rover drove over 135 feet (41 meters), first northwest then due north. The plan ahead is more driving north.
As of Sol 2756 (Oct. 25, 2011), solar array energy production was 297 watt-hours with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.913 and a solar array dust factor of 0.510.
Total odometry is 21.18 miles (34,081.11 meters, or 34.08 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html)
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Sol 2758
Took a movie of the sky looking for clouds and then drove ~55m. Now on the NW edge of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129868770800971776 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/129868770800971776)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-28/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-28/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-28/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-28/
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Sol 2759
Took multiple images of the dunes in Endeavour crater to enable super-resolution images to be made.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130249298033115136 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130249298033115136)
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Sol 2760
Drove another ~55m north. Now right on the contact between the plains and the edge of Cape York
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130729241141706752 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130729241141706752)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-30/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-10-30/
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Sol 2761
Took a 360 deg albedo pan, then calibrated position/attitude and took some post drive imagery.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130962456028778496 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/130962456028778496)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-10-31/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-10-31/
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Sol 2762
Completed navcam pan of current site and took some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/131473028658905088 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/131473028658905088)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-01/
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Sol 2763
Took a full colour image of a light toned vein named Homestake then drove a few metres to put it into the arms reach
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/131763034375979008 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/131763034375979008)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-02/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-02/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-02/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-02/
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Sol 2764
Took microscopic images and started an APXS measurement of Homestake and took drive direction pancam images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/132191155575205888 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/132191155575205888)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-03/
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Planetary News: Space Missions (2011) Mars Exploration Rovers Update
Opportunity Heads for New Discovery as Winter Blows In at Cape York
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/1031_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
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Sols 2757-2763
October 26 - November 01, 2011 On the Lookout for Light-Toned Material
The seasonal plan for Opportunity is to winter over on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater where northerly tilts are favorable for solar array energy production.
As such, the project has been driving the rover towards the north end of the cape with a route along the west side that creates opportunities for science along the way. The science team is on the lookout for veins of light-toned material and has found some.
On Sol 2758 (Oct. 27, 2011), Opportunity traveled north/northwest about 180 feet (55 meters) heading toward a geologic contact that borders Cape York on the west. The next drive on Sol 2760 (Oct. 29, 2011), moved the rover roughly north to the contact. Imagery from the end of the Sol 2760 drive showed these light-toned veins the science team was searching for, one just a few feet (meters) in front of the rover. On Sol 2763 (Nov. 1, 2011), Opportunity bumped 12 feet (3.7 meters) placing this light-toned vein, called "Homestake" within reach of the rover's robotic arm. The plan ahead is to collect some Microscopic Imager (MI) images of the vein and place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the vein itself for an overnight integration.
As of Sol 2763 (Nov. 1, 2011), solar array energy production was 304 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.752 and a solar array dust factor of 0.494.
Total odometry is 21.25 miles (34,199.25 meters, or 34.20 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html
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Sol 2765
Pancam and microscopic images & APXS measurement of Homestake. Also pancam full colour image of Yates.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/133297824497549312 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/133297824497549312)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-04/
Microscopic Imager - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-11-04/
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Sol 2765
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-04/
Oooh, I would so love a close up of that rock layer ... awesome!
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Sol 2765
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-04/
Oooh, I would so love a close up of that rock layer ... awesome!
I can make that happen ...
Microscopic Imager (Added to original post as well )
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-11-04/
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Sol 2766
Microscopic images & APXS measurement of Homestake.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/133298201322201088 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/133298201322201088)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-05/
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Sol 2767
Took a full colour pancam image of a second rock vein called Ross.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135459103324651520 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135459103324651520)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-06/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-06/
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Sol 2769
Took a full colour pan cam image of Homestake and then bumped a metre or so to the next target called 'Deadwood'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135462178508648449 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135462178508648449)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-08/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-08/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-08/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-08/
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Sol 2770
Took a full colour pancam image of Deadwood and then slightly shifted position to better position the arm.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135463254704136193 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135463254704136193)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-09/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-09/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-09/
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Sols 2764-2770, November 02-08, 2011 Rover Continues Studies While Heading North
The seasonal plan for Opportunity is to winter over on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater where northerly tilts are favorable for solar array energy production.
As such, the project has been driving the rover towards the north end of the cape with a route along the west side that creates opportunities for science along the way. The science team is investigating a light-toned vein, called "Homestake" with the instruments on the rover's robotic arm.
On Sol 2764 (Nov. 2, 2011), the robotic arm was used to collect Microscopic Imager (MI) images of the Homestake vein, then placed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On the next sol, additional MI images were collected with a small repositioning of the APXS to better center the target within the sweet spot of the APXS. On Sol 2766 (Nov. 4, 2011), the robotic arm collected additional MI images of Homestake and positioned the APXS on a different part of the vein for another integration. On Sol 2769 (Nov. 7, 2011), Opportunity bumped about a 3 feet (1 meter) away to setup for some in-situ (contact) science on a patch of exposed bedrock, part of the same unit that contains the Homestake vein. On Sol 2770 (Nov. 8, 2011), the rover performed a small turn to position the exposure of rock outcrop within reach of the rover's robotic arm. The plan ahead is an APXS placement of the outcrop before driving away.
As of Sol 2770 (Nov. 8, 2011), solar array energy production was 295 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.774 and a solar array dust factor of 0.489.
Total odometry is 21.25 miles (34,200.33 meters, or 34.20 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html
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Sol 2771
Took microscopic images of Deadwood and then started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135463707395362816 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135463707395362816)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-11/
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Sol 2772
Took a small colour pancam mosaic of the geologic contact at the edge of Cape York & continued the APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135464384481865729 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135464384481865729)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-11/
-
Sol 2773
Drove a few m and then imaged the tracks over Homestake. Then drove ~50m towards the North slopes.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135468260312358912 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135468260312358912)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-12/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-12/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-12/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-12/
-
Sol 2774
Completed navcam pan of current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135756637876125696 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/135756637876125696)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-13/
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Sol 2775
Drove ~35m East towards the ridge along the centre of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136118383010783232 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136118383010783232)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-14/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-14/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-14/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-14/
-
Sol 2776
Completed navcam pan of current site and took small pancam mosaics of the ridge of Cape York & 'South Site'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136547559886958593 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136547559886958593)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-16/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-16/
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Sol 2777
A drive of ~35m North-East followed by the usual post drive navcam & pancam imagery
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136930056932032512 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/136930056932032512)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-16/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-16/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-16/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-16/
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Sol 2778
Took small colour mosaics 'Turkey Haven' & 'North Haven', then drove ~12m south towards to a prominent ridge.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137287395753205760 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137287395753205760)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-17/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-17/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-17/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-17/
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Sols 2771-2777, November 09-16, 2011 Nearing A Winter Haven
The project continues to implement the seasonal plan for Opportunity, which is to winter over on the north end of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater where northerly tilts are favorable for solar array energy production.
With recent driving, Opportunity in now in the vicinity of the winter haven location. On Sol 2771 (Nov. 9, 2011), the rover completed some in-situ (contact) science in and around the light-toned vein called "Homestake." On Sol 2773 (Nov. 12, 2011), Opportunity drove away with over a 164-foot (50-meter) drive to the east/northeast. On Sol 2775 (Nov. 14, 2011), Opportunity headed about 131 feet (40 meters) to the east, taking a dog leg maneuver to avoid a large ripple. Then, on Sol 2777 (Nov. 16, 2011), the rover headed northeast with a drive of a little over 115 feet (35 meters) to approach one of the areas of enhanced northerly slope, a location favorable for winter parking.
As of Sol 2777 (Nov. 16, 2011), solar array energy production was 298 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.696 and a solar array dust factor of 0.486.
Total odometry is 21.33 miles (34,328.09 meters, or 34.33 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2779
Completed navcam pan of current site and took a colour mosaic of Turkey Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137639416360468480 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137639416360468480)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-18/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-18/
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Sol 2780
Took a colour mosaic of 'T2 Haven' and a movie of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137995793918459904 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/137995793918459904)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-19/
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Sol 2781
A short drive of around 3m to position at Turkey Haven
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/138369714522046464 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/138369714522046464)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-21/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-21/
Foward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-21/
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Sol 2782
Completed 360 degree navcam pan of current site and took some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/138731446071345152 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/138731446071345152)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-22/
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Just want to say THANK YOU to "racshot65" for all of the excellent posts regarding the MER rover. Your posts are brief, but timely, and packed with relevant info and images. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
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Sol 2783
Repositioned slightly at Turkey Haven to allow the arm to reach the desired spots
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139273886842892289 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139273886842892289)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-23/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-23/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-23/
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sols 2778-2783, November 17-22, 2011 Scouting Sites for the Winter
In preparing for positioning Opportunity for the coming winter, the project has been scouting sites with favorable northerly tilt on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
There are two candidate sites for winter havens that indicate sufficient northerly tilt. Opportunity is investigating one of those two sites with the plan to spend the Thanksgiving holiday there. Because of the coming holiday, the project implemented multi-sol plans for the last three planning days before Thanksgiving.
On Sol 2778 (Nov. 17, 2011), the rover moved just under 39 feet (12 meters) to the south approaching the candidate location. Rover attitude increased to 10 degrees of northerly tilt. On Sol 2780 (Nov. 19, 2011), an atmospheric argon measurement was made with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). On Sol 2781 (Nov. 20, 2011), Opportunity bumped just under 10 feet (3 meters) to reach an interesting surface target with improved rover tilt. The northerly tilt increased to about 12 degrees.
On Sol 2783 (Nov. 22, 2011), Opportunity made a very small turn to move a surface target within the work volume of the robotic arm. Another atmospheric argon measurement was collected with the APXS later that sol. The plan ahead is to spend Thanksgiving at this location and to collect Microscopic Imager (MI) images of this new surface target, called "Transvaal" along with an APXS measure of the same.
As of Sol 2783 (Nov. 22, 2011), solar array energy production was 297 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.661 and a solar array dust factor of 0.463.
Total odometry is 21.34 miles (34,342.70 meters or 34.44 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2784
Made sky radiance (brightness) measurements and took calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139696475608322048 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139696475608322048)
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Sol 2785
Measured photometry, took super-resolution images of Endeavours rim & a full colour image of 'Brightsoil west'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139982546996965376 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/139982546996965376)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-25/
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Sol 2786
Took full colour pancam images of 'Mpangeni' & 'Brightsoil East'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/140402795105878016 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/140402795105878016)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-27/
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Sol 2787
Took microscopic images and started an APXS integration of Turkey Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/140575956241887233 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/140575956241887233)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-26/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-11-26/
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I saw some mention of gravity in articles about attempts to free Spirit, but I haven't seen much about how Mars's lower gravity affects rover operations, such as traction, energy needed to move, etc.
Does anyone know if the rovers have behaved better/worse than expected in that regard, and what lessons have been learned? Any surprises?
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Sol 2788
Took pancams for 'super res' images of the dunes inside Endeavour & more east/west photometry.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141092903081623552 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141092903081623552)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-27/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-28/
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Sol 2789
Some pancam images were planned but I can find no evidence that anything was taken. No data is in the database.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141829591198208000 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141829591198208000)
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Sol 2790
Took a small mosaic of ripples and a full colour image 'Transvaal' then drove ~10m NE along the ridge.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141830815934980096 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/141830815934980096)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-11-30/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-30/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-11-29/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-11-30/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-11-29/
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Some updates about the winter location from the experts here? What's the location and why it was chosen and how long will be the rover there?
-
I saw some mention of gravity in articles about attempts to free Spirit, but I haven't seen much about how Mars's lower gravity affects rover operations, such as traction, energy needed to move, etc.
Does anyone know if the rovers have behaved better/worse than expected in that regard, and what lessons have been learned? Any surprises?
Not sure how helpful this is, but in Steve Squyers' book he mentions doing tests on the mobility of the rover on inclines, and being amazed at how well they could cope with steep climbs. The term 'mountain goat' was used! What was really interesting was that they only did these tests on Earth as Spirit was approaching the Columbia Hills, I suppose this is because they didn't think the rovers would last long enough to be able to consider going anywhere other than flat plains.
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Sol 2791
Completed the navcam pan of current site and took a full colour image of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/142156663279984640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/142156663279984640)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-01/
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sols 2784-2790, November 23-29, 2011 Scouting Sites for the Winter
Opportunity spent the Thanksgiving holiday at a location called "Turkey Haven," on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
This particular location provided favorable northerly tilts and may be a candidate for the winter haven location. On Sol 2787 (Nov. 26, 2011), the rover employed the robotic arm to collect some Microscopic Imager (MI) images of a surface target and then collect an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) measurement on the same.
On Sol 2790 (Nov. 29, 2011), Opportunity left "Turkey Haven" on a 12-meter (39-foot) drive to position herself near the other candidate winter haven for a closer look. The near term plan is for Opportunity to nudge around the new location and inspect the terrain for possible winter science targets and favorable tilts.
As of Sol 2790 (Nov. 29, 2011), solar array energy production was 292 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.770 and a solar array dust factor of 0.488.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,354.92 meters, or 34.35 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2792
A short ~3m drive followed by imaging of the target 'Saddleback'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/142536291823796224 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/142536291823796224)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-01/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-01/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-01/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-01/
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Planetary News: Space Missions (2011)
Mars Exploration Rovers Update:
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/1130_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
Some updates about the winter location from the experts here? What's the location and why it was chosen and how long will be the rover there?
From that article ...
"There's a southern candidate for a winter haven and a northern candidate winter haven within about 20 meters of one another, and they both have slopes of 10 to 20 degrees north," said Arvidson, who is serving as the science lead for the winter campaign. "They're both good from a northerly tilt perspective, and so we will have to assess the science at both [sites] before deciding where the vehicle will spend the winter," added Squyres.
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Sol 2793
Took a colour pancam mosaic of Saddleback.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143376397321252864 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143376397321252864)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-03/
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Sol 2794
A quiet sol, just the regular atmospheric tau measurement made.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143376911924592640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143376911924592640)
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Sol 2795
Took a full colour image of 'Boesmanskop' followed by a short ~2.5m drive to approach 'Saddleback'.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-05/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-05/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-05/
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Sol 2795
Took a full colour image of 'Boesmanskop' followed by a short ~2.5m drive to approach 'Saddleback'.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-05/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-05/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-05/
Is that an artifact on image 1N376319693EFFBR00P0745L0M1.JPG, or something actually streaking acros the sky?
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Sol 2795
Took a full colour image of 'Boesmanskop' followed by a short ~2.5m drive to approach 'Saddleback'.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/143626618986971136)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-05/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-05/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-05/
Is that an artifact on image 1N376319693EFFBR00P0745L0M1.JPG, or something actually streaking acros the sky?
Interesting...
This next image is slightly to the right of the above image
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-05/1N376319693EFFBR00P0745R0M1.JPG
But theres no mark in the background.
Is it possible it may have captured MRO or something passing by ?
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Sol 2796
Just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144015227233648640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144015227233648640)
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Sol 2797
Another light sol, just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144366999689101312 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144366999689101312)
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Oppy found a vein of gypsum created by water. Press release:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20111207.html
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Oppy found a vein of gypsum created by water. Press release:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20111207.html
Very exciting! That is awesome!!! I wonder if there are any gypsum needles nearby...
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Sol 2798
Microscopic images and APXS measurements taken of Saddleback
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144722169220444161 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/144722169220444161)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-08/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-12-08/
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NASA Presents Software of the Year Award
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-380
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Opportunity to Stop and Study Rocks sols 2791-2797, November 30 - December 6, 2011:
Opportunity is currently exploring one of the candidate sites for winter, on the north end of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sol 2792 (Dec. 1, 2011), the rover bumped backwards about 9 feet (2.7 meters) to better view a rock outcrop and to increase the rover tilt toward the Sun. The northerly tilt, favorable for energy production, increased from 6 degrees to 9 degrees.
On Sol 2795 (Dec. 4, 2011), Opportunity bumped further to approach some in-situ (contact) science targets on the rock outcrop, called "Saddleback." The plan ahead is to perform some in-situ science on the rock outcrop with the instruments on the end of the robotic arm.
As of Sol 2797 (Dec. 6, 2011), solar array energy production was 305 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.755 and a solar array dust factor of 0.487.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,360.76 meters, or 34.36 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2799
Continued APXS integration of Saddleback and looked for dust devils.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145103390869958656 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145103390869958656)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-09/
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Sol 2800
Took more microscopic images and APXS measurements of Saddleback. Completed navcam pan of current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145517398995382273 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145517398995382273)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-12-10/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-10/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-10/
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Sol 2801
Brushed the surface of Saddleback then took microscopic images and started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145895551492292609 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/145895551492292609)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-12-11/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-11/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-11/
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Sol 2802
Continued APXS integration and took some calibration images
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146173776525135872 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146173776525135872)
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Sol 2803
A slight repositioning of the rover to access a different target with the arm & full colour image of Boesmanskop
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146909584664174592 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146909584664174592)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-14/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-14/
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Sol 2804
Navcam pan from current site & pancam images of 'Oshoek', the magnet array onboard and for the Horizon survey.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146910651888050176 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/146910651888050176)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-15/
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Sol 2805
Took microscopic images and started an APXS integration of a second target on Saddleback.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/147283291328876544 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/147283291328876544)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-12-15/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-15/
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Sol 2806
Took a full colour image of Shoemaker Ridge.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/147684499369631745 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/147684499369631745)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-16/
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Sol 2807
Took navcam images of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148009769297391616 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148009769297391616)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-17/
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Opportunity at One of its Two Winter Spots sols 2798-2804, December 7-13, 2011:
Opportunity is positioned at one of the candidate sites for winter, on the north end of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
There are two candidate sites for winter havens that indicate sufficient northerly tilt. Opportunity is at one of those spots. The rover is tilted about 16 degrees to the north for favorable solar energy production. Opportunity is continuing the in-situ (contact) investigation of the outcrop at this location. On Sols 2798 (Dec. 7, 2011), and 2800 (Dec. 9, 2011), Opportunity conducted a set of investigations using the instruments on the end of the robotic arm on the surface target called "Boesmankop." Each involved collecting Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaics followed by an overnight placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). On Sol 2801 (Dec. 10, 2011), the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) was used to brush the surface target and collect another MI mosaic. The rover also took a panoramic camera (Pancam) image, followed by the placement of the APXS for an overnight integration.
Wanting to investigate a rock clast on the outcrop, the rover performed a small 9-degree counter-clockwise turn on Sol 2803 (Dec. 12, 2011). This positions that rock clast within reach of Opportunity's robotic arm. The plan ahead is an in-situ investigation of the rock clast with the instruments on the end of the robotic arm.
As of Sol 2804 (Dec. 13, 2011), solar array energy production was 302 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.714 and a solar array dust factor of 0.486.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,360.78 meters, or 34.36 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2808
Another small change of position to access a new target at Saddleback.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148371201784422400 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148371201784422400)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-18/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-18/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-18/
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Sol 2809
Just an atmospheric tau measurement tosol.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148797216407031809 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/148797216407031809)
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Sol 2810
Preformed diagnostic tests of the drive system and took a full colour image of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149260585006137345 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149260585006137345)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-20/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-20/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-20/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-20/
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Sol 2811
Started taking images for a colour mosaic of the rover deck
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149539595107844097 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149539595107844097)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-21/
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Sol 2812
Bumped forward a few centimetres
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149980664702308353 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149980664702308353)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-22/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-22/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-22/
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Sol 2813
Took more images for the colour mosaic of the rover deck.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/150309995932680192 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/150309995932680192)
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Wheel Passes Checkup After Stalled Drive sols 2805-2812, December 14-22, 2011:
This period began with a campaign of using the Microscopic Imager (MI) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to examine a target called "Komati" on the "Saddleback" outcrop.
After two days of collecting APXS data, a drive was planned for Sol 2808 (Dec. 17, 2011) to rotate the rover in a way that would bring a different target into range of the robotic arm (instrument deployment device, or IDD). During this turning maneuver the right-front wheel experienced elevated electrical currents, which tripped a fault response and stopped the drive. Telemetry suggested that the elevated current was due to the wheel's orientation with respect to the terrain (causing it to work harder than expected) and not an actuator failure. To verify this, diagnostics were performed on Sol 2810 (Dec. 20, 2011). The diagnostic tests confirmed the actuator's continued good health.
A small drive of about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) in the opposite direction was planned for Sol 2812 (Dec. 22, 2011) to clear the wheel from obstacles, if any existed, that may have hooked the wheel. This drive was also successful, further confirming the health of the actuator. With the success of this smaller drive, we are now comfortable proceeding with a larger arc that should give us additional wheel-current data and allow us to image the Sol 2808 stall point. This drive is likely to be of the magnitude of 6 inches (15 centimeters) and occur on Sol 2816 (Dec. 26, 2011).
As of Sol 2812 (Dec. 22, 2011), solar array energy production is 297 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.645 and a solar array dust factor of 0.469. Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,361.13 meters, or 34.36 kilometers).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2811
Started taking images for a colour mosaic of the rover deck
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149539595107844097 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/149539595107844097)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-21/
quite a bit of dust on the solar panels. Let's hope they'll get a bit of a wind-brushing this winter.
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Sol 2814
Took more images for the deck pan and images to enable super resolution pictures to be made of dunes to be made.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151761472127635456 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151761472127635456)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-25/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-25/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-24/
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Sol 2815
A visual odometry image taken but no driving. Tests/experiments I guess.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151762447433351168 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151762447433351168)
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Sol 2816
Another slight change (~20cm) in position
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151763368619933696 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151763368619933696)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-26/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-12-26/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2011-12-26/
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Sol 2817
Took the first images of a full (all 13 filters) colour mosaic of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151763979109281793 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/151763979109281793)#
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-27/
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Sol 2818
Took the second frame of the full colour foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/152136076612468737 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/152136076612468737)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-12-28/
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Sol 2819
Took microscopic images, the 3rd frame of the foreground mosaic & a colour image of Amboy. Started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/152505556874182657 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/152505556874182657)
Micro Imager - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2011-12-29/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-29/
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sols 2813-2817, December 23-27, 2011 Positioned at Candidate Site for Winter
Opportunity is positioned at a candidate site for Mars' southern hemisphere winter. The rover is at the north end of 'Cape York' on the rim of Endeavour Crater, tilted about 15 degrees to the north for favorable solar energy production.
Opportunity experienced anomalously high current in the right-front wheel on Sol 2808 (Dec. 17, 2011). Diagnostics on Sols 2810 and 2812 (Dec. 20 and 22, 2011) indicated a nominal wheel and drive actuator with the terrain being the indicated explanation for the high current. On Sol 2816 (Dec. 26, 2011), the rover performed an 8-inch (0.2-meter) diagnostic backward drive. The drive completed successfully with Opportunity maintaining its 15-degree northerly tilt, sufficient for the winter period.
The plan ahead is to conduct some contact measurements with the instruments on the robotic arm to see if this location offers substantive in-situ science opportunities during the winter months. Opportunity will also begin a radio Doppler tracking campaign at the start of the new year.
As of Sol 2817 (Dec. 27, 2011), solar array energy production was 290 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.685 and a solar array dust factor of 0.475. Total odometry as of Sol 2816 (Dec. 26, 2011) is 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2820
Took a 360 degree navcam pan and some calibration images. Continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/153217199362949121 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/153217199362949121)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2011-12-30/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-01/
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Sol 2821
Continued APXS integration
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/153217385770401792 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/153217385770401792)
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Sol 2822
Completed APXS observation and started a Mössbauer integration this will continue for a long time I expect.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154515191109926912 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154515191109926912)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-04/
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Sol 2823
Tool the first 6 pointings of a large colour panorama "Greeley"
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154515783991562242 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154515783991562242)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-04/
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Sol 2824
Took two more pointings of the Greeley Panorama and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154516050711543810 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/154516050711543810)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-04/
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Sols 2818-2824, December 28, 2011 - January 03, 2012: Positioned at Candidate Site for Winter
Opportunity is positioned for winter on the north end of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is tilted about 15 degrees to the north for favorable solar energy production. Opportunity is in position to conduct contact science investigations of surface targets reachable by the instruments on the robotic arm.
On Sol 2819 (Dec. 29, 2011), the robotic arm was used to collect a set of Microscopic Imager mosaics of a target called "Amboy." This was followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer for a multi-sol integration. On Sol 2822 (Jan. 1, 2012), the rover's robotic arm placed the Mössbauer Spectrometer on the target Amboy for an extended integration.
Sol 2822 also saw the first of a planned series of special X-band passes to support a radio Doppler tracking experiment to measure the precession and nutation of the planet. Those first data have been assessed as good quality. The plan ahead is for continued Mössbauer integration on Amboy and more radio Doppler tracking.
As of Sol 2824 (Jan. 3, 2012), solar array energy production was 287 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.735 and a solar array dust factor of 0.481. Total odometry as of Sol 2823 (Jan. 2, 2012) is 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html)
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Sol 2825
Took a albedo (brightness) pan & 4 more pointings for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155210760115601409 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155210760115601409)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-06/
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Sol 2826
Just an atmospheric tau measurement (and presumably radio science) and not forgetting the ongoing Mössbauer integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155211560090992640 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155211560090992640)
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'Greeley Haven' is Winter Workplace for Mars Rover
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-003#4
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Planetary News: Space Missions (2011) Mars Exploration Rovers Update
Opportunity Climbs to Greeley Haven for Winter, and We Look Back at 2011
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/1231_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
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Sol 2827
Took a colour mosaic of 'Morris Hill'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155751773217366017 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/155751773217366017)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-08/
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Sol 2828
Radio science & continued Mössbauer integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156302868285095936 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156302868285095936)
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Sol 2829
2 more images for the Greeley pan, some microscopic images and then re-placed the arm to cont Mössbauer integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156304368629583872 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156304368629583872)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-01-09/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-08/
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Sol 2830
Two more sets of images for the Greeley Panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156692932773158912 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/156692932773158912)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-10/
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Sol 2831
Two more sets of images for the Greeley panorama
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157064140316344322 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157064140316344322)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-11/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-10/
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Sol 2832
Two more sets of images for the Greeley panorama. 20 taken so far
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157390780711972864 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157390780711972864)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-12/
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Sol 2833
Took two more frames of the Greeley panorama and changed tools from the Mössbauer to APXS.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157747688161558528 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/157747688161558528)
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-13/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-13/
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sols 2825-2832, January 04-11, 2012: Studying Rock Target 'Amboy'
Opportunity is positioned for winter on the north end of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is tilted about 15 degrees to the north for favorable solar energy production. Opportunity is conducting in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy." The Mössbauer spectrometer has been in place for several sols on Amboy. On Sol 2829 (Jan. 8, 2012), the Microscopic Imager was used to make additional surveys of the target with the Mössbauer being placed again on the same point. After some image assessments, the robotic arm was used on Sol 2831 (Jan. 10, 2012), to slightly reposition the Mössbauer.
Ongoing with the long Mössbauer integrations, Opportunity has been conducting regular radio Doppler X-band tracking passes in support of an experiment to measure the precession and nutation of the planet. Opportunity has also been collecting color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images of the full 360-degree "Greeley" panorama from this site. The plan ahead is more Mössbauer, more Pancam and more radio Doppler tracking.
As of Sol 2832 (Jan. 11, 2012), solar array energy production was 281 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.697 and a solar array dust factor of 0.471.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2834
Four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/158671862115745793 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/158671862115745793)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-15/
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Sol 2835
Another four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/158672182933864448 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/158672182933864448)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-15/
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Sol 2836
Two more sets of images for the Greeley Panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159963811607085056 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159963811607085056)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-17/
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Sol 2837
Some calibration and sky radiance (brightness) images.]Some calibration and sky radiance (brightness) images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159964259575545857 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159964259575545857)
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Sol 2838
Four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159964571828887552 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159964571828887552)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-18/
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Sol 2839
Two more images for the Greeley pan and took some microscopic images before re-placing the APXS.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159965194473312257 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/159965194473312257)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-01-19/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-19/
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sols 2833-2838, January 12-17, 2012: Adjusting Robotic Arm on 'Amboy' Rock
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the target, "Amboy" and continues to collect the 13-filter, 360-degree "Greeley" panorama.
On Sol 2833 (Jan. 12, 2012), the robotic arm performed a tool change to place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on a repositioned Amboy target. With multi-sol APXS integration ongoing, several opportunities were used to perform Mössbauer spectrometer temperature diagnostics. The diagnostic tests help to establish the best temperature range of operation for the Mössbauer, which exhibits some temperature-related anomalous behavior. In addition to the continued radio Doppler tracking, panorama collection and in-situ science, in the plan ahead regular Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaics will be collected of an extended area around the in-situ targets.
As of Sol 2838 (Jan. 17, 2012), solar array energy production was 276 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.602 and a solar array dust factor of 0.447.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2840
Three more sets of images for the Greeley panorama and some low light imaging
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161194942885138433 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161194942885138433)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-20/
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Sol 2841
An APXS measurement of the air and 5 more sets of images for the Greeley panorama
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923224693768192 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923224693768192)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-21/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-21/
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Sol 2842
Three more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923444475297792 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923444475297792)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-23/
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Sol 2843
Two more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923692107018241 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/161923692107018241)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-23/
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Sol 2844
Two more sets of images for the Greeley panorama
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162284592802447363 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162284592802447363)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-25/
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Sol 2845
Two more sets of images for the Greeley panorama and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162285176729247744 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162285176729247744)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-01-25/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-25/
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-25/
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sols 2839-2845, January 18-24, 2012: Science Investigations Continue as Solar Energy Levels Drop
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production during the winter.
Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the target, "Amboy" including an extended Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic, and continued collection of the 13-filter, 360-degree "Greeley" panorama.
Decreasing energy levels with the approach to the winter solstice has constrained Opportunity for conducting both a radio Doppler tracking pass and an afternoon Ultra High Frequency (UHF) relay pass on the same sol. The operations team performs energy trades on the tactical timeline as to which, if not both, of these communication passes are performed on a given sol. On Sol 2839 (Jan. 18, 2012), the first portion of the extended Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic was collected, followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The next sol supported continued temperature diagnostics for the Mössbauer (MB) spectrometer and conducted a radio Doppler tracking pass. On Sol 2841 (Jan. 20, 2012), the APXS was retracted and rotated to perform a periodic atmospheric argon measurement. On Sol 2844 (Jan. 23, 2012), the robotic arm was repositioned to collect a set of Microscopic Imager sky-flat calibration images and another radio Doppler tracking pass was performed.
As of Sol 2845 (Jan. 24, 2012), solar array energy production was 279 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.693 and a solar array dust factor of 0.473.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
-
Sol 2846
Four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama and some more low light imaging.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162665200858836992 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/162665200858836992)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-26/
-
As it was Opportunity's 8th anniversary on Mars in last few days,I did a 'little card' for it
A-P
-
As it was Opportunity's 8th anniversary on Mars in last few days,I did a 'little card' for it
Heh neat, it's lucky they drove that pattern so you could make the 8
-
Sol 2847
4 added to the Greeley pan, some colour low light images, navcams of the sky looking for clouds and started an APXS obs.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163296631867965440 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163296631867965440)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-27/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-01-27/
-
Heh neat, it's lucky they drove that pattern so you could make the 8
Oh... I just thought it was someone being cute with photoshop. Well, here is to the first donut's on Mars!
-
Heh neat, it's lucky they drove that pattern so you could make the 8
Oh... I just thought it was someone being cute with photoshop. Well, here is to the first donut's on Mars!
Apollo-phill will have to weigh in here, but I'm fairly certain they did actually do some donuts.
-
Sol 2848
Four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163741416932114432 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163741416932114432)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-31/
-
Sol 2849
And another four more sets of images for the Greeley panorama.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163741538768257024 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/163741538768257024)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-31/
-
Sol 2850
-
Sol 2851
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-01-31/
-
sols 2846-2852, January 25 - February 01, 2012: Radio Doppler Tracking Continues at Cape York
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," including an extended Microscopic Imager mosaic, and continued collection of the 13-filter 360-degree "Greeley" panorama.
Additionally, during the late afternoon radio Doppler tracking passes, the rover is collecting spectacular low-light (low sun elevation) images. Decreasing energy levels with the approach to the winter solstice has constrained conducting both a radio Doppler tracking pass and an afternoon Ultra High Frequency relay pass on the same sol. The operations team performs energy trades on the tactical timeline as to which, if not both, of these communication passes are performed on a given sol. On Sol 2846 (Jan. 25, 2012), a low-light Panoramic Camera (Pancam) image was collected during the late afternoon radio Doppler tracking pass. On the next sol, the robotic arm was used to re-place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on the target Amboy for multi-sol integration. More radio Doppler tracking passes with Pancam low-light imagery were performed over the next sols.
On Sol 2852 (Feb. 1, 2012), the robotic arm collected a Microscopic Imager mosaic, part of an extended mosaic campaign, of the surface area that includes the target Amboy. The Mössbauer spectrometer was then placed on Amboy for a multi-sol integration. New parameters are being used to optimize the Moessbauer spectrometer performance.
As of Sol 2852 (Feb. 1, 2012), solar array energy production was 270 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.679 and a solar array dust factor of 0.469.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 2852
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-02-02/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-02-02/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-03/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-02-02/
-
Sol 2853
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-02-02/
-
Sol 2852
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-02-02/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-02-02/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-03/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-02-02/
wow, lots of dust on those solar panels.
-
Sol 2853
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-04/
-
Sol 2854
-
Sol 2855
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-04/
-
Sol 2856
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-06/
-
Sol 2857
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-06/
-
Sol 2858
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-02-07/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-02-07/
-
Opportunity Celebrates 8, Keeps on Rockin' into Year 9
http://www.planetary.org/news/2012/0131_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
-
Sol 2859
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-08/
-
sols 2853-2859, February 01-08, 2012: Energy Levels Decreasing
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," including an extended Microscopic Imager mosaic, and continued collection of the 13-filter 360-degree "Greeley" panorama.
Additionally, during the late afternoon radio Doppler tracking passes, the rover is collecting spectacular low-light (low sun elevation) images. Decreasing energy levels with the approach to the winter solstice has constrained conducting both a radio Doppler tracking pass and an afternoon Ultra High Frequency relay pass on the same sol. The operations team performs energy trades on the tactical timeline as to which, if not both, of these communication passes are performed on a given sol.
On Sol 2852 (Feb. 1, 2012), the Mössbauer Spectrometer was placed on Amboy for a multi-sol integration and subsequently 24 hours of integration has occurred. Also, there were three radio Doppler tracking passes during this time on Sols 2853, 2855, and 2856 (Feb. 2, 4 and 5). And finally, on Sol 2858 (Feb. 7, 2012), the robotic arm continued its extended Microscopic Imager mosaic campaign of the surface area that includes the target Amboy.
As of Sol 2859 (Feb. 8, 2012), solar array energy production was 283 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.648 and a solar array dust factor of 0.478.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 2860
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-09/
-
Sol 2861
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-11/
-
Sol 2862
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-11/
-
Sol 2863
-
Sol 2864
-
Sol 2865
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-15/
-
sols 2860-2865, February 09-14, 2012: Rock Studies Continue for Opportunity
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," including an extended Microscopic Imager mosaic, and continued collection of the 13-filter (stereo) 360-degree "Greeley" panorama. The Mössbauer spectrometer is currently on the surface target Amboy and is collecting a very long, (multi-sol) integration. Radio Doppler tracking passes were performed on Sols 2861 (Feb. 10, 2012) and 2863 (Feb. 12, 2012). More segments of the Greeley panorama were collected.
As of Sol 2865 (Feb. 14, 2012), solar array energy production was 274 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.678 and a solar array dust factor of 0.467.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
-
Sol 2866
-
Sol 2867
-
Sol 2868
-
Sol 2869
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-19/
-
Sol 2870
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-21/
-
Sol 2871
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-21/
-
Heh neat, it's lucky they drove that pattern so you could make the 8
Oh... I just thought it was someone being cute with photoshop. Well, here is to the first donut's on Mars!
Apollo-phill will have to weigh in here, but I'm fairly certain they did actually do some donuts.
You are correct. Check out your own post (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=4075.msg841698#msg841698) a short time back.
-
Sorry for the corrupt image
-
Sol 2872
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-22/
-
sols 2866-2872, February 15-21, 2012: More Doppler Tracking and Imaging
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," and continued collection of Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images. The Mösssbauer spectrometer is currently on the surface target Amboy and is collecting a very long (multi-sol) integration. Radio Doppler tracking passes were performed on Sols 2866 (Feb. 15, 2012), and 2870 (Feb. 19, 2012). Additional 13-filter Pancam images of foreground targets were taken.
As of Sol 2872 (Feb. 21, 2012), solar array energy production was 277 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.684 and a solar array dust factor of 0.476.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 2873
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-23/
-
Sol 2874
Forward Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-02-24/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-24/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-02-24/
-
Sol 2875
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-26/
-
Sol 2876
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-26/
-
Sol 2877
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-28/
-
Sol 2878
-
Sol 2879
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-02-29/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-02-29/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-02-29/
-
sols 2873-2879, February 22-28, 2012: Slight Cleaning of Solar Panels
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," including Microscopic Imager mosaics and long Mössbauer spectrometer integrations, and continued collection of Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images.
Radio Doppler tracking passes were performed on Sols 2873, 2875, 2877 and 2878 (Feb. 22, 24, 26 and 27). Microscopic Imager mosaics were performed on Sols 2873, 2874 and 2879 (Feb. 22, 23 and 28). The Mössbauer spectrometer was placed down again on Amboy for further integration time after each Microscopic Imager mosaic. Additional 13-filter Pancam images of foreground targets were taken. In the last few sols, there has been a small amount of solar array cleaning (dust factor improvement).
As of Sol 2879 (Feb. 28, 2012), solar array energy production was 305 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.520 and a modestly improved solar array dust factor of 0.489. A recent recalibration of atmospheric opacity resulted in a re-baseline of dust factor numbers.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
-
Sol 2880
-
Sol 2881
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-02/
-
Still going strong, but haven't been in the news for ages.
-
Opportunity Turns On, Tunes In, and Drops Panoramic Postcard to Earth
http://planetary.org/news/2012/0229_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update.html
-
Sol 2882
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-03/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-03/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-03/
-
Sol 2883
-
Sol 2884
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-05/
-
Sol 2885
-
Sol 2886
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-07/
-
sols 2880-2886, February 29 - March 07, 2012, 2012: Winter Studies of 'Amboy' Rock Continue
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amboy," including Microscopic Imager mosaics and long Mössbauer spectrometer integrations, and continued collection of Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images.
Radio Doppler tracking passes were performed on Sols 2882, 2883, 2885 and 2886 (March 2, 4, 6 and 7, 2012). A Microscopic Imager mosaic was collected on Sol 2882 (March 2, 2012). The Mössbauer was otherwise placed down on Amboy collecting further integration time after each Microscopic Imager mosaic. Additional 13-filter Pancam images of foreground targets were taken.
As of Sol 2886 (March 7, 2012), solar array energy production was 298 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.557 and a solar array dust factor of 0.487.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 2887
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-08/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-08/
-
Sol 2888
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-09/
-
Sol 2889
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-10/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-10/
-
Wow, these pictures are still so striking!
(BTW, what's the minimum average daily watt-hours to keep Opportunity alive? I heard it's less than Spirit's due to Opportunity's warmer areographic location, and I heard that Spirit needed around 300 Watt-hours a day to keep operating.)
Also, when is the "dead of winter" for Opportunity, i.e. the point at which solar insolation starts to increase (on average) again?
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Wow...those solar panels are so dusty.....we need one of those dust devils to pass over Opportunity and clean things up...:)
BTW, Aaron...just wanted to add my thanks for all these Robotic Spacecraft updates you provide...NSF is truly a one stop shop for all things space related....!!
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(BTW, what's the minimum average daily watt-hours to keep Opportunity alive? I heard it's less than Spirit's due to Opportunity's warmer areographic location, and I heard that Spirit needed around 300 Watt-hours a day to keep operating.)
I'm afraid the only reference I can find related to this is on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_rover#Dust_storms
If the rovers get less than 150 watt-hours per day they have to start draining their batteries.
Also, when is the "dead of winter" for Opportunity, i.e. the point at which solar insolation starts to increase (on average) again?
Based on information from: http://www.planetary.org/news/2012/0229_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update.html
"The date that really counts [for Opportunity] is March 9th, minimum insolation at the top of atmosphere," offered Arvidson. That will be the day of the least sunshine. "And then winter solstice in the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet where the MERs are located, is March 31st." That is, much like on Earth, the shortest sol or Martian day of the Martian year.
-
Sol 2890
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-15/
-
Sol 2891
-
Sol 2892
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-14/
-
(BTW, what's the minimum average daily watt-hours to keep Opportunity alive? I heard it's less than Spirit's due to Opportunity's warmer areographic location, and I heard that Spirit needed around 300 Watt-hours a day to keep operating.)
I'm afraid the only reference I can find related to this is on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_rover#Dust_storms
If the rovers get less than 150 watt-hours per day they have to start draining their batteries.
Also, when is the "dead of winter" for Opportunity, i.e. the point at which solar insolation starts to increase (on average) again?
Based on information from: http://www.planetary.org/news/2012/0229_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update.html
"The date that really counts [for Opportunity] is March 9th, minimum insolation at the top of atmosphere," offered Arvidson. That will be the day of the least sunshine. "And then winter solstice in the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet where the MERs are located, is March 31st." That is, much like on Earth, the shortest sol or Martian day of the Martian year.
Thank you!
Looking at the Wikipedia articles references (Wikipedia is sort of falsely maligned: it often has references and usually lets you know when it doesn't (for articles without references, you'll see [citation needed] all over the place)):
"Engineers calculate that skipping communications sessions should lower daily energy use to less than 130 watt hours."
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-080
So, in other words, right now is roughly the dead of winter and if Opportunity survives until April, the situation will likely improve (though at this point, it's hard to say since Oppy is so old, now).
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Sol 2893
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-13/
-
sols 2887-2893, March 07-14, 2012: Energy Levels Expected to Rise
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
Opportunity is passing through the period of minimum solar insolation. Although the winter solstice is still some weeks away, it is expected that energy levels will start to rise. Further, there has been some very small dust cleaning, slightly improving the dust factor of the solar arrays.
Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigations were performed on Sols 2890 and 2893 (March 11 and 14, 2012). Microscopic Imager mosaics were collected on Sol 2887 and 2889 (March 8 and 10, 2012). An atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was taken on Sol 2888 (March 9, 2012). A low-light Panoramic Camera (Pancam) image was also collected this Sol and Panoramic Camera images of "Morris Hill" were taken on Sol 2892 (March 13, 2012). The Mössbauer spectrometer was otherwise placed down on the surface target Amboy collecting further integration time.
As of Sol 2893 (March 14, 2012), solar array energy production was 301 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.542 and a solar array dust factor of 0.489.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 2894
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-16/
-
sols 2887-2893, March 07-14, 2012: Energy Levels Expected to Rise
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
Opportunity is passing through the period of minimum solar insolation. Although the winter solstice is still some weeks away, it is expected that energy levels will start to rise. Further, there has been some very small dust cleaning, slightly improving the dust factor of the solar arrays.
As of Sol 2893 (March 14, 2012), solar array energy production was 301 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.542 and a solar array dust factor of 0.489.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
Was hoping for a bit more than "very small dust cleaning". Maybe we'll get lucky and a dust devil will come say hello :)
-
Sol 2895
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-17/
-
Sol 2896
-
Sol 2897
-
Sol 2898
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-22/
-
Sol 2899
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-20/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-03-20/
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Sol 2900
Took the 16th part of a mosaic of the foreground at Greeley Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/182950056062750720 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/182950056062750720)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-22/
-
Sol 2900
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-22/
Almost looks like a footprint. ;)
I love these pictures, racshot! So amazing that Oppy is still working!
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Sol 2901
Deployed the arm while checking closely for any rover movement. (Last week the LF wheel was seen to shift unexpectedly)
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/183319479911055360 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/183319479911055360)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-03-22/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-22/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-03-22/
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sols 2894-2900, March 15-21, 2012: Slight Drop of Left-front Wheel
Opportunity remains positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximately 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on sols 2895, 2897 and 2899 (March 16, 18 and 20, 2012). The Microscopic Imager (MI) collected images on sols 2894 and 2899 (March 15 and 20, 2012) as part of a large mosaic. On Sol 2894, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer was placed on target "Amboy3" for a multi-sol integration.
On Sol 2899, the robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) experienced a safety stall in preparation for the MI mosaic imaging. The imaging executed successfully, and the Mössbauer spectrometer was subsequently placed on the target "Amboy," as planned. Imagery from the front hazard-avoidance camera showed that the left-front wheel apparently dropped by a small amount, roughly half an inch (1 centimeter), sometime between Sol 2894 and Sol 2899. The rover is safe, healthy and stable. There is no indication of risk to Opportunity. But the small drop in the left-front wheel is curious. The IDD safety stall may be related. The project is investigating this. Diagnostic activities have been sequenced for Sol 2901 (March 22, 2012).
As of Sol 2900 (March 21, 2012), solar array energy production was 311 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.508 and a solar array dust factor of 0.498.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2902
Took the 18th part of the foreground mosaic at Greeley Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/183669960378294272 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/183669960378294272)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-24/
-
Sol 2903
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-25/
-
Almost looks like a footprint. ;)
Indeed. Made me question my sanity for a few seconds when I glanced at that picture.
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Sol 2904
Took more documentation images, particularly of the Mössbauer and RF wheel.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/184373148815343616 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/184373148815343616)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-26/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-26/
-
Sol 2905
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-29/
-
Sol 2906
More diagnostic tests. Images taken of the Mössbauer and LF wheel.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/185122792667217920 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/185122792667217920)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-03-28/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-28/
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Sol 2907
Took images looking for any changes since parking at Greeley Haven
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/185469293339746304 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/185469293339746304)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-03-29/
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sols 2901-2906, March 22-27, 2012: Slight Drop of Left-Front Wheel
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2903 and 2904 (March 24 and 25, 2012). Atmospheric argon measurements were performed with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on Sols 2904 and 2905 (March 25 and 26, 2012). Additional Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images were taken on several sols.
The project is continuing to investigate the anomalies from Sol 2899 (March 20, 2012), that indicates apparent downward motion of the left-front wheel and a stall in the robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD). On Sols 2901, 2904 and 2906 (March 22, 25 and 27, 2012), further imaging of the rover's position and detail imaging of the Mössbauer (MB) spectrometer on the end of the IDD were performed along with a series of diagnostic robotic arm motions. The IDD moved without any problems. Motor currents and actuator motion were all nominal. Detailed images of the Mössbauer spectrometer showed no evidence of any off-nominal contact with the ground. Careful review of the left-front wheel suggests that the wheel might have moved more than one time, although these are very small motions (a few millimeters). No other wheel has shown any indication of motion. The project continues to assess the left-front wheel stability.
As of Sol 2906 (March 27, 2012), solar array energy production was 306 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.521 and a solar array dust factor of 0.488.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2908
Took the 20th part of the foreground mosaic at Greeley Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186925764111904768 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186925764111904768)
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Sol 2909
Just the regular atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926138218643456 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926138218643456)
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Sol 2910
More diagnostic tests
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926604621058049 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926604621058049)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-04-01/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-01/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-04-01/
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Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Gets Energy Boost and Works Through Depths of Winter
http://planetary.org/news/2012/0331_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html
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Sol 2911
More diagnostic tests
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926604621058049 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/186926604621058049)
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Sol 2912
Took a set of 'horizon survey' images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/187294547485790208 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/187294547485790208)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-04-03/
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Sol 2913
Took part 22 of the foreground mosaic at Greeley Haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/187630399843868674 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/187630399843868674)
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sols 2907-2913, March 28, 2012 - April 03, 2012: Small Wheel Spin and Steering Wiggle to Stabilize Left-Front Wheel
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production. The winter solstice (March 30, 2012) has now passed for the rover.
Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2909 and 2912 (March 30 and April 2, 2012). Atmospheric argon measurements were performed with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Sols 2907 and 2909 (March 28 and March 30, 2012). Additional Panoramic camera (Pancam) images were taken on several sols, along with a 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panorama to be used to refine knowledge of the rover's attitude.
The project is continuing to investigate the anomalies from Sol 2899 (March 20, 2012), that indicate apparent downward motion (of a few millimeters) of the left-front wheel and a stall in the robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, IDD). On Sol 2910 (March 31, 2012), a Quick Fine Attitude (QFA) was performed to establish the rover's attitude using the Sun along with the collection of additional Hazardous camera (Hazcam) imagery. No motion in the rover was observed when comparing these images to ones collected just after the anomalous wheel motion. However, the project is planning to stabilize the left-front wheel by performing a small wheel spin and a steering wiggle. These actions should remove any loose material under the wheel and relax any tension in the rover's suspension. A small dust cleaning event around Sol 2911 (April 1, 2012), improved the solar array dust factor by a few percent.
As of Sol 2913 (April 3, 2012), solar array energy production was 321 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.521 and a solar array dust factor of 0.506.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2914
Moved the LF wheel to settle it after the recent unexpected movement. Plus 360 degree pancam and navcam pans.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188013571706322945 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188013571706322945)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-05/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-04-05/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-04-06/
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Sol 2915
Did a pancam survey of the sky and took further diagnostic images
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188368949061238784 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188368949061238784)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-06/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-04-07/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-10/
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Sol 2916
Measured sky radiance and deployed the arm while continuing to monitor for any movement
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188723382093750274 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/188723382093750274)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-07/
Looks like were seeing an MI shot of the front left wheel ? (Its the only one up so far, hopefully they'll be some more soon in focus.)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-07/
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Sol 2917
Took part 23 of the full colour foreground mosaic and data for a 'super-resolution' image of Whim Creek
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189442485427257344 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189442485427257344)
Fwd Hazcam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-08/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-09/
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Sol 2918
Took an front hazcam image to continue to monitor for any more unexpected movement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189442935639646208 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189442935639646208)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-09/
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Sol 2919
Took some microscopic images and started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189835064815792129 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/189835064815792129)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-10/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-10/
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Sol 2920
Took more microscopic images and them continued the APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/190187573715537921 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/190187573715537921)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-11/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-11/
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sols 2914-2921, April 04-12, 2012: Left-Front Wheel Stabilized
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
The solar insolation has been improving and the rover has benefitted from some small dust cleaning events. Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2916 and 2918 (April 6 and April 9, 2012). An atmospheric argon measurement was collected by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Sol 2915 (April 5, 2012). On Sol 2914 (April 4, 2012), the left-front wheel of the rover was stabilized by performing two wheel motions with steering wiggles in between. Subsequence diagnostic imaging has shown the rover to be stable with no detected motion. A Microscopic Imager (MI) image of the left-front wheel was taken from the modified stow position of the robotic arm. Although the image is out of focus (expected), it does show good contact between the left-front wheel and the terrain. Other imagery also confirms this. The project has thus resumed in-situ (contact) science with the robotic arm instruments.
On Sols 2919 and 2920 (April 10 and April 11, 2012), a suite of MI mosaics were collected of surface targets each followed by a placement of the APXS for an overnight integration. More dust cleaning events have occurred, improving the solar array dust factor by a small amount.
As of Sol 2921 (April 12, 2012), solar array energy production was 336 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.526 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.535.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2921
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-12/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-12/
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Sol 2922
-
Sol 2923
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Sol 2924
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-15/
-
Sol 2925
Not sure why there are so many images of this and the calibration target today ?
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-16/
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Sol 2926
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-17/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-17/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-17/
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Sol 2927
24th part of the foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193077227339001856 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193077227339001856)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-18/
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Post Curiosity rovers:
http://techland.time.com/2012/04/19/what-will-the-nasa-rover-of-the-future-look-like/
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/apr/12-112_MPPG_Update.html
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sols 2922-2926, April 13-17, 2012: Opportunity Benefits From Brighter Skies and Small Dust Cleaning of Solar Panels
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
The solar insolation has been improving and the rover has benefitted from some small dust cleaning events. Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2922, 2924, and 2925 (April 13, 15 and 16, 2012).
Since resuming in-situ (contact) science with the robotic arm instruments, the team has continued work on the Microscopic Imager mosaic they have been building over the winter, with additional pieces acquired on Sols 2924 and 2926 (April 15 and 17, 2012). Each of these was followed by a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration on the rock target "Amboy".
As of Sol 2926 (April 17, 2012), solar array energy production was 342 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.504 and a solar array dust factor of 0.525.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2928
25th part and small mosaic of dunes looking for changes.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193077227339001856 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193077227339001856)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-19/
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Sol 2929
26th part of the foreground mosaic and more microscopic images and APXS measurements.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193461146030841856 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/193461146030841856)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-20/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-20/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-21/
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Sol 2930
A light sol with just an atmospheric tau measurement and continuing a APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194149071202684929 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194149071202684929)
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Sol 2924
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-15/
Wow. Those look rather rounded! Any idea what the scale is of those clasts?
The relative lack of sorting implies an exclusion of aolian deposition, yet the degree of rounding implies transport over a noteworthy distance.
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Sol 2924
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-15/
Wow. Those look rather rounded! Any idea what the scale is of those clasts?
The relative lack of sorting implies an exclusion of aolian deposition, yet the degree of rounding implies transport over a noteworthy distance.
I'm not sure what the scale factor is, someone else may know ?
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Sol 2931
27th part of the foreground mosaic and more microscopic images and APXS measurements.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194539994000535552 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194539994000535552)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-04-22/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-22/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-04-22/
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Sol 2932
Took the 28th part of the foreground mosaic and a colour image looking for changes since parking at Greeley haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194911061974065152 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/194911061974065152)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-04-23/
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Sol 2933
29th part of the foreground mosaic has a name 'Strelley Pool2'. Also took more microscopic images and APXS.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195253675923484672 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195253675923484672)
Pan Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2933.html
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Sol 2934
Took the 30th part of the foreground mosaic and Navcam images of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195598379982667776 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195598379982667776)
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Sol 2935
More Microscopic Imager & APXS work, plus a super resolution image sequence of 'Mt Goldsworthy'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195897850314506240 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/195897850314506240)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2935.html
Pan Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2935.html
MI - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m2935.html
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sols 2927-2934, April 18-25, 2012: Studies of 'Amboy' Rock Continue as Solar Energy Improves
Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.
The solar insolation is improving and the rover has benefitted from some small, dust cleaning events. Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2927, 2931 and 2933 (April 18, 22 and 24, 2012).
The project is also continuing the regular campaign of Microscopic Imager mosaics of the extended region of the rock target "Amboy," followed by Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer measurements of the imaged area. These measurements were performed on Sols 2929, 2931 and 2933 (April 20, 22 and 24, 2012). More dust cleaning events have occurred, improving the solar array dust factor by small amounts.
As of Sol 2934 (April 25, 2012), solar array energy production was 366 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.521 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.546.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2936
A light sol, just the regular atmospheric tau measurement tosol.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/196205784944750593 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/196205784944750593)
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Sol 2937
Microscopic images, APXS measurements, Pt 30 of the foreground mosaic and navcam images looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/196570907253284864 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/196570907253284864)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2937.html
MI - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m2937.html
Pan Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2937.html
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Fascinating blog post on radio science
http://opportunityendeavour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/radio-science-campaign-part-12-basics.html
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Sol 2938
Took the 31st part of the foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197074380705116160 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197074380705116160)
Pan Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2937.html
Nav Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n2938.html
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Sol 2939
Colour pancam image looking for changes since parking at Greeley. Plus horizon survey and calibration images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197438060961603587 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197438060961603587)
Pan Cam - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2939.html
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Sol 2940
Microscopic images, APXS measurements and part 32 of the foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197801044728750081 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/197801044728750081)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-02/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-02/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-05-02/
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Sol 2941
Took the 33rd part of the foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198141704245739520 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198141704245739520)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-02/
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Fantastic news !
sols 2935-2940, April 26, 2012 - May 01, 2012: Opportunity Getting Ready to Leave Her Winter Perch
Opportunity is still positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt, but not for much longer.
With the improvement in solar insolation and the recent modest dust cleaning events on the solar arrays, the project has determined that the rover has sufficient energy resources to begin moving again on level terrain. Therefore, Opportunity will soon be backing down off her winter perch and resume driving on the near-level terrain around the north end of Cape York.
Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation are continuing for now with passes performed on Sols 2935, 2936, 2937 and 2940 (April 26, 27, 28 and May 1, 2012). The project is also finishing the campaign of Microscopic Imager mosaics and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer measurements of the extended region around the surface rock target "Amboy." These measurements were performed on Sols 2935, 2937 and 2940 (April 26, 28 and May 1, 2012). An extended thermal behavior test of the inertial measurement unit on the rover was performed on Sol 2938 (April 29, 2012), and found to be in good order.
As of Sol 2940 (May 1, 2012), solar array energy production was 365 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.480 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.534.
Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Paydirt at 8-Year-Old Mars Rover's 'New Landing Site'
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-124
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Paydirt at 8-Year-Old Mars Rover's 'New Landing Site'
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-124
Sweet!
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Sol 2942
Took the 34th part of the foreground mosaic, some microscopic images and a 'drive direction' mosaic!
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198455103093612544 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198455103093612544)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-04/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-04/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-05-04/
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Sol 2943
Took the 35th part of the foreground mosaic.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198865250043437056 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/198865250043437056)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-04/
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Sol 2944
The 36th part of the foreground mosaic along with more microscopic images and APXS measurements.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199140244765937665 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199140244765937665)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-05-05/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-05/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-07/
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Sol 2945
Extended the drive direction mosaic around to the west and took sky radiance images.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199595843714678786 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199595843714678786)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-06/
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Coming up in just 2 sols !
Oppy to drive 3.5 meters on sol 2947. First drive in more than 130 sols!
https://twitter.com/#!/bellutta/status/199601009356587008 (https://twitter.com/#!/bellutta/status/199601009356587008)
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Sol 2946
A 360 degree albedo (brightness) pan, super resolution images of dunes and images looking for changes.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199954414772035585 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/199954414772035585)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-08/
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Sol 2947
DROVE ~3.7m west to get off the steep rocky perch at Greeley haven.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/200136601651789824 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/200136601651789824)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-08/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-08/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-09/
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Opportunity Rolling Again After Fifth Mars Winter05.09.12
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove about 12 feet (3.67 meters) on May 8, 2012, after spending 19 weeks working in one place while solar power was too low for driving during the Martian winter.
Mission Status Update
PASADENA, Calif. -- With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's durable Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, called Greeley Haven, where it worked during its fifth Martian winter.
Opportunity's first drive since Dec. 26, 2011, took the rover about 12 feet (3.67 meters) northwest and downhill on Tuesday, May 8. The rover operations team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received confirmation of the completed drive late Tuesday, relayed from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
"We're off the Greeley Haven outcrop onto the sand just below it," said rover driver Ashley Stroupe of JPL. "It feels good to be on the move again."
...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120509.html
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Sol 2948
Took a navcam pan to the north from the new location and a full colour pancam image of Amboy.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/200700241522065408 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/200700241522065408)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-10/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-09/
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sols 2941-2947, May 01-08, 2012: Opportunity on the Road Again!
After being stationary for 130 sols during the winter, Opportunity has resumed driving again.
On Sol 2947 (May 8, 2012), the rover performed a 12-foot (3.7-meter) drive down from her winter perch, called "Greeley Haven." As expected, the rover's northerly tilt decrease from around 15 degrees down to about 8 degrees. All wheel currents, including the right-front wheel, were nominal. With this drive, Opportunity has concluded the radio Doppler geo-dynamics campaign with 60 radio Doppler tracking passes successfully accomplished over the winter.
The plan ahead is first to drive toward a nearby putative dusty target to examine the nature and origin of Martian dust, then locate a wider, light-toned vein around the north end of Cape York for further in-situ investigation, among other objectives.
As of Sol 2947 (May 8, 2012), solar array energy production was 357 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.476 and a solar array dust factor of 0.526.
Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,365.04 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 2949
Drove 6m towards the next target, a dusty patch called 'North Pole'. Took a small colour mosaic of it after the drive. Also stopped mid drive to take a full colour image of the winter parking spot 'Greeley Haven'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201059482866946048 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201059482866946048)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-11/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-11/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-11/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-11/
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Yay, past the worst of winter and now roving again! Just 3 more months (already has been on Mars >100 months!) until MSL brings the rovers-on-Mars count back up to 2. :)
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Sol 2950
A light sol with just the regular atmospheric sol measurement.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201413016548421632 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201413016548421632)
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Sol 2951
Another ~6m drive to approach 'North Pole', a dusty ripple that is the next target. Took further colour pancam images of it.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201780450396614658 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/201780450396614658)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-13/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-13/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-13/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-13/
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Sol 2952
Just atmospheric tau measurements tosol. I think we re in restricted sols, hence the gaps between driving right now.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202148474152681473 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202148474152681473)
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Sol 2953
A ~1m drive to position at 'North Pole' for IDD work. Position was apparently a bit off hence another drive is needed.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202507067112689664 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202507067112689664)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-15/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-15/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-15/
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Yay, past the worst of winter and now roving again! Just 3 more months (already has been on Mars >100 months!) until MSL brings the rovers-on-Mars count back up to 2. :)
I wonder if there's any betting on whether Oppy will outlast MSL on the surface. MSL's supposed to only last two years, right? I don't know if the RTG will go beyond the nominal mission, though...
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Sol 2954
Another short positional drive to 'North Pole', however, again the drive aborted before reaching the desired point.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202854555195682816 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/202854555195682816)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-16/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-16/
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Sol 2955
Another short drive to get to 'North Pole'
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203236168404439040 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203236168404439040)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-17/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-17/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-17/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-17/
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Sol 2956
Another light sol with just the regular atmospheric tau measurement taken.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203583879964139520 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203583879964139520)
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Yay, past the worst of winter and now roving again! Just 3 more months (already has been on Mars >100 months!) until MSL brings the rovers-on-Mars count back up to 2. :)
I wonder if there's any betting on whether Oppy will outlast MSL on the surface. MSL's supposed to only last two years, right? I don't know if the RTG will go beyond the nominal mission, though...
RTG probably will. Pu-238 has a half-life of 88 years, and RTGs have no moving parts (though they do suffer a little self-inflicted radiation damage). If it stops working, it'll almost surely be something else that breaks.
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Yay, past the worst of winter and now roving again! Just 3 more months (already has been on Mars >100 months!) until MSL brings the rovers-on-Mars count back up to 2. :)
I wonder if there's any betting on whether Oppy will outlast MSL on the surface. MSL's supposed to only last two years, right? I don't know if the RTG will go beyond the nominal mission, though...
Considering that the MERs were designed for a nominal mission of 90 days and lasted for many years, if the same design robustness was implemented on MSL, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see its mission last much longer. The power source certainly will.
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Sol 2957
Microscopic images and an APXS measurement of 'North Pole' and pancam images of the sky.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203952204409876480 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/203952204409876480)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-05-19/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-19/
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Sol 2958
Took a 5 frame (180 degree) navcam panorama from the current site.
https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/204301460991782912 (https://twitter.com/#!/nivnac/status/204301460991782912)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-21/
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Sol 2959
A light sol, just the regular atmospheric tau measurement
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205031237457412097 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205031237457412097)
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Sol 2960
More microscopic images and APXS measurements of 'North Pole' plus horizon survey pancam images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205031775867645953 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205031775867645953)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-05-22/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-22/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-23/
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sols 2948-2955, May 09-17, 2012: Opportunity Drives to Dusty Patch of Soil
The rover drove on Sols 2949, 2951, 2953 and 2955 (May 10, 12, 14 and 17, 2012), totaling just over 46 feet (13.9 meters).
The rover is positioning to reach a pristine patch of dust on the surface. The plan ahead is to use the robotic arm instruments to investigate the patch of dust. Dust covers much of Mars and this patch is an opportunity to perhaps determine the origin of the dust from its chemical signature.
As of Sol 2954 (May 16, 2012), solar array energy production was 359 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.423 and a solar array dust factor of 0.532.
Total odometry is 21.36 miles (34,380.58 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Dark Shadows on Mars: Scene from Durable NASA Rover
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-143
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Sol 2961
Took some calibration images
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205405926994345986 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205405926994345986)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-23/
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Sol 2962
Just an atmospheric tau measurement tosol.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205787884261871617 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/205787884261871617)
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Sol 2963
Backed away from 'North Pole' took a colour image of it them drove ~24m toward the north end of Cape York
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206849013289459712 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206849013289459712)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-25/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-25/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-25/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-25/
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sols 2956-2961, May 18-23, 2012: Waking Up with the Sun's Rays
After moving from her winter perch, Opportunity drove to an undisturbed dusty patch to investigate the chemical origin of the ubiquitous Martian dust.
On Sol 2957 (May 19, 2012), the rover used her robotic arm to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target, called "North Pole." This was followed by an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) placement for a multi-sol integration. On Sol 2960 (May 22, 2012), Opportunity repositioned the robotic arm instruments on an associated target for another set of Microscopic Imager mosaics followed by a placement of the APXS for a long measurement.
The plan ahead is to resume driving toward the north end of Cape York in search of more gypsum veins. The rover benefited from another small dust cleaning event, improving solar array energy production. With the seasonally improving solar insolation and the recent dust clearing events, the rover is now experiencing solar array wake-ups, the autonomous rover wake-ups induced by bright morning sunlight.
As of Sol 2961 (May 23, 2012), solar array energy production was 395 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.387 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.559.
Total odometry is 21.36 miles (34,380.58 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2964
Just an atmosphric tau measurement and pancam calibration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206849652144873473 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206849652144873473)
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Sol 2965
Drove ~50m towards the north end of Cape York. Now parked on the bench around the edge where gypsum veins are found.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206852200746586112 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/206852200746586112)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-27/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-27/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-27/
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Sol 2966
Just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/207221676138704896 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/207221676138704896)
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Sol 2967
Took a 360 degree albedo (brightness) panorama and a full colour image of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/207586954580205570 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/207586954580205570)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-30/
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sols 2962-2968, May 24-30, 2012: On The Hunt For Light-Toned Veins Of Gypsum
Opportunity completed her in-situ (contact) investigation of a dust patch on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is now on the hunt for more light-toned veins of gypsum.
On Sol 2963 (May 25, 2012), Opportunity headed north with an approximately 82-foot (25-meter) drive, keeping a careful watch on the terrain. With the season still early spring, the rover must keep a small bias towards northerly tilts in order to generate healthy energy margins. On Sol 2965 (May 27, 2012), Opportunity headed further to the north end of Cape York, in an area referred to as "the bench," a flat curb-like unit that forms the perimeter of Cape York. With the arrival in the bench area, Opportunity is spying several vein candidates, looking for one that is wide enough to grind with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) and sample with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
The plan ahead is to approach some of these vein candidates for closer inspection. The recent driving has shallowed out the northerly tilt somewhat, so energy levels have moderated a bit.
As of Sol 2968 (May 30, 2012), solar array energy production was 345 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.413 and a solar array dust factor of 0.538.
Total odometry is 21.41 miles (34,456.53 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2968
Took sky radiance images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208302503215898624 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208302503215898624)
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Sol 2969
Took a full colour pancam image of a target called 'Sutters Mill' before an ~11m drive NE.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208636564652310529 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208636564652310529)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-05-31/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-05-31/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-05-31/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-05-31/
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Sol 2970
Took a drive direction mosaic and completed the 360 degree navcam pam from the current location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208998096380768256 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/208998096380768256)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-06-04/
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Sol 2791
Took a 3 frame full colour mosaic of a Gypsum vein named 'Monte Cristo' then drove ~3m towards it.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209225122303844353 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209225122303844353)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-06-02/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-06-02/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-06-02/
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Sol 2972
Completed the 360 degree navcam pan from the current site and took pancam images of 'Mt Edgar' through IR filters.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209557581339951104 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209557581339951104)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-06-04/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-06-06/
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Sol 2973
Just atmospheric tau measurements tosol.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209891619514744832 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/209891619514744832)
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Sol 2974
Took microscopic images an APXS measurements of 'Ootsark Canyon', a feature on the 'Monte Cristo' vein.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/210466992778518528 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/210466992778518528)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-06-05/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-06-05/
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Yay, past the worst of winter and now roving again! Just 3 more months (already has been on Mars >100 months!) until MSL brings the rovers-on-Mars count back up to 2. :)
I wonder if there's any betting on whether Oppy will outlast MSL on the surface. MSL's supposed to only last two years, right? I don't know if the RTG will go beyond the nominal mission, though...
Considering that the MERs were designed for a nominal mission of 90 days and lasted for many years, if the same design robustness was implemented on MSL, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see its mission last much longer. The power source certainly will.
There's an outside chance that it may still be operational in the mid 2020 timeframe, given the track record of the MERs. That could mean that a manned Mars flyby or Phobos expedition could control the rover in real time. That may require a lot of software jury-rigging and may not really be feasible given that MSL was designed to work with long communication round trips and basically moves at a snail's pace.
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Sol 2975
Another light sol, recharging batteries as power is still low. Just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/210835872038395904 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/210835872038395904)
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sols 2969-2974, May 31 - June 05, 2012: Robotic Arm Gets to Work on Veins of Gypsum
Opportunity is investigating light-toned veins around the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sol 2969 (May 31, 2012), the rover drove 36 feet (11 meters) to the northeast to approach one of these putative gypsum veins. On Sol 2971 (June 2, 2012), Opportunity bumped about 8 feet (2.3 meters) to place the vein, now called "Monte Cristo," within the work volume of the robotic arm. Taking advantage of the 3-sol weekend plan, the rover included an atmospheric argon measurement by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Sol 2972 (June 3, 2012). On Sol 2974 (June 5, 2012), Opportunity began the in-situ (contact) investigation of the vein Monte Cristo with a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of an exposed portion of the vein, followed by the placement of the APXS for a multi-sol integration.
As of Sol 2974 (June 5, 2012), solar array energy production was 369 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.364 and a slightly improved solar array dust factor of 0.562.
Total odometry is 21.42 miles (34,469.86 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2976
More microscopic images and APXS integration of Monte Cristo, plus images of dunes and of the sky looking for clouds
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/211360750936141826 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/211360750936141826)
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Sol 2977
More navcam images of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/211361067744501761 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/211361067744501761)
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I have a Jesuit friend who's been fascinated by these little guys since they were launched. He says he's praying for a benevolent dust devil.
Hope it works.
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Sol 2978
Just atmospheric tau measurements while Mars Odyssey is in safe mode.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032)
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Sol 2979
Just atmospheric tau measurements while Mars Odyssey is in safe mode.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032)
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Sol 2980
Just atmospheric tau measurements while Mars Odyssey is in safe mode.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213365902148780032)
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Sol 2981
Drove ~17m right to the edge of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213366696784826368 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/213366696784826368)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-06-13/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-06-13/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-08/
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Sol 2982
Took a full circle navcam panorama from the current location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214064964896440323 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214064964896440323)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-06-14/
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Saw this linked to on UMSF
Great news from Mars today... A wind gust cleaned dust from the rover Opportunity's solar arrays, giving us a big power boost!
https://twitter.com/#!/NEEMO_Steve (https://twitter.com/#!/NEEMO_Steve)
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"Great news from Mars today... A wind gust cleaned dust from the rover Opportunity's solar arrays, giving us a big power boost!"
I am just utterly gobsmacked that that thing is still running - it's exceeded its design lifetime by like, what, well over an order of magnitude? It's definitely one of the most productive robot explorers of all time (hopefully some day we'll go get it an put it in the NASM where it belongs).
Hats off to the designers and builders for doing such a fantastic job on it.
Noel
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sols 2975-2980, June 06-11, 2012: Slow Going Due to Communication Issues
Opportunity has been investigating light-toned veins around the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Recently, things became complicated, first by Mars Odyssey orbiter going into safe mode, leaving Opportunity without timely relay support, and then by a missed Ultra High Frequency (UHF) relay pass with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Sol 2976 (June 7, 2012). The project responded to the missed UHF pass by sending real-time commands to the rover on Sol 2977 (June 8, 2012), to elicit a response to make sure Opportunity was okay.
Further, the project asked MRO to change the data rate on the next relay pass to ensure lock-up under poor Signal to Noise Ratio conditions. The missed relay pass was likely the result of poor relay geometry between the orbiter and rover. With Odyssey unavailable for relay support for a number of days, the MER project converted several future rover Deep Space Network tracking passes from "Direct from Earth" to "Direct to Earth" to return some telemetry directly over the rover's X-band system.
The plans forward for Opportunity have been modest, mostly remote sensing, owing to the lack of relay support from Odyssey. A bump of the rover was sequenced for Sol 2981 (June 12, 2012). This will be followed by a MRO UHF relay pass to return the drive results.
As of Sol 2977 (June 8, 2012), solar array energy production was 388 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.338 and a solar array dust factor of 0.567.
Total odometry is 21.42 (34,469.86 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2983
Took a full circle navcam panorama from the current location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214064964896440323 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214064964896440323)
Nav Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n2983.html
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I have a Jesuit friend who's been fascinated by these little guys since they were launched. He says he's praying for a benevolent dust devil.
Hope it works.
Saw this linked to on UMSF
Great news from Mars today... A wind gust cleaned dust from the rover Opportunity's solar arrays, giving us a big power boost!
https://twitter.com/#!/NEEMO_Steve (https://twitter.com/#!/NEEMO_Steve)
Like that priest wasn't hard enough to live with already. He'll be impossible now.
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Sol 2984
Just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214825544565530625 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214825544565530625)
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Sol 2985
Took images of the contact at the edge Cape York both in colour & in low light to see relief better.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214826609511895041 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214826609511895041)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-02/
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Sol 2986
Took horizon survey and foreground pancam images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214827081555648514 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/214827081555648514)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-06/
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Sol 2987
Added three more images to the colour mosaic of the contact at the edge of Cape York started earlier.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907023441760256 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907023441760256)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-06/
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Sol 2988
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907549680115712 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907549680115712)
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Sol 2989
Drove ~5m north across the contact at the edge of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907924374073346 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/215907924374073346)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2989.html
Rear Haz Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2989.html
Nav Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n2989.html
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sols 2981-2989, June 12-20, 2012: Opportunity Drives A Little
Opportunity has been exploring the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
With Mars Odyssey still working to recover from their safe mode event, Ultra High Frequency (UHF) relay for the rover has been limited to just two UHF relay passes per week from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. From a combination of the limited MRO relay and the use of Direct-to-Earth X-band passes on the rover, Opportunity was able to perform some driving.
On Sol 2981 (June 12, 2012), the rover drove a little over 56 feet (17 meters) to the north, approaching the boundary between the Cape York geologic unit and the Meridiani plains. On Sol 2989 (June 20, 2012), Opportunity bumped just over 16 feet (5 meters) north to straddle the contact unit between Cape York and Meridiani, and position a candidate target within the work volume of the robotic arm. Opportunity also performed two atmospheric argon measurements on Sols 2982 and 2987 (June 13 and June 18, 2012), using the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer.
The rover continues to benefit from solar array dust cleaning events, which have greatly increased the daily energy production. As of Sol 2989 (June 20, 2012), solar array energy production was 526 watt-hours with a lower atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.229 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.684.
Total odometry is 21.43 miles (34,491.99 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2990
Used the arm to take microscopic images and APXS measurements of the contact at the edge of Cape York
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/216608513147936768 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/216608513147936768)
MI - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m2990.html
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2990.html
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Sol 2991
Completed the full circle navcam panorama from the current site
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/216608930334380033 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/216608930334380033)
Nav Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_n2991.html
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Sol 2992
Took more microscopic images and APXS measurements of the contact at the edge of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/217348095145541632 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/217348095145541632)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2992.html
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Sol 2993
Measured sky radiance
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218074692114849793 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218074692114849793)
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Sol 2994
Measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218074867654852609 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218074867654852609)
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Sol 2995
Used the RAT to brush dust off 'Grasberg1', took pancam & microscopic images, then started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218076168816037890 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218076168816037890)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_f2995.html
Pan Cam - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2995.html
MI - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_m2995.html
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Sol 2996
Measured atmospheric tau and continued the APXS integration of Grasberg1
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218451891791732737 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/218451891791732737)
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Sol 2997
Measured atmospheric tau and continued the APXS integration of Grasberg1
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219000207596195840 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219000207596195840)
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Sol 2998
Used the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to grind a hole into Grasberg
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219153870402764800 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219153870402764800)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-06-30/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-06-30/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-06-30/
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sols 2990-2996, June 21-28, 2012: Opportunity Uses Robotic Arm Tools on Rock
Opportunity continues to explore the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater, specifically the transition layer between Cape York and Meridiani Planum.
Mars Odyssey has returned to service and supported downlinks on both Sols 2995 and 2996 (June 27 and 28, 2012). Previously Ultra High Frequency relay for the rover had been limited to just two relay passes per week from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
On Sol 2990 (June 21, 2012), in-situ measurements including the Microscopic Imager (MI) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) began on the rock target "Grasberg." On Sol 2992 (June 24, 2012), a slightly offset target, "Grasberg 2," was similarly analyzed. And finally, on sol 2995 (June 27, 2012), the original Grasberg target was brushed using the Rock Abrasion Tool in preparation for further MI and APXS analysis. Though no new cleaning events appear to have occurred, the rover continues to benefit from previous solar array dust cleaning events and a slightly improved tilt.
As of Sol 2995 (June 27, 2012), solar array energy production was 559 watt-hours with a lower atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.330 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.698.
Total odometry is 21.43 miles (34,491.99 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 2999
Took colour pancam images of Grasberg1 and some dunes.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219891060581728257 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219891060581728257)
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Sol 3000
Took a small colour mosaic of the RAT bits.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219891998734299136 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/219891998734299136)
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Sol 3001
Used the RAT to grind deeper into Grasberg1, took microscopic images and then started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220628118791127041 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220628118791127041)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-04/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-04/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-07-04/
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Sol 3002
Took full colour pancam images of targets 'Veladero' and 'Cortez'
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220629199789109248 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220629199789109248)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-09/
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sols 2997-3001, June 29, 2012 - July 3, 2012: Opportunity Celebrates 3,000 Martian Days of Operation on the Surface of Mars!
Opportunity has now exceeded 3,000 sols, or Martian days, of operation on the surface of Mars! The rover is still exploring the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sol 2997 (June 29, 2012), Opportunity completed an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the previously brushed target, called "Grasberg." On Sol 2998 (June 30, 2012), a 13-filter Panoramic Camera (Pancam) image was taken of the target, followed by a Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) seek/scan and grind. The plan was to grind Grasberg to a depth of 1.5 mm, followed by a documentary Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic. On Sol 2999 (July 1, 2012), the rover performed an atmospheric argon measurement with the APXS. On Sol 3000 (July 2, 2012), the rover collected only remote sensing science. On Sol 3001 (July 3, 2012), the RAT was used to brush the RAT grind tailings from the target Grasberg followed by more MI imaging and the placement of the APXS for a long integration. Opportunity continues to benefit from solar array dust cleaning events, which increase the daily energy production.
As of Sol 3001 (July 3, 2012), solar array energy production was 577 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.346 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.705.
Total odometry is 21.43 miles (34,491.99 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Mars Panorama: Next Best Thing to Being There
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-196
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Sol 3003
Took a drive direction mosaic and a small colour mosaic of 'Veladero'
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220989155251994624 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/220989155251994624)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-05/
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Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Digs Cape York, Roves to New Milestone
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/a-j-s-rayl/2012-06-mer-update-opportunity-digs-cape-york-roves-to-new-milestone.html
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Sol 3004
Took a navcam movie of the sky looking for clouds.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/221365698620956672 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/221365698620956672)
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Sol 3005
Added two more frames to the colour mosaic of 'Valadero' started on 3003.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/221921942406569985 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/221921942406569985)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-07/
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Sol 3006
Took images of Grasberg. Both in full colour using the pancam and using the microscopic imager.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/222414505450274816 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/222414505450274816)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-08/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-08/
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-07-08/
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Sol 3007
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration of Grasberg
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/222772532976156673 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/222772532976156673)
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Sol 3008
Drove ~10m along the contact at the edge of Cape York towards the very northernmost tip.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/223161650604294144 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/223161650604294144)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-10/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-10/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-10/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-10/
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From UMSF:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7318&view=findpost&p=185658 (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7318&view=findpost&p=185658)
Just got word ODY is in safe mode again. They do not know what is the cause of the safe mode yet.
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Sol 3009
Took an 'horizon survey' colour pancam image.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/223543077808259074 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/223543077808259074)
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sols 3002-3008, July 04-10, 2012: Opportunity Continues to Explore Rocks on the Rim of Endeavor Crater
Opportunity is still exploring the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Most of this period focused on analyzing the rock target "Grasberg" with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) tool, which ground and brushed the rock. This was done using the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Sols 3002, 3003, 3004, 3006, and 3007 (July 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, 2012), and additional Microscopic Imager (MI) imaging on Sol 3006 (July 8, 2012).
After wrapping up the in-situ analysis of Grasberg, the rover drove east about 105 feet (32 meters) on Sol 3008 (July 10, 2012), in search of more gypsum veins. Opportunity continues to benefit from previous solar array dust cleaning events which have increased the daily energy production.
As of Sol 3008 (July 10, 2012), solar array energy production was 559 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.443 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.716.
Total odometry is 21.45 miles (34,524.96 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 3010
Drove ~55m south along Cape York, now on the other (Endeavour interior) side of the formation.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226050584644571136 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226050584644571136)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-18/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-18/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-18/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-18/
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Sol 3011
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
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Sol 3012
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-20/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-20/
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Sol 3013
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-03/
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Sol 3014
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-04/
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Sol 3015
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-05/
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Sol 3016
Light activity during Odyssey safe mode. Calibration, photometry, sky images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226053224698884096)
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The MER team webcast a SOWG planning meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgyvdf7WJ-I
Audio is missing for the first ~6 minutes due to technical issues.
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Sol 3017
More remote sensing. Photometry and atmospheric tau measurements.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226426890318131200 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226426890318131200)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-05/
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Sol 3018
Took navcam images of the sky to look for clouds.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226603695859707906 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/226603695859707906)
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sols 3009-3016, July 11-18, 2012: Slow-Going for Opportunity This Week
Opportunity is roving at the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater. However, her progress has been impacted by the recent safe mode entry by the relay orbiter, Mars Odyssey.
On Sol 3010 (July 12, 2012), Opportunity drove just over 180 feet (55 meters) south towards a small impact crater, named "Sao Gabriel," for investigation. On Sol 3011 (July 13, 2012), the rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer collected a measurement of atmospheric argon. But subsequent to the Sol 3010 (July 12, 2012), drive, Odyssey went into safe mode. In response to the absence of relay support from the orbiter, several rover X-band sessions with the Deep Space Network were converted to Direct-to-Earth passes to receive a small amount of telemetry to assess the health of the rover. Until the return of relay support from Odyssey, the plans for Opportunity were kept simple with a modest photometry campaign, daily observations of atmospheric opacity (tau) and other low-data volume remote sensing.
The Mars Color Imager on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been observing a local Martian dust storm near Endeavour Crater. The local storm has elevated the atmospheric opacity over the rover site. Water ice cloud cover seen around the rover site is both an indication that the dust storm had abated but there were still elevated levels of atmospheric dust in the region as a result of the storm. (water-ice is nucleating on the suspended dust particles.)
From Sol 3010 (July 12, 2012), the solar array energy production was 523 watt-hours with a solar array dust factor of 0.707. As of Sol 3016 (July 18, 2012), the atmospheric opacity (Tau) is elevated at 0.571.
Total odometry is 21.49 miles (34,580.05 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 3019
Drove to a small crater named São Gabriel, took a colour mosaic then drove to a crack like feature 'Whim Creek
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227505519827501056 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227505519827501056)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-22/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-22/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-22/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-23/
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Is there any impact on Opportunity for the MSL landing coming up in a couple weeks?
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Oppy "stands down" for MSL from 3031-3038.
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7318&view=findpost&p=185881
Is there any impact on Opportunity for the MSL landing coming up in a couple weeks?
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Sol 3020
Took post drive hazcam and navcam images from the current location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227505836052856832 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227505836052856832)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-23/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-23/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-23/
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Sol 3021
Took some colour images of Whim Creek then drove ~10m across to the other side of the feature.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227874401893351424 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/227874401893351424)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-24/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-24/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-24/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-24/
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Oppy "stands down" for MSL from 3031-3038.
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7318&view=findpost&p=185881
Is there any impact on Opportunity for the MSL landing coming up in a couple weeks?
Thanks! :)
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Sol 3022
Took microscopic images and started a APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/228229503057526785 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/228229503057526785)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-07-25/
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Sol 3023
Took some colour images of Whim Creek and Rushall.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229330765215854592 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229330765215854592)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-26/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-26/
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sols 3017-3022, July 19-24, 2012: Opportunity Picks Up the Pace With Several Drives This Week
Opportunity is roving at the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Progress was again impacted by a second safe mode entry by the Mars Odyssey orbiter. With normal Ultra-High Frequency relay with Odyssey restored, Opportunity was able to drive on Sol 3019 (July 21, 2012).
That drive, of over 138 feet (42 meters), was a "V" trajectory with the rover first driving toward the small impact crater named "Sao Gabriel" for mid-drive imaging, then a near reverse drive away toward the geologic cut called "Whim Creek."
On Sol 3021 (July 23, 2012), Opportunity drove across Whim Creek with a 33 foot (10 meter) drive toward some surface targets. On the next Sol, the rover collected a Microscopic Imager mosaic of the target "Mons Cupri" before placing the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer down on the same. The plan ahead is some more driving before the operational stand-down around the time of the landing for Curiosity.
As of Sol 3022 (July 24, 2012), the solar array energy production was 507 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.772 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.727.
Total odometry is 21.52 miles (34,633.40 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 3024
Took more colour images of targets in Whim Creek, then drove ~6m along and into the feature.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229333525994815488 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229333525994815488)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-07-27/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-27/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-07-27/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-07-30/
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Sol 3025
A light sol with just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229334089361158144 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229334089361158144)
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Sol 3026
Another light sol, freeing memory to use during the stand down for MSL. Just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229611259706880000 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/229611259706880000)
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Sol 3027
Took microscopic images and started an APXS integration of a rock in the interior of Whim Creek
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230057199832018944 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230057199832018944)
MI - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/2012-07-30/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-07-30/
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Sol 3028
Another light sol, just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230419794028032000 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230419794028032000)
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Sol 3029
Took the first part of a colour Whim Creek panorama.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230754423108947968 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/230754423108947968)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-01/
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Sol 3030
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231120973376663552 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231120973376663552)
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sols 3023-3029, July 25, 2012 - August 01, 2012: Opportunity Prepares for Curiosity's Arrival!
Opportunity has been roving at the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater. However, activity will be constrained for the period ahead as Opportunity prepares for the arrival of Curiosity.
The project is preplanning nine day or sols of activity around the landing time of Curiosity, so as not to require Deep Space Network tracking antenna coverage. On Sol 3024 (July 26, 2012), Opportunity drove just over 20 feet (6 meters) to position for some surface targets at the feature called "Whim Creek." On Sol 3025 (July 27, 2012), the rover collected an atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). On Sol 3027 (July 29, 2012), the robotic arm was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target, called "Rushall," followed by the placement of the APXS for a multi-sol surface integration.
On Sol 3028 (July 31, 2012), Opportunity served as a trial horse for possible direct detection at Earth of Curiosity's Ultra High Frequency (UHF) signal during landing with the Parkes Radio Observatory in Australia. Opportunity transmitted a UHF signal configured as Curiosity's UHF will be at landing. The Parkes antenna was able to detect the Opportunity test signal and will be now be listening during Curiosity's landing.
As of Sol 3022 (July 24, 2012), the solar array energy production was 547 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.642 and a solar array dust factor of 0.720.
Total odometry is 21.52 miles (34,639.45 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3031
Took the second part of the Whim Creek panorama.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231489216431935488 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231489216431935488)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-03/
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Sol 3032
Another 4 colour images for the Whim Creek panorama, the foreground this time.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231861457501970432 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/231861457501970432)
Pancam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-04/
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Sol 3033
Measured atmospheric tau. Now stood down to allow #MSL to have the maximum com opportunities during early sols.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/232208259971416065 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/232208259971416065)
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Oppy still has some records that now finally stand to be broken.
Longest one day drive.
Longest running Mars surface mission.
Longest total distance travelled by a Mars rover.
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Sol 3034
Took more images for the Whim Creek Panorama.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233158257781403648 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233158257781403648)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-06/
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Sol 3035
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233158447552684033 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233158447552684033)
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Sol 3036
Took stereo navcam images of the horizon and the foreground in front of the rover
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233310014641680385 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233310014641680385)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-08/
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Sol 3037
Took another 9 colour images for the Whim creek panorama.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233677327496790016 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/233677327496790016)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-09/
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Sol 3038
Took a full colour pancam image of some nearby rocks
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/234688444322955264 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/234688444322955264)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-10/
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I thought Opportunity might of Twittered something about the arrival of its big brother on Mars? ;)
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sols 3030-3035, August 02-07, 2012: With Curiosity on the Surface Opportunity Will Resume Driving Soon
Activity has been constrained for the period around the arrival of Curiosity. The project pre-planned 9 sols of activity so as not to require Deep Space Network tracking coverage during the Mars Science Laboratory's Entry, Descent and Landing. Opportunity performed Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer overnight integrations on Sols 3030, 3031, 3033 and 3034 (Aug. 2, Aug. 3, Aug. 5 and Aug. 6, 2012) on the surface target "Rushall1." Multi-filter Panoramic Camera images were collected of "Whim Creek" on Sols 3031 and 3032 (Aug. 3, and Aug. 4, 2012). Daily atmospheric opacity measurements were also performed. With Curiosity safely on the surface, the plan ahead for Opportunity is to resume driving.
As of Sol 3035 (Aug. 7, 2012), the solar array energy production was 531 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.715 and a solar array dust factor of 0.707.
Total odometry is 21.52 (34,639.45 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3039
Five more images for the Whim Creek pan and a full colour image of Rushall
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/234724972373880832 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/234724972373880832)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-11/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-11/
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Sol 3040
Drove ~27m south to start the trek along the east side of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235115499166519296 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235115499166519296)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-12/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-12/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-12/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-12/
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Sol 3041
Took navcam images from the current location and measured sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235474253334605824 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235474253334605824)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-13/
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Sol 3042
Took colour images of a nearby crater named 'Sao Rafael' and then drove ~37m along the edge of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235870216280752128 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/235870216280752128)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-14/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-14/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-17/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-17/
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sols 3036-3042, August 08-14, 2012: Opportunity is on the Move Again!
Opportunity is on the move again at the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sols 3036 and 3037 (Aug. 8 and 9, 2012), the rover completed a set of Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) measurements on a surface target, called "Rushall_1." With the APXS integrations done, Opportunity swung the robotic arm out of the way so detailed Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images could be taken on Sol 3039 (Aug. 11, 2012). On the next sol, the rover drove south with a 90-feet (27.5-meter) drive toward the small impact crater, called "Sao Rafael." With "drive-by" imaging of the crater complete, Opportunity drove again on Sol 3042 (Aug. 14, 2012), with a 128-feet (39-meter) drive toward another small impact crater, called "Berrio." The rover also had enough energy on that sol to collect an atmospheric argon measurement with the APXS.
As of Sol 3042 (Aug. 14, 2012), the solar array energy production was 545 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.564 and a solar array dust factor of 0.688.
Total odometry is 21.57 miles (34,705.88 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 3043
Took 'Horizon Survey' images
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237493134089658368 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237493134089658368)
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Sol 3044
Took colour pancam images of Berrio Crater then drove ~30m further along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237494218153664512 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237494218153664512)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-16/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-16/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-16/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-17/
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Just amazing images from the last 2 days!
Thanks for keeping the updates coming racshot.
-Rush
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Sol 3045
Took a full colour image of the foreground.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237494470277476352 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237494470277476352)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-20/
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Sol 3046
Took images of Timika & a nearby outcrop, then drove ~100m further along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237495171938390016 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237495171938390016)
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-18/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-18/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-18/
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Sol 3047
Completed the navcam panorama of the current site and took 'clast survey' images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237495743362002944 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237495743362002944)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-19/
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Sol 3048
Took a 360 degree albedo (brightness) mosaic and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237894349210411010 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/237894349210411010)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-20/
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Sol 3049
Took colour images of Goldstrike, Muruntau & a mosaic of Shoemaker Ridge ( the spine of Cape York) then drove ~41m before the drive stopped because the visual odometry could not find any features to track.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238388866820734976 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238388866820734976)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-22/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-22/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-22/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-23/
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Sol 3050
Took calibration images for the 'Muruntau' images taken yestersol.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238931776427405312 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238931776427405312)
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Sol 3051
Drove ~30m further south along Cape York
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238932046486069249 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/238932046486069249)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-24/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-24/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-24/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-24/
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Sol 3052
Took colour images of the foreground and for an horizon survey
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/239394030260191232 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/239394030260191232)
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A presentation by Dr. Jim Bell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3V00dKs40k
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Sol 3053
Took colour mosaics of Shoemaker Ridge and some nearby depressions and then drove ~72m further along Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/240068530345746432 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/240068530345746432)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-26/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-26/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-26/
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Sol 3054
Took a navcam panorama and drive direction pancam images from the current location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241112481513218048 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241112481513218048)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-27/
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-27/
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3055
Took colour images of dunes & an outcrop and checked out the RAT tool.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241113477136121856 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241113477136121856)
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-28/
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Sol 3056
Took colour images of a rock vein then drove ~28m towards the centre of CY with mid drive navcam images of the vein
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241114949131304960 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241114949131304960)
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-29/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-29/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-29/
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Sol 3057
Took colour images of the foreground and then drove ~11 further towards the centre of Cape York.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241115960789049344 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241115960789049344)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-30/
Nav Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2012-08-30/
Fwd Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2012-08-30/
Rear Haz Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2012-08-30/
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sols 3051-3056, August 23-28, 2012: Opportunity Exceeds 35 Kilometers Of Driving!
Opportunity has exceeded over 35 kilometers (21.75 miles) of odometry!
The rover is moving south along the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater surveying exposed outcrop in search of phyllosilicate clay minerals that have been detected from orbit.
On Sol 3051 (Aug. 23, 2012), Opportunity continued to move about 98 feet (30 meters) south along the inboard edge of Cape York, imaging the outcrop to the west with both Panoramic Camera (Pancam) and Navigation Camera (Navcam). On Sol 3053 (Aug. 25, 2012), the rover drove further south with more of an inboard bias to be closer to the outcrop. Again, more detailed Pancam and Navcam surveys were performed. On Sol 3055 (Aug. 27, 2012), the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the end of the robotic arm was imaged to re-confirm the available bit for future grinding and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) collected a measurement of atmospheric argon.
On Sol 3056 (Aug. 28, 2012), Opportunity headed almost due west in a direct approach to some exciting outcrop units. With that drive, the rover passed 35 kilometers of odometry. Not bad for a vehicle designed for only about 1 mile (1 kilometer) of distance and 90 sols (days) of lifetime.
As of Sol 3056 (Aug. 28, 2012), the solar array energy production was 568 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.570 and a solar array dust factor of 0.684.
Total odometry is 21.76 miles (35,017.33 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360)
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Sol 3058
Completed the navcam pan of the current site, looked for. Clouds and took colour mosaics of outcrop 'Fin' & mounds
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241489660872888320 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/241489660872888320)
Pan Cam - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2012-08-31/
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Sol 3059
Took a small colour mosaic of some nearby mounds.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/242999771365785600 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/242999771365785600)
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Sol 3060
Took colour images of the 'Fin' outcrop then bumped ~6m closer to it.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243000396711337984
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Sol 3061
Took navcam and low compression front hazcam images of the Fin outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243001524903612417
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Sol 3062
Took a colour pancam mosaic of part of the Fin outcrop now right in front of Oppy
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243002239705288705
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Just watch Oppy discover life on Mars, but be ignored because Curiosity is so much cooler, now. ;)
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Sol 3063
Sky survey & a full colour image of 'Milnet'. Then bumped ~1.5m to get into position for IDD work.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243339681671024640
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Sol 3064
Took pancam & (amazing) microscopic images of the Fin outcrop
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243800881601052672 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/243800881601052672)
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News release: 2012-280 Sept. 7, 2012
NASA Mars Exploration Rover Team to be Honored
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-280&cid=release_2012-280
PASADENA, Calif. -- The mission team for NASA's long-lived Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity will be awarded the Haley Space Flight Award. The team will receive the award Sept. 12 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2012 Conference and Exposition in Pasadena, Calif.
The award is presented for outstanding contributions by an astronaut or flight test personnel to the advancement of the art, science or technology of astronautics. Past recipients include Alan Shepherd, John Glenn, Thomas Stafford, Robert Crippen, Kathryn Sullivan and the crew of space shuttle mission STS-125, which flew in 2009 on the last shuttle mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The award citation praises the rover project's "new techniques in extraterrestrial robotic system operations to explore another world and extend mission lifetime." Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, will accept the award for the team.
"On behalf of the many hundreds of scientists and engineers who designed, built and operate these rovers, it is a great honor to accept this most prestigious award," Callas said. "It is especially gratifying that this comes right as Opportunity is conducting one of the most significant campaigns in the eight-and-a-half years since landing. We still are going strong, with perhaps the most exciting exploration still ahead."
In its eighth year operating on Mars, Opportunity is surveying a crater-rim outcrop of layered rock in search of clay minerals that could provide new information about a formerly wet environment. Spirit worked for more than six years -- until 2010 -- 24 times longer than its original three-month prime mission.
In just the past two months, Opportunity has driven about a third of a mile (more than 525 meters), extending its total overland travel distance to 21.76 miles (35 kilometers). Recent drives along the inner edge of the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater have brought the rover close to a layered outcrop in an area where clay minerals have been detected from orbit. These minerals could offer evidence of ancient, wet conditions with less acidity than the ancient, wet environments recorded at sites Opportunity visited during its first seven years on Mars.
Opportunity's position overlooking 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) Endeavour Crater is about 5,200 miles (8,400 kilometers) from where Curiosity, NASA's next-generation Mars rover, landed inside Gale Crater a month ago.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about Opportunity and Spirit, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at
http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
[email protected]
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A well-earned honour
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Sol 3065
Took colour pancam images of various nearby outcrops
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244163562841452544 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244163562841452544)
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Sol 3066
Took a 360 degree navcam panorama, some more colour pancam images of nearby outcrops and measured sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244527755809673216 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244527755809673216)
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Sol 3067
Brushed the surface of 'Kirkwood' before taking microscopic images and then starting at APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244891895187271680 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/244891895187271680)
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Sol 3068
Took more colour images of surrounding outcrops.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/245249244691329024
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Sol 3069
A couple more colour images of the surrounding outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/245616564395708416 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/245616564395708416)
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Sol 3070
Backed away from Kirkwood, took some final images then drove around to the other side of the outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/246344597586972672 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/246344597586972672)
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Sol 3071
Repositioned slightly, took hazcams & a navcam pan. Then took a full colour image of 'Whitewater Lake'
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/246346430774648832 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/246346430774648832)
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NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-290
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Looks like someone will be stealing Curiosities lime light with that one ;-)
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Sol 3072
A light sol with just the regular atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247000189292916736 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247000189292916736)
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Sol 3073
Took microscopic images and APXS measurements of Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247081580907073536 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247081580907073536)
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sols 3057-3063, Aug. 29, 2012-Sept. 4, 2012: Opportunity Begins Examining Clay Minerals
Opportunity has begun the in-situ (contact) science campaign at a putative location of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Earlier, Opportunity had driven south along the in board edge of Cape York, surveying the exposed outcrop with both Navigation Camera (Navcam) and detailed Panoramic Camera (Pancam images).
On Sol 3056 (Aug. 28, 2012), it was decided to begin the direct approach to the outcrop. Opportunity, on Sol 3057 (Aug. 29, 2012), continued the approach to the outcrop with a 39-feet (12-meter) drive to the west, followed by surveying imagery. From the imagery, a target location was selected. On Sol 3060 (Sept. 1, 2012), the rover began the careful approach with a 20-feet (6-meter drive), followed on the next sol with a salute of the robotic arm to provide an unobstructed view for the mast cameras of potential in-situ targets. Then, on Sol 3063 (Sept. 4, 2012), Opportunity bumped into place with a short 5.6 feet (1.7-meter) move. This move has now positioned the rover so that the robotic arm can reach surface targets. The plan ahead is for a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target and an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) placement on the same for a long integration.
As of Sol 3063 (Sept. 4, 2012), the solar array energy production was 543 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.658 and a solar array dust factor of 0.667.
Total odometry is 21.77 miles (35,037.19 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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sols 3064-3070, Sept. 6, 2012-Sept. 12, 2012: Robotic Arm Goes To Work
Opportunity is continuing the in-situ (contact) science campaign at a putative location of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sol 3064 (Sept. 6, 2012), the rover collected a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the target outcrop Kirkwood, followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for integration. On Sol 3066 (Sept. 8, 2012), the rover experienced an X-band fault as Earth was below the deck of the rover. Due to seasonal geometry, time of day and rover tilt, there was a known risk that Earth might be too low on the horizon for the high-gain antenna to track. A small error in the rover's tilt knowledge resulted in the track of the Earth dropping too low at the end of the X-band pass. The rover sequences transmitted during that pass were successfully received by the rover and executed as planned. The X-band fault was cleared by real-time commands sent later on Sol 3069 (Sept. 11, 2012).
On Sol 3066 (Sept. 8, 2012), Opportunity raised her robotic arm for a clear camera shot of the targets in front of the rover. Then on the next sol, the rover performed a brushing with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). This was followed with another MI mosaic and then the placement of the APXS on the brushed surface.
On Sol 3070 (Sept. 12, 2012), the rover then performed a 3-sided drive around the exposed fin-like outcrop to reach light-toned blocky outcrop for further in-situ investigation for putative clay minerals.
As of Sol 3070 (Sept. 12, 2012), the solar array energy production was 569 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.689 and a solar array dust factor of 0.672.
Total odometry is 21.78 miles (35,047.47 meters).
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Sol 3074
Took colour pancam images of Errington and Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247781355834978304 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/247781355834978304)
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Sol 3075
Just the regular atmospheric tau measurement tosol.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/248073135289667588 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/248073135289667588)
-
Sol 3076
Brushed the surface of Whitewater Lake then took microscopic images & APXS measurement. Also imaged Phobos transit.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/248178032043520000 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/248178032043520000)
-
Sol 3077
Measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/248905935144243201
-
Sol 3080
A further brush of the Azilda target on Whitewater Lake followed by Pancam and Microscopic images then APXS
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/249821049074614272 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/249821049074614272)
-
Sol 3081
Measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/250359405126746112 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/250359405126746112)
-
Sol 3082
Took another full colour (all 13 filters) image for a mosaic of Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/250697139972366336
-
Sol 3083
Ground a 1mm deep hole in the surface of the Azilda2 target on Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/251052153836294144 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/251052153836294144)
-
Mars Rover Opportunity Working at 'Matijevic Hill'
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-306
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sols 3077-3084, Sept. 19, 2012-Sept. 26, 2012: Rock Grinding Action
Opportunity is conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign at a putative location of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is positioned next to a large light-toned block of exposed outcrop. Earlier Panoramic (Pancam) imagery indicates mineral hydration in this block. Opportunity began back on Sol 3076 (Sept. 18, 2012), using the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush the surface at a target location called "Azilda1." On Sol 3078 (Sept. 20, 2012), the rover continued brushing the surface, now at an adjacent target called "Azlida2." The brushing was followed by a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic and an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) placement on the same. On Sol 3080 (Sept. 22, 2012), Opportunity continued this brushing campaign with another surface target, slightly offset from the previous, called (you guessed it) "Azilda3."
Again, the brushing was followed by a MI mosaic and an APXS integration. With an extended target region brushed and surveyed, on Sol 3083 (Sept. 25, 2012), Opportunity performed a RAT grind on the location Azilad2. Initial telemetry indicates the grind performed to a depth of about 0.03 inches (0.8 mm). The plan ahead is to either, grind deeper or retract the RAT and survey the grind hole.
As of Sol 3084 (Sept. 26 2012), the solar array energy production was 553 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.658 and a solar array dust factor of 0.657.
Total odometry is 21.78 miles (35,047.47 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3084
Took a fourth full colour image of Whitewater Lake
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/251441460765929472 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/251441460765929472)
-
Sol 3085
Used the RAT to deepen the hole in Azilda2 to 3.6mm, took microscopic images & started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/251777286259482624
-
Sol 3086
Took the fifth full colour image for a mosaic of Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/252129261379518464
-
Sol 3087
Ground further into Azilda2, took microscopic images and a APXS integration. Also measured sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/252490575398440960
-
Sol 3088
A light sol, just the regular atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/252889188603682817
-
Sol 3089
Another light sol, presumably while continuing APXS integration of Azilda2 on Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/253229858254118914
-
Sol 3090
Full colour pancam image of the RAT hole in Azilda2 then a short drive to get to another target on Whitewater Lake
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/253586473989844993
-
Sol 3091
Took a navcam panorama from the new location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/253966391428931587
-
sols 3085-3090, Sept. 27, 2012-Oct. 2, 2012: The Hunt For Clay Minerals Continues
Opportunity is conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign at a putative location of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is positioned next to a large light-toned block of exposed outcrop. Earlier Panoramic (Pancam) imagery indicates mineral hydration in this block. Opportunity began back on Sol 3076 (Sept. 18, 2012), using the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush the surface at a target location called "Azilda1." On Sol 3078 (Sept. 20, 2012), the rover continued brushing the surface, now at an adjacent target called "Azlida2." The brushing was followed by a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic and an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) placement on the same. On Sol 3080 (Sept. 22, 2012), Opportunity continued this brushing campaign with another surface target, slightly offset from the previous, called (you guessed it) "Azilda3."
Again, the brushing was followed by a MI mosaic and an APXS integration. With an extended target region brushed and surveyed, on Sol 3083 (Sept. 25, 2012), Opportunity performed a RAT grind on the location Azilad2. Initial telemetry indicates the grind performed to a depth of about 0.03 inches (0.8 mm). The plan ahead is to either, grind deeper or retract the RAT and survey the grind hole.
As of Sol 3084 (Sept. 26 2012), the solar array energy production was 553 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.658 and a solar array dust factor of 0.657.
Total odometry is 21.78 miles (35,047.47 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3092
Took Pancam and microscopic images of Whitewater Lake, then a tiny reposition to get the desired target in range.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255399948953214977
-
Sol 3093
Light sol, just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255400160782323712 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255400160782323712)
-
Sol 3094
Brushed 'Chelmsford2' in the middle of Whitewater Lake then took microscopic images and started an APXS integration
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255401717523443712 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255401717523443712)
-
Sol 3095
Took IR photometry images of another nearby slab of rock 'Lindsley'
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/255402822865133571
-
Sol 3096
Another brush of the Chelmsford area of Whitewater Lake, followed by Microscopic images and an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/256122400515710976
-
Sol 3097
Took colour pancam images of the surroundings.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/256122757551644672
-
Sol 3098
Took a couple more colour images of the site then drove ~17m north to check out a new target.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/256511824554491904
-
Sol 3099
A light sol - just the usual atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/256862450652164096
-
sols 3091-3097, Oct. 3, 2012-Oct. 9, 2012: Robotic Arm Tools Get To Work On Rock Outcrop
Opportunity is conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign at a location where orbital observations show the presence of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is positioning near a large, light-toned block of exposed rock outcrop, called "Whitewater Lake." Opportunity previously moved around the outcrop to reach some of the dark rinds that cover portions of the outcrop unit.
On Sol 3092 (Oct. 4, 2012), the rover moved, likely the smallest amount ever, with less than an inch (1 centimeter) of total motion in order to position the robotic arm favorable on a dark-rind surface target called "Chelmsford." On Sol 3094 (Oct. 6, 2012), Opportunity performed a 15-minute brush of a surface target with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). That was followed with the collection of a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic and then the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On Sol 3096 (Oct. 8, 2012), the robotic arm selected a slightly offset target and performed another Rock Abrasion brush of the surface. Again, this was followed with a Microscopic Imager mosaic and APXS placement.
The plan ahead is a drive around "the loop" that encompasses the terrain mapped by the orbital clay observations and survey the area with rover imagery.
As of Sol 3097 (Oct. 9, 2012), the solar array energy production was 531 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.722 and a solar array dust factor of 0.629.
Total odometry is 21.78 miles (35,050.07 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3100
Another light one, just an atmospheric tau measurement.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/257953714583793664 (https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/257953714583793664)
-
Sol 3101
Took colour images of several targets and drove an ~18m dog-leg path continuing to survey the location.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/257954686592761857
-
Sol 3102
-
Sol 3013
Took colour pancam images of various targets and then drove ~15m NW.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/258695485324423168
-
Sol 3104
Took colour pancam images of 'Coleman' and then drove another ~20m NW
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/258696156794720257
-
Sol 3105
Took colour pancam images of Fraser and Barnet, then performed a short 18m drive towards a nearby outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/259024774267809792
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sols 3098-3104, Oct. 10, 2012-Oct. 17, 2012: Opportunity Is On The Move Around 'Matijevic Hill'
Opportunity is conducting a local area survey around the location where orbital observations show the presence of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is driving around the area called Matijevic Hill (named in honor of Jake Matijevic). Opportunity performed four survey drives on Sols 3098, 3101, 3103 and 3104 (Oct. 10, 14, 16 and 17, 2012), totaling over 230 feet (70 meters). Each drive was preceded by targeted imagery and followed by 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panoramas. On Sol 3099 (Oct. 11, 2012), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The plan ahead is to conduct more survey drives around this location.
As of Sol 3104 (Oct. 17, 2012), the solar array energy production was 579 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.604 and a solar array dust factor of 0.624.
Total odometry is (21.82 miles) 35,120.59 meters.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3106
A light sol, just atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/259741143892389888
-
Sol 3107
Took colour pancam images of 'Stobie' and 'Totten' then drove ~12m. Continuing to survey the area.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/259741791841026048
-
Sol 3108
A light one, just atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/260109882429157376
-
Sol 3109
Measured tau at midday and again in the afternoon.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/260495530336063489
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Sol 3110
Took colour pancam images of 'Garson', 'Podolsky' & 'Strathcona'; then drove ~30m back towards the Kirkwood outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/260851452958871553
-
Sol 3110
Took colour pancam images of 'Garson', 'Podolsky' & 'Strathcona'; then drove ~30m back towards the Kirkwood outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/260851452958871553
Is it just me, or is the wheel in the first pic accumulating dirt?
I wonder if the wheels on MSL are canted on the inside to prevent this from hapenning?
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sols 3105-3110, Oct. 18, 2012-Oct. 23, 2012: Survey Drives Of Local Area
Opportunity is continuing a local area survey around the location called "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover performed three survey drives on Sols 3105, 3107 and 3110 (Oct. 18, 20, and 23, 2012), driving first west, then southwest, and then southeast, totaling 226 feet (69 meters). Each drive was preceded by the collection of targeted imagery and then followed by taking a 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panorama. On Sol 3109 (Oct. 22, 2012), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The plan ahead is to conduct more survey drives around this location.
As of Sol 3110 (Oct. 23, 2012), the solar array energy production was 575 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.654 and a solar array dust factor of 0.619.
Total odometry is 21.87 miles (35,189.68 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3111
Measured atmospheric tau and sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/261218238178934784
-
Sol 3112
Took colour pancam images of Maclennan & McConnell then drove ~25m west to continue scouting the area.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/261572264577859584
-
Sol 3113
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/262080117633867776
-
Sol 3114
Took colour pancam images of McCready & McKim then drove ~8m NW.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/263048769082363904
-
Sol 3115
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/263048991468572672
-
Sol 3116
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/263392230692249600
-
Sol 3117
Took colour images of Gertrude & 'rear outcrop', drove ~5m and took images of Cartier, then drove another 20m
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/263769997988491264
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Sol 3118
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/264120860548427776
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sols 3111-3117, Oct. 24, 2012-Oct. 30, 2012: Survey Of 'Matijevic Hill' Continues
Opportunity has completed approximately half of the local area survey around the location called Matijevic Hill (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover performed three survey drives on Sols 3112, 3114 and 3117 (Oct. 25, 27 and 30, 2012), driving 98 feet (30 meters) west, 30 feet (9 meters) north, and 108 feet (33 meters) south, respectively. Each drive was preceded by the collection of targeted imagery and then followed by taking a 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panorama.
The plan ahead is to conduct more survey drives around this location.
As of Sol 3116 (Oct. 29, 2012), the solar array energy production was 549 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.649 and a solar array dust factor of 0.601.
Total odometry is 21.90 miles (35,261.66 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3119
Took colour pancam images of Coniston, Falconbridge, Levack & Lively, then drove ~8m South(ish) ending near a small crater called Sao Pantaleao.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/264826294984929280
-
Sol 3120
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/264826468071251969
-
Sol 3121
Images of a ray of Sao Pantaleao crater, 8m drive, images of ejecta, then another 12m toward a old eroded crater.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/265193699703668738
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Sol 3122
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/265557838225633280
-
Sol 3123
Took calibration images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/265937701558169601
-
Sol 3124
Took colour images of Makada Lake & Onwatin then drove ~22m south.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/266292495191781377
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sols 3118-3124, Oct. 31, 2012-Nov. 6, 2012: More Driving And Imaging At 'Matijevic Hill'
Opportunity is continuing the local area survey around the location called Matijevic Hill (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover performed three survey drives on Sols 3119, 3121 and 3124 (Nov. 1, 3 and 6, 2012), driving 125 feet (38 meters) south-southeast, 82 feet (25 meters) south-southeast, and 98 feet (30 meters) south, respectively.
Each drive was preceded by the collection of targeted imagery and then followed by taking a 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panorama. Two direct-to-earth (DTE) X-band sessions where supported on Sols 3120 and 3122 (Nov. 2 and 4, 2012), and an atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was performed on Sol 3122 (Nov. 4, 2012).
The project also implemented a new daily nadir check sequence. This new sequence significantly reduces the number of power cycles on the rover's inertial measurement unit (IMU). For the next week the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be providing exclusive Ultra High Frequency relay support during the Mars Odyssey side-swap campaign.
As of Sol 3124 (Nov. 6, 2012), the solar array energy production was 586 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.605 and a solar array dust factor of 0.604.
Total odometry is 21.96 miles (35,345.23 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3125
Took 'Horizon Survey' images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/266672664221986817
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Sol 3126
Took sky flat calibration images, checked RAT tool and took colour images of Sao Cristavao & Nipissing.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/268019625789366274
-
Sol 3127
Measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/268021046572101632
-
Sol 3128
Took colour pancam images of Agnew Lake, Nipissing & Clara Belle. Then drove ~30m NE back toward Kirkwood.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/268022422043754498
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Sol 3129
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/268384785007788032
-
Sol 3130
Took pancam images through the solar filter to measure the sensor 'dark current' for calibration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/268385796476792833
-
Sol 3131
Colour pancam mosaics of Naughton & Pinecrest followed by a ~16m drive back toward Kirkwood.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/269181036133507072
-
Sol 3132
Colour pancam mosaic of Nickeldale then a ~8.5m drive back toward Kirkwood.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/269182435873406976
-
Sol 3133
Colour images of Elliot Lake, Kelly Lake & Ramsey Lake then ~14m drive north toward another outcrop.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/269465648877420545
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sols 3125-3132, Nov. 7, 2012-Nov. 14, 2012: Survey At 'Matijevic Hill' Wrapping Up
Opportunity is nearing the completion of the local area survey around the location called "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover performed three survey drives on Sols 3128, 3131 and 3132 (Nov. 10, 13 and 14, 2012), driving 113 feet (34.5 meters), 52 feet (16 meters), and 28 feet (8.5 meters), respectively. Each drive was preceded by the collection of targeted imagery, and then followed by taking a 360-degree Navigation camera (Navcam) panorama.
On Sol 3126 (Nov. 8, 2012), the rover used the robotic arm to image the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) bit and to collect a set of Microscopic Imager (MI) "sky flat" calibration images. An atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was performed on Sol 3129 (Nov. 11, 2012). The Mars Odyssey avionics side-swap was successful with the first relay pass with Opportunity on Sol 3129 (Nov. 11, 2012). The relay pass using the new Side-B transceiver on Odyssey was nominal.
As of Sol 3131 (Nov. 13, 2012), the solar array energy production was 596 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.589 and a solar array dust factor of 0.606.
Total odometry is 22 miles (35,404.20 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3134
Took a 360 degree albedo (brightness) pan and a full colour image of a magnet array on the rover
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/270157156907622400
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Sol 3135
Colour images of Timiskaming, Sandcherry & Lake Wanapitei, followed by a ~1m 'bump'
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/270159846257594368
-
Sol 3136
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/270649848691314691
-
Sol 3137
Took the first part of the 'Matijevic Pan', microscopic images and started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/271367438535376896
-
Sol 3138
Took the second part of the Matijevic pan.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/271367736997855232
-
Sol 3139
Was supposed to be RAT checkout, MI images and APXS integration however it does not look like arm moved. Stall? Did still take the 3rd part of the Matijevic pan however.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/272107175462191104
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Sol 3140
Took the 4th part of the Matijevic pan.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/272108337645113345
-
Sol 3141
Took the 5th part of the Matjievic pan. Now at 30 colour images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/272707675794599936
-
Sol 3142
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/272805232357015552
-
sols 3133-3136, Nov. 15, 2012-Nov. 19, 2012: 'Matijevic Hill' Survey Complete And Rover Passes 22 Miles Of Driving!
Opportunity has completed the local area survey around the location called "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
Now, the rover is focusing on conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign on some high-value surface targets. The rover drove 81 feet (24.6 meters) on Sol 3133 (Nov. 15, 2012), approaching a candidate surface target. Opportunity bumped into position for some robotic arm work with a 31-inch (80-centimeter) forward move on Sol 3135 (Nov. 18. 2012).
On Sol 3133 (Nov. 15, 2012), the rover began to detect an increase in atmospheric opacity (Tau). Coincident with that the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) team on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observed a large regional dust storm, with high atmospheric opacity in the center of the storm, heading in the direction of the rover. The project remained vigilant over the weekend. Fortunately, the storm passed to the south of the rover, but Opportunity continues to see an increase in atmospheric dust.
As of Sol 3136 (Nov. 19, 2012), the solar array energy production was 539 watt-hours with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.897 and a solar array dust factor of 0.612.
Total odometry is 22 miles (35,429.63 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3143
Took the 6th part of the Matijevic pan and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/273187788072026113
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Sol 3144
Brushed 'Sandcherry', took pancam and MI images, then started an APXS integration. Also pts 7&8 of Matijevic pan
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/273903020276862976
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Sol 3145
Took the 9th part of the Matijevic pan. Now taken 52 colour images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/273903695958269952
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sols 3137-3145, Nov. 19, 2012-Nov. 28, 2012: Opportunity Gets To Work On Interesting Rock Targets
Opportunity, after completing the local area survey around the location called "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater, has started conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign on some high-value surface targets.
On Sol 3137 (Nov. 19, 2012), Opportunity began her in-situ investigation on the surface target, called "Sandcherry" with a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic, followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
The plan on Sol 3139 (Nov. 22, 2012), was the use the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush the target. However, the robotic arm experienced a stall in the shoulder elevation joint and stopped all further robotic arm activity. The sequenced APXS measurement on Sol 3140 (Nov. 23, 2012), then fortuitously became an atmospheric argon measurement. The joint stall had been experienced before with Opportunity when slow moves are commanded as in this instance. However, the engineering team did review all the associated telemetry and found no indication of any change in the health of the joint.
As a further step, a diagnostic move was included at the start of the plan on Sol 3144 (Nov. 27, 2012). That diagnostic showed a nominally functioning joint. The subsequent activity on Sol 3144 (Nov. 27, 2012), included a successful RAT brushing of the target followed by a MI mosaic and placement of the APXS. Also, over the last several sols, the rover has been collecting an extensive color panorama (Pancam), called the "Matijevic pan."
As of Sol 3145 (Nov. 28, 2012), the solar array energy production was 559 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.793 and a solar array dust factor of 0.608.
Total odometry is 22.01 miles (35,429.63 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
-
Sol 3146
Ground into the surface of Sandcherry, took MI and pancam images and started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/274539123010838529
-
Sol 3147
Took the 10th part of the Matjievic Panorama.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/275251071000137729
-
Sol 3148
Measured sky radiance.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/275251709884919808
-
Sol 3149
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/275347345770684416
-
Sol 3146
Ground into the surface of Sandcherry, took MI and pancam images and started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/274539123010838529
Ahhhh!...And I thought there might be a chance that it hit clay.
Fat chance.
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RELEASE : 12-418
NASA Opportunity Rover Finishes Walkabout On Mars Crater Rim
SAN FRANCISCO -- The latest work assignment for NASA's long-lived Mars rover Opportunity is a further examination of an area where the robot just completed a walkabout.
"If you are a geologist studying a site like this, one of the first things you do is walk the outcrop, and that's what we've done with Opportunity," said Steve Squyres, the mission's principal investigator at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Coming up on its ninth anniversary, Opportunity still is a capable robotic explorer. It has been investigating a crater-rim site where observations from orbiting Mars spacecraft detected traces of clay minerals, which form under wet, non-acidic conditions that can be favorable for life. The rover's current activities were presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
The rover team chose this site as a driving destination years earlier. The site is named Matijevic Hill in honor of the late Jacob Matijevic, who led the engineering team for the twin Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity for several years.
Opportunity drove about 1,160 feet (354 meters) in a counterclockwise circuit around Matijevic Hill in October and November, bringing the total miles driven on the mission to 22 miles (35.4 kilometers). Researchers used the rover to survey the extent of Matijevic Hill outcrops and identify the best places to investigate further.
"We've got a list of questions posed by the observations so far," Squyres said. "We did this walkabout to determine the most efficient use of time to answer the questions. Now we have a good idea what we're dealing with, and we're ready to start the detailed work."
The hill is on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, a bowl 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. An impact from a celestial object dug this crater more than 3 billion years ago, pushing rocks onto the rim from a greater depth than Opportunity reached during its first several years on Mars. Since the impact, those rocks may have been altered by environmental conditions. Sorting out the relative ages of local outcrops is a key to understanding the area's environmental history.
"Almost nine years into a mission planned to last for three months, Opportunity is fit and ready for driving, robotic-arm operations and communication with Earth," said the mission's deputy project scientist, Diana Blaney, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
Two outcrops of high interest on Matijevic Hill are "Whitewater Lake" and "Kirkwood." Whitewater Lake is light-toned material that science team members believe may contain clay. Kirkwood contains small spheres with composition, structure and distribution that differ from other iron-rich spherules, nicknamed blueberries, that Opportunity found at its landing site and throughout the Meridiani Planum area it has explored. Squyres calls the Kirkwood spheres "newberries."
"We don't know yet whether Whitewood Lake and Kirkland are from before or after the crater formed," he said. "One of the most important things to work out is the order and position of the rock layers to tell us the relative ages. We also need more work on the composition of Whitewater and debris shed by Whitewater to understand the clay signature seen from orbit, and on the composition of the newberries to understand how they formed."
NASA launched Spirit and Opportunity in 2003. Both completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004 with Spirit ceasing operations in 2010. The mission's goal is to learn about the history of wet environments on ancient Mars. JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-383&cid=release_2012-383
For more information about Opportunity, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at:
http://twitter.com/MarsRovers
and
http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers
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Sol 3150
11th part of the Matijevic pan, horizon survey & continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/276080218379284481
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sols 3137-3145, Nov. 19, 2012-Nov. 28, 2012: Opportunity Gets To Work On Interesting Rock Targets
Opportunity, after completing the local area survey around the location called "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater, has started conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign on some high-value surface targets.
On Sol 3137 (Nov. 19, 2012), Opportunity began her in-situ investigation on the surface target, called "Sandcherry" with a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic, followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
The plan on Sol 3139 (Nov. 22, 2012), was the use the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush the target. However, the robotic arm experienced a stall in the shoulder elevation joint and stopped all further robotic arm activity. The sequenced APXS measurement on Sol 3140 (Nov. 23, 2012), then fortuitously became an atmospheric argon measurement. The joint stall had been experienced before with Opportunity when slow moves are commanded as in this instance. However, the engineering team did review all the associated telemetry and found no indication of any change in the health of the joint.
As a further step, a diagnostic move was included at the start of the plan on Sol 3144 (Nov. 27, 2012). That diagnostic showed a nominally functioning joint. The subsequent activity on Sol 3144 (Nov. 27, 2012), included a successful RAT brushing of the target followed by a MI mosaic and placement of the APXS. Also, over the last several sols, the rover has been collecting an extensive color panorama (Pancam), called the "Matijevic pan."
As of Sol 3145 (Nov. 28, 2012), the solar array energy production was 559 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.793 and a solar array dust factor of 0.608.
Total odometry is 22.01 miles (35,429.63 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3151
Took a full colour image of the 'Dowling' target on Sandcherry, then bumped slightly to be able to reach a new target.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/276450230176714752
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Sol 3152
Measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/276801860524994560
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Sol 3153
Drove ~2m forward to the outcrop 'Copper Cliff', then took a couple of colour pancam images of it.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/277166073462272000
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sols 3146-3151, Nov. 29, 2012-Dec. 4, 2012: Opportunity Collects A Color Panorama And Continues Rock Studies
Opportunity is located at a place named "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover just finished collecting an extensive color Pancam panorama, called the "Matijevic pan" and is now conducting extensive in-situ (contact) investigations. On Sol 3146 (Nov. 29, 2012), Opportunity using the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) performed a grind of the surface target "Sandcherry." This was followed with an image mosaic collected by the Microscopic Imager (MI) and then a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On Sol 3151 (Dec. 4, 2012), the rover moved just 9 inches (23 centimeters) to reach some new surface targets.
As of Sol 3151 (Dec. 4, 2012), the solar array energy production was 536 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.866 and a solar array dust factor of 0.599.
Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35,429.86 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3154
Took calibration images and measured atmospheric tau
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/277751665271111680
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Sol 3155
Took a full colour image of Onaping followed by a small drive to reposition at Copper Cliff.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/277872571381325824
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Sol 3156
Colour pancam mosaics of Vermilion and Copper Cliff.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/278251972740648960
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Sol 3157
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/278617513313570818
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Sol 3158
Microscopic images of a target of Copper Cliff, then started an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/278987750429057025
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Sol 3159
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/279322100861370368
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sols 3152-3158, Dec. 5, 2012-Dec. 11, 2012: Checking Out Rocks
Opportunity is located at a place named "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
On Sol 3153 (Dec. 6, 2012), the rover moved 7 feet (2.2 meters) to the west approaching an outcrop, called "Copper Cliff." This outcrop shows a distinct contact between two geologic units. On Sol 3155 (Dec. 8, 2012), Opportunity bumped 3 feet (1 meter) closer to a candidate surface target on Copper Cliff.
With surface targets now within reach of the robotic arm, the rover collected a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target called "Onaping." This was then followed by an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) overnight integration. The plan ahead is to perform more in-situ (contact) science on surface targets within reach of the rover's robotic arm before moving to other locations.
As of Sol 3158 (Dec. 11, 2012), the solar array energy production was 524 watt-hours with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.923 and a solar array dust factor of 0.590.
Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35,432.84 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3160
Took more microscopic images of Copper Cliff then put the APXS down for another integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/279705356278571008
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Sol 3161
Colour pancam image of 'Worthington' while continuing APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/280048673809895424
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Sol 3162
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration of Copper Cliff.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/280390821428199424
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Sol 3163
Measured atmospheric tau and performed an APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/280771744443281410
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Sol 3164
A full colour image of Ministic and some calibration images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/281137506207031297
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Sol 3165
Drove a couple of metres to the 'Vermilion' target at Copper Cliff then took colour pancam images of it.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/281500222058795011
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Sol 3166
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/281884802112692224
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sols 3159-3165, Dec. 12, 2012-Dec. 18, 2012: Shoulder Work At 'Copper Cliff'
Opportunity is working at "Matijevic Hill” (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater. There, the rover has been conducting in-situ (contact) science measurements at a location called "Copper Cliff."
On Sol 3160 (Dec. 13, 2012), Opportunity began taking images with its Microscopic Imager (MI) for a mosaic of a surface target. Partway through the activity, the rover's robotic arm experienced a stall in the shoulder azimuth joint. This has been seen a few times before when the arm is commanded to move at a slow rate, but not the slowest rate. Magnetic detents normally hold the motor armature when unpowered, and under certain slow-rate conditions they are able to restrain the armature from spinning. At higher rates, the armature has enough momentum to keep spinning, while at the slowest rates a higher stall threshold is used. Activities on Sol 3162 (Dec. 15, 2012) confirmed the joint is OK, and an offset placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was completed.
On Sol 3165 (Dec. 18, 2012), Opportunity bumped about 18 feet (5.5 meters) to the west to reach a new set of surface targets in this Copper Cliff area. The rover will likely continue in-situ investigations in the area through the coming holiday.
As of Sol 3165, the solar array energy production was 533 watt-hours with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.955 and a solar array dust factor of 0.607.
Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35438.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3167
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/282269817145270273
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Sol 3168
Completed navcam pan of current site, sky survey images, microscopic images of Vermillion and started an APXS integration
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/282956937497280513
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Sol 3169
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/282957401303416833
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Sol 3170
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/283305638593970177
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First part of the Year In Review features.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/12/yir2012-mars-exploration-dominates-year-redefinition/
By Chris Gebhardt.
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Sooooooooo... I ran across something in an image that was taken by one of the rovers. Before I get all excited I wanted to ask the experts here: Is there anything that any of the rovers did which would leave an imprint on the mars rocks that is in a perfect circle? Leaving an indentation almost like a shallow cup holder? My assumption is that due to its shape, its not a natural occurrence.
If the answer is "no" then we can proceed from there.
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Sooooooooo... I ran across something in an image that was taken by one of the rovers. Before I get all excited I wanted to ask the experts here: Is there anything that any of the rovers did which would leave an imprint on the mars rocks that is in a perfect circle? Leaving an indentation almost like a shallow cup holder? My assumption is that due to its shape, its not a natural occurrence.
If the answer is "no" then we can proceed from there.
YES: RAT (Rock Abrasion Tool) on the MERs Spirit/Opportunity
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Yes.
The RATT tool leaves perfect circles in rocks.
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Here it is...
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Looks like a RAT hole.
Which rover - if its not MSL it doesn't belomng here.
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...if its not MSL it doesn't belomng here.
You might want to re-read the thread title...
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Sol 3171
Took a small colour mosaic of Vermilion Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/284430034712813569
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Sol 3172
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/284430222462435329
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Sol 3173
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/284430343442927616
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Sol 3174
A small colour mosaic of Copper Cliff, APXS integration and measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/284754709577883649
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Sol 3175
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/285123861060677632
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Sol 3176
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/285517151232733185
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Sol 3177
Navcam panorama, microscopic images and APXS integration of Copper Cliff.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/285846445599358976
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Sol 3178
Colour pancam image of Halfway Lake and horizon survey images.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/286217708146683904
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Sol 3179
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/286605439918018560
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sols 3166-3173, Dec. 19, 2012-Dec. 26, 2012: Working Through The Holidays
Opportunity is on the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater, positioned at a location called "Copper Cliff."
Over the long holiday period, the rover has been stationary and conducting in-situ (contact) science investigations with the robotic arm instruments, including the Microscopic Imager (MI) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). Assessments of atmospheric opacity and measurements of atmospheric argon are also being performed.
As of Sol 3173 (Dec. 19, 2012), the solar array energy production was down to 485 watt-hours, with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.02 and a solar array dust factor of 0.594.
Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35438.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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sols 3174-3180, Dec. 27, 2012-Jan. 3, 2013: Dust Cleaning At 'Vermillion' Targets
Opportunity is on the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour crater. The rover has been conducting in-situ (contact) science investigations with the robotic arm instruments at a location called "Copper Cliff."
On Sol 2174 (Dec. 27, 2012), the robotic arm was used to reposition the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on a target called "Vermilion Lake 1" for a multi-sol integration. On Sol 3177 (Dec. 31, 2012), the Microscopic Imager (MI) was used to collect images of a new target, "Vermilion Lake 2." This was followed by a placement of the APXS for another integration. On Sol 3179 (Jan. 2, 2013), the rover's robotic arm repositioned the APXS on yet another target, "Vermilion Cliffs 2," for further integration measurements.
A small dust cleaning event occurred on Sol 3175 (Dec. 29, 2012), improving the energy production by about 40 watt-hours per sol. As of Sol 3180 (Jan. 3, 2013), the solar array energy production was 542 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.961 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.633.
Total odometry remains at 22.02 miles (35438.37 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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Sol 3180
Colour images of Vermilion Lake, Vermilion Vein & Copper Cliff contact, plus pancam images taken in low light.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/286982838056783872
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Sol 3180
Colour images of Vermilion Lake, Vermilion Vein & Copper Cliff contact, plus pancam images taken in low light.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/286982838056783872
The number of hot pixels is quite amazing in that image.
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Sol 3181
Measured sky radiance and atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/288043280451661824
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Sol 3182
Backed away from Vermillion and took a full colour pancam image of it. Then drove ~12m back to Whitewater Lake.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/288044541452374017
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Sol 3183
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/288405975558402050
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Sol 3184
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/288405975558402050
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When I have a day I don't do anything, I'm going to go out and measure atmospheric tau, just so I can say I've done something. ;)
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Sol 3185
sol 3185 - A ~2m drive to re-approach Whitewater Lake followed by colour imaging of the target 'Ortiz'.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/289144829408055296
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Sol 3186
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/289144955237195776
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sols 3181-3186, Jan. 4, 2013-Jan. 9, 2013: Heading Toward Light-Toned Veins
Opportunity is on the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater at the local region called "Matijevic Hill." The rover completed the in-situ (contact) analysis at the location called "Copper Cliff."
On Sol 3182 (Jan. 5, 2013), the rover departed Copper Cliff and drove approximately 43 feet (13 meters) towards a location near "Whitewater Lake." The intention is to position the rover near a previously seen light-toned vein for in-situ analysis. On Sol 3185 (Jan. 8, 2013), Opportunity bumped closer to the intended target with a small 8.5 feet (2.6-meter) move. A final bump into position for the vein investigation is planned for Sol 3187 (Jan. 10, 2013).
As of Sol 3186 (Jan. 9, 2013), the solar array energy production was 509 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.01 and a solar array dust factor of 0.620.
Total odometry is 22.03 miles (35454.23 meters).
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Sol 3187
Bumped forward 1m to get Whitewater Lake back into the work volume, then took a colour image of the 'Ortiz' target.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/289873997594783744
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sol 3188
Measured atmospheric tau.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/290105140315291651
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Re 1P410933300EFFBW__P2446R2M1.JPG in post 871:
Possible hydrothermally altered crackle breccia?
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Sol 3189
Took microscopic images of Ortiz and then started an APXS integration
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/290923558371217410
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Sol 3190
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/290923808444002304
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Sol 3191
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/291207406845820931
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Sol 3192
Took more microscopic images and APXS measurements of Ortiz.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/291673101614325760
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Sol 3193
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/292033434237407232
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Sol 3194
Took more microscopic images of Ortiz and then continued APXS measurements.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/292384197803401216
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Sol 3195
Measured atmospheric tau and continued APXS integration of Ortiz.
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/292603564541476865
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sols 3187-3193, Jan. 10, 2013-Jan. 16, 2013: Investigating Light-toned Veins in Rock Outcrop
Opportunity is on the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater, now engaged in in-situ (contact) science investigation of veins in the light-toned outcrop "Whitewater Lake," a place the rover visited previously.
On Sol 3187 (Jan. 10, 2013), the rover bumped a little over a meter to reach the vein targets in the outcrop, named "Ortiz." On Sol 3189 (Jan. 12, 2013), Opportunity, using her robotic arm, collected a large Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the vein targets. This was followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On Sol 3191 (Jan. 14, 2013), the rover collected more MI mosaics of a target offset from the first and completed this with placing the APXS on the new target.
Opportunity started exhibiting memory symptoms this month similar to events seen with Spirit in 2009. This is not a health and safety concern, but can cause loss of some data intended for downlink. It can be avoided for more important data by downlinking before any rover nap. The suspect cause is corruption in the flash file system used by the rover for non-volatile telemetry storage. The project implemented a detection diagnostic on Sol 3189 (Jan. 12, 2013) to flag the occurrence of these events in separate non-volatile memory. No events have occurred since Sol 3183 (Jan. 6, 2013), and the rover remains in good health.
As of Sol 3193 (Jan. 16, 2013), the solar array energy production was 498 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.08 and a solar array dust factor of 0.623.
Total odometry is 22.03 miles (35455.34 meters).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol360
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News release: 2013-166 May 16, 2013
Nine-Year-Old Mars Rover Passes 40-Year-Old Record
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-166&cid=release_2013-166
PASADENA, Calif. -- While Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt visited Earth's moon for three days in December 1972, they drove their mission's Lunar Roving Vehicle 19.3 nautical miles (22.210 statute miles or 35.744 kilometers). That was the farthest total distance for any NASA vehicle driving on a world other than Earth until yesterday.
The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity received confirmation in a transmission from Mars today that the rover drove 263 feet (80 meters) on Thursday, bringing Opportunity's total odometry since landing on Mars in January 2004 to 22.220 statute miles (35.760 kilometers).
Cernan discussed this prospect a few days ago with Opportunity team member Jim Rice of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Apollo 17 astronaut said, "The record we established with a roving vehicle was made to be broken, and I'm excited and proud to be able to pass the torch to Opportunity."
The international record for driving distance on another world is still held by the Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 23 miles (37 kilometers) on the surface of Earth's moon in 1973.
Opportunity began a multi-week trek this week from an area where it has been working since mid-2011, the "Cape York" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater, to an area about 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) away, "Solander Point."
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL also manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and its rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012.
For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]
2013-166
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Today it was announced that Opportunity studied a rock heavily altered by water. I found this link:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-167
The rock called "Esperance" apparently contains clay which would be formed by non acidic water and there was a potentially habitable ancient environment there. Now Curiosity and Opportunity have both found potentially habitable ancient environments on different sides of Mars. This plus discoveries elsewhere (liquid water oceans on Europa, water geysers on Enceladus, potentially habitable exoplanets, etc.) now make me think that we'll have definitive proof of life "out there" within the next five years. (I'm not a scientist, it's just that my gut tells me this).
Anyway congratulations to Oppy, the rover that goes and goes...and goes!
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Opportunity's Improbable Anniversary
Published on Jun 27, 2013
When Opportunity left Earth in 2003, many observers expected the rover to survive no more than a few months on the hostile surface of Mars. 10 years later, Opportunity is still going strong and could be poised to make its biggest discoveries yet at a place named Solander Point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz0QZ6jwFN8
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Worth noting --
TEN years ago today, 7 July 2003, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL for a 90-day mission on Mars's surface.
Ten years after launch... and just over 9 years 70 days after its initial 90-day mission was supposed to end, Opportunity continues to explore the Martian surface.
On 21 June 2013, Opportunity marked the completion of its 5th Martian year of operation, and as of 26 June 2013, its 3,350th Martian day of operation (3,622.22% more than its initial life expectancy), the rover has completed 23.05 miles of driving across the Martian terrain.
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Looks like Mars Rover Opportunity has arrived at Solander Point. They'll check out the geologic strata there and "winter over" on a sun facing slope.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2541383/Mystery-Mars-Rock-suddenly-appears-Opportunity-rover-leaving-scientists-baffled.html
"Mr Squyres said the rock may be Martian rock that was blown out of the ground by a meteoroid impact and landed next to the rover.
Another theory is that the rock previously got stuck in a rover wheel and finally fell into its current position"
This is interesting.....
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The article they are reporting on
http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-rock-appears-in-front-of-mars-rover-140117.htm (http://news.discovery.com/space/mystery-rock-appears-in-front-of-mars-rover-140117.htm)
is clearer about the probable explanation - the rock was probably 'tiddlywinked' as the rover did a turn in place.
The Daily Mail is pretty bad at science reporting. Read with caution.
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A better explanation:
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At 11 am Pacific on Thursday 1/23/14, NASA JPL will host a news conference marking 10 years for Opportunity.
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At 11 am Pacific on Thursday 1/23/14, NASA JPL will host a news conference marking 10 years for Opportunity.
If you would have predicted 10 years ago you'd be posting that now they would have locked you up as a crazy person. Curiosity has one helluva set of wheels to fill.
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At 11 am Pacific on Thursday 1/23/14, NASA JPL will host a news conference marking 10 years for Opportunity
Anyone have a transcript of this news conference.
I have seen the News Release (which contains a few images and a few facts ) that basically points you to the Science journal edition.
A-P
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At 11 am Pacific on Thursday 1/23/14, NASA JPL will host a news conference marking 10 years for Opportunity
Anyone have a transcript of this news conference.
I have seen the News Release (which contains a few images and a few facts ) that basically points you to the Science journal edition.
A-P
All I could find is the video replay at Ford Mustang site:
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8687:mars-exploration-rover-science-briefing-january-23&catid=1:latest
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Opportunity will be 10 years old tomorrow. It was meant to last 90 days.
"The little rover that could".
A good book for Children, eh?
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Mars News Briefing
Streamed live on Jan 23, 2014
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA's Opportunity rover was built for a three-month mission on Mars, but continues to return valuable scientific data 10 years later. NASA will reflect on the rover's work in a news conference.
The event will originate from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Participants will be:
- Michael Meyer, lead scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Ray Arvidson, Mars Exploration Rovers deputy principal investigator, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
-- John Callas, Mars Exploration Rovers project manager, JPL
-- Steve Squyres, Mars Exploration Rovers principal investigator, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5axWKZG6D4
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Opportunity: 10 Years on Mars
Streamed live on Jan 16, 2014
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A celebration commemorating a decade of Mars exploration by NASA's twin Mars Exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004 for what was expected to be 90-day missions. Spirit operated for six years and ceased communicating with Earth in 2010. The Opportunity rover continues exploring today, 10 years after landing.
This show includes:
-- Charles Elachi, director, JPL
-- Steve Squyres, principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rover mission, Cornell
-- John Callas, project manager, Mars Exploration Rover mission, JPL
-- Bill Nye, chief executive officer of the Planetary Society, Pasadena, Calif.
-- plus more rover team members
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaJ_xZ1kjiA
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Chris Gebhardt's feature:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/01/ten-years-opportunitys-unparalleled-time-mission-mars/
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another milestone reached:
Opportunity Rover Breaks Off-World Driving Record | Video
Published on Jul 28, 2014
The rover landed on the Red Planet in 2004 and has since driven a record 25.01 miles (40.02 km). The record was previously held by the Russian Lunokhod 2 which roved the lunar surface for 24.2 miles (39 km) in 1973.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIyVEBRBFo
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This operational / engineering update on Oppy seems to have been picked up by a few general news sources...
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20141211a.html
The team is developing a set of commands to restore usability of the flash memory through an overhaul more extensive than the reformatting that has been used so far. The incidents of Opportunity's flash memory not accepting data for storage have occurred in only one of the seven banks of flash microchip circuitry on board. The team plans to send commands for the rover to avoid that entire bank.
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Rover Examining Odd Mars Rocks at Valley Overlook
Things to know:
-- Rover is examining rocks with composition unlike any previously found on Mars
-- Opportunity has switched to a new version of its flight software, with plans for flash memory reformatting.
-- Remaining distance to reach marathon-race equivalent is 140 yards (128 meters)
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20150305a.html
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Marathon Valley, next stop. Looks like there's some intriguing layering in there.
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Marathon Valley, next stop. Looks like there's some intriguing layering in there.
JPL better hurry and hasten the arrival of Opportunity in Marathon Valley. Planetary Society has indicated that NASA and the Feds are close to shutting it down for good to save money. Likewise, the NASA lunar orbiting craft faces the same fate as well. It's a shame.
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JPL better hurry and hasten the arrival of Opportunity in Marathon Valley. Planetary Society has indicated that NASA and the Feds are close to shutting it down for good to save money. Likewise, the NASA lunar orbiting craft faces the same fate as well. It's a shame.
The threat to shut down these missions is, in my opinion, all theater, like the threats at one time to shut down the Washington Monument. OMB can say, see we are being tough, and Congress can say, we saved these valuable missions. The dollar amounts don't amount to a virus in a microbe on a gnat in the federal budget.
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JPL better hurry and hasten the arrival of Opportunity in Marathon Valley. Planetary Society has indicated that NASA and the Feds are close to shutting it down for good to save money. Likewise, the NASA lunar orbiting craft faces the same fate as well. It's a shame.
The threat to shut down these missions is, in my opinion, all theater, like the threats at one time to shut down the Washington Monument. OMB can say, see we are being tough, and Congress can say, we saved these valuable missions. The dollar amounts don't amount to a virus in a microbe on a gnat in the federal budget.
Alas, trust me, it is not theater.
I'm reminded of a great quote from the underrated 1992 movie Sneakers when one of the characters reveals to the other how he got involved with certain people:
Martin Bishop: Organized crime?
Cosmo: Hah. Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.
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This is just the President's budget proposal. A lot can happen to it during the House and Senate deliberations. The chance that either of the missions will be shut down is pretty small.
'Not that organized' - brilliant!
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This is just the President's budget proposal. A lot can happen to it during the House and Senate deliberations. The chance that either of the missions will be shut down is pretty small.
'Not that organized' - brilliant!
Yes, I like optimism, but as a student of philosophy I am reminded that optimism is often overruled by reality.
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http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2015/0315-is-opportunity-a-mission-whose-time-has-passed.html
Apparently in this recent hearing - http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings&ContentRecord_id=4ccea8c1-af33-4439-ba02-075de42c9946 - Bolden referred to Opportunity as a mission "whose time has passed" and implied that InSight wouldn't be able to launch without Opportunity's funding. I can't seem to get the archived webcast to work, though, so all I have is what's reported on by Dreier in that Planetary blog post.
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Press Releases
March 24, 2015
NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover Passes Marathon Distance
There was no tape draped across a finish line, but NASA is celebrating a win. The agency's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity completed its first Red Planet marathon Tuesday -- 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers) - with a finish time of roughly 11 years and two months.
"This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world," said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "A first time happens only once."
The rover team at JPL plans a marathon-length relay run at the laboratory next week to celebrate.
The long-lived rover surpassed the marathon mark during a drive of 153 feet (46.5 meters). Last year, Opportunity became the long-distance champion of all off-Earth vehicles when it topped the previous record set by the former Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 moon rover.
"This mission isn't about setting distance records, of course; it's about making scientific discoveries on Mars and inspiring future explorers to achieve even more," said Steve Squyres, Opportunity principal investigator at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "Still, running a marathon on Mars feels pretty cool."
Opportunity's original three-month prime mission in 2004 yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on planet's surface. As the rover continued to operate far beyond expectations for its lifespan, scientists chose the rim of Endeavour Crater as a long-term destination. Since 2011, examinations of Endeavour's rim have provided information about ancient wet conditions less acidic, and more favorable for microbial life, than the environment that left clues found earlier in the mission.
JPL manages the Mars rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Mars Exploration Rover Project, NASA's newer Curiosity Mars rover, and three active NASA Mars orbiters are part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and biological potential. In parallel, NASA is developing the human spaceflight capabilities needed for its journey to Mars.
For more information about Opportunity, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/
Follow the project on social media at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers
http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
[email protected]
Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
[email protected]
NEWS RELEASE: 2015-094
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20150324a.html
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As a member of the Viking Fund, a crowd funded extension of the Viking mission on Mars after Congress cut funding, I fully expect them to cut the money.
Never let the facts get in the way of good story! (Then use that story as testimony to Congress).
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http://aviationweek.com/awin-only/aging-us-mars-and-moon-missions-may-soldier
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I sure hope they manage to keep them going. Seems to me that a fleet of Opportunity-style solar powered rovers might provide more continuous bang for the buck than a few big nuclear powered Curiosity-based machines.
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I sure hope they manage to keep them going. Seems to me that a fleet of Opportunity-style solar powered rovers might provide more continuous bang for the buck than a few big nuclear powered Curiosity-based machines.
Perhaps. To be effective, you'd need to improve the entry and descent system for these rovers. They had a hard time finding two interesting places for the MER landings because the landing ellipses were so large. Once you start making major modifications like that, costs likely start to grow substantially. You'd want to go to something like Curiosity's entry guidance capability at least.
That said, I have wondered what could be done if you reflew a MER rover but replaced the original TES spectrometer with the 2020 rover SuperCam instrument (LBIS and Raman stand-off laser spectroscopy, near-IR point spectrometer, and very capable imager). Don't know how much power, mass, or volume SuperCam requires, so this is all 'what if?'.
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The MERs really represent outdated technology now, and they were quite limited in capability, and they are a size and design that wouldn't really allow much more capability even if you were designing them today. (Note: in no way do I mean this to imply that Opportunity should be shut down. It is still highly valuable.) It's just the case that the scientific questions that the community is asking now are far more complex than they were 15 years ago and require much better and more comprehensive instruments, including some kind of chemical analysis lab. That requires a bigger rover.
And as vjkane notes above, the MERs had a pretty large landing footprint, and a requirement for rather benign terrain, which means that they cannot be placed close to the interesting things you want to look at. That could be improved in various ways (like active steering during entry), but not to the degree that it was for Curiosity.
Add to this the DSN limitations and it would be really hard to land more than a couple of rovers on Mars without substantially improving DSN capabilities.
But what it really comes down to is that the rovers--or any science spacecraft for that matter--exist to perform science. They get their requirements from the scientific community. And the Mars scientific community is not calling for more small rovers on Mars. It's not part of their calculations. If they don't want them, there's no reason to do them.
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I sure hope they manage to keep them going. Seems to me that a fleet of Opportunity-style solar powered rovers might provide more continuous bang for the buck than a few big nuclear powered Curiosity-based machines.
Perhaps. To be effective, you'd need to improve the entry and descent system for these rovers. They had a hard time finding two interesting places for the MER landings because the landing ellipses were so large. Once you start making major modifications like that, costs likely start to grow substantially. You'd want to go to something like Curiosity's entry guidance capability at least.
There were no shortage of interesting sites for the MERs. The first workshop identified 17 sites. The second workshop narrowed it down to "only" six. Many of the sites are still interesting and most of the reasons for elimination, especially in the final round, were forced rather than necessary (apart form the need to have only two sites that is)
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The MERs really represent outdated technology now, and they were quite limited in capability, and they are a size and design that wouldn't really allow much more capability even if you were designing them today. (Note: in no way do I mean this to imply that Opportunity should be shut down. It is still highly valuable.) It's just the case that the scientific questions that the community is asking now are far more complex than they were 15 years ago and require much better and more comprehensive instruments, including some kind of chemical analysis lab. That requires a bigger rover.
And as vjkane notes above, the MERs had a pretty large landing footprint, and a requirement for rather benign terrain, which means that they cannot be placed close to the interesting things you want to look at. That could be improved in various ways (like active steering during entry), but not to the degree that it was for Curiosity.
Add to this the DSN limitations and it would be really hard to land more than a couple of rovers on Mars without substantially improving DSN capabilities.
But what it really comes down to is that the rovers--or any science spacecraft for that matter--exist to perform science. They get their requirements from the scientific community. And the Mars scientific community is not calling for more small rovers on Mars. It's not part of their calculations. If they don't want them, there's no reason to do them.
Well, I wasn't talking about clones. Electronics, software, and hopefully a slew of other systems are more advanced now than they were at the beginning of the millennium. There's no reason you can't land a solar powered rover more precisely now than you could then. That's not a function of the rover itself. Solar panels are better now, too, they should be able to supply a bit more power. It's also interesting to know that more advanced instruments require more power -- so much more of technology has been the practice of putting more capability into smaller packages.
As for what the science community is asking for, they're pretty much channeled into a particular set of assumptions -- like the assumption they can only get one craft. When you only have one, you're going to load it up to the gills with as much as you can fit, which maximizes the cost, and the stakes. The MERS were an anomaly in that respect. DSN issues notwithstanding (which is an excellent point, BTW), I suspect that if given a real choice between several enhanced-capability MERS working multiple sites and a single nuclear MSL, a substantial number would choose the former.
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The MERs really represent outdated technology now, and they were quite limited in capability, and they are a size and design that wouldn't really allow much more capability even if you were designing them today. (Note: in no way do I mean this to imply that Opportunity should be shut down. It is still highly valuable.) It's just the case that the scientific questions that the community is asking now are far more complex than they were 15 years ago and require much better and more comprehensive instruments, including some kind of chemical analysis lab. That requires a bigger rover.
And as vjkane notes above, the MERs had a pretty large landing footprint, and a requirement for rather benign terrain, which means that they cannot be placed close to the interesting things you want to look at. That could be improved in various ways (like active steering during entry), but not to the degree that it was for Curiosity.
Add to this the DSN limitations and it would be really hard to land more than a couple of rovers on Mars without substantially improving DSN capabilities.
But what it really comes down to is that the rovers--or any science spacecraft for that matter--exist to perform science. They get their requirements from the scientific community. And the Mars scientific community is not calling for more small rovers on Mars. It's not part of their calculations. If they don't want them, there's no reason to do them.
I don't understand your implication that more capable rovers always have to be bigger as the general trend in advancing electronics is to make things both smaller and more advanced. Surely it's not beyond the realms of possibility to make a rover that's both the same size as the MER but far more capable.
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I appreciate that this is speculative, and does not speak to the merits of the question, but would there be programmatic reasons beyond science merit? For instance, that flying multiple S/C, although conferring obvious advantages (if simultaneous, then some economies), and risk mitigation (somewhat, though less so if multiple build to print), and spread of coverage, is a somewhat more difficult proposition to argue for?
And potentially more vulnerable to being downscaled because the granules for cutting are discrete, e.g. three rovers becomes two when there is a budgetary issue; or the 'optics' of three rovers c.f. one highly capable one would be more inclined to attract criticism from within, or much more likely, without, planetary science.
The potential for polemical, hyperbolic denunciation ('They can afford to put three new rovers on Mars but they can't... <>') that may accompany having more than one seems real to me, but admittedly, I am fairly pessimistic. MER did not seem to encounter this from memory admittedly.
I quite like the idea, some different instruments, perhaps more tolerance for risk, and fewer potential issues with RTG if the difficulties there take longer than hoped to resolve with the production re-start. I suppose I am also a little skeptical that there will a budget profile that supports MSR as is being proposed, so an alternative plan that advances the state of knowledge at myriad locations, in smaller minimum mission sizes, has an appeal.
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I don't understand your implication that more capable rovers always have to be bigger as the general trend in advancing electronics is to make things both smaller and more advanced. Surely it's not beyond the realms of possibility to make a rover that's both the same size as the MER but far more capable.
There's more to it than electronics. There are issues of power and real estate (meaning room on the rover). If you look at a crosscut view of the SAM, you see that there are compartments, furnaces, things like that where they put the samples. That takes up room. Instruments are more than simply circuit boards.
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I appreciate that this is speculative, and does not speak to the merits of the question, but would there be programmatic reasons beyond science merit? For instance, that flying multiple S/C, although conferring obvious advantages (if simultaneous, then some economies), and risk mitigation (somewhat, though less so if multiple build to print), and spread of coverage, is a somewhat more difficult proposition to argue for?
And potentially more vulnerable to being downscaled because the granules for cutting are discrete, e.g. three rovers becomes two when there is a budgetary issue; or the 'optics' of three rovers c.f. one highly capable one would be more inclined to attract criticism from within, or much more likely, without, planetary science.
You are touching on a point that is valid, although I would characterize it slightly differently. Yeah, it is not just science that is dictating the direction of the Mars program, there are other considerations too. Some of these are programmatic (for instance, money is not infinite, launch windows happen only every two years, so those things force certain kinds of decisions as opposed to others).
I would also add that there's a kind of social component at work, meaning that some ideas end up getting suppressed, not simply losing out. For instance, if there are only a very few opportunities for missions in the next decade, and 90% of the Mars community wants mission X, then not only is the remaining 10% of the community going to lose the argument, they may not even bother to argue. So it is possible that there are people out there arguing for many more rovers, but they're just not being heard.
But I come back to the science--you just don't go to Mars conferences or meetings of large numbers of Mars scientists and hear people saying "We should fly more MER rovers instead of what everybody else has agreed upon." That's just not an argument that is getting made by the scientists themselves (well, maybe by one or two people, but they're not very loud). And that's the reality. Any argument for a whole bunch more rovers needs to start from a science justification that will convince people, not from "I think this is a good idea." If you're not a scientist, why is your idea good if the scientists who set the goals are not making it?
More in the next post.
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There is in fact a case to be made that current Mars plans represent the latest iteration of a long path that the community has been on for decades.
You can go back to at least the early 1970s and find the Mars community making the case for sample return from Mars. (This is enshrined in NRC documents, which are the most independent and objective and respected reports on space science subjects.) That community established sample return as a goal early on and kept repeating it in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. It became their holy grail.
There were two main general reasons why sample return did not happen (by happen I mean get started as a program, bending metal):
1-it was too expensive
2-there was an argument that we lacked sufficient knowledge of Mars itself to select the best samples
I would add another lesser reason:
3-there were good arguments for other missions at Mars, like polar landers, rovers, atmospheric observations, seismology missions, high-resolution cameras, etc.
Things have now changed. In particular, #2 has gone away as an argument. If you go to a group of Mars scientists and ask them "Do you think we now have sufficient knowledge of Mars to select a really good sample set?" they will almost all say "Yes." That's because since the late 1990s we have sent a whole bunch of very good missions to Mars and gathered a lot of data and now have a pretty good idea of what to look for and where to find it.
In addition, #3 has gone away because all of those missions have been done. In essence, scientists have picked all the low-hanging fruit at Mars. There are fewer arguments for doing other kinds of missions. They no longer seem as important. Yeah, there's still plenty of science to be done at Mars, but it is now not viewed with the same previous sense of importance.
That leaves #1, the expense. And for over a decade now the sample return concept has been that rather than a single big expensive mission that happens at once (and blows the budget open), they should stretch this out. Thus, instead of doing, say, five smaller Mars missions over a decade, they should do three much larger and more expensive missions over 15+ years.
So Mars 2020 is going to do sample caching at Mars. It will have produced a good cache by the early 2020s. Then NASA is going to have to develop a retrieval mission. That is going to be expensive, but it could happen by the late 2020s or early 2030s. And they could also add the Mars orbit return component too. (I have heard knowledgeable people say that they think that third mission is something that Japan could easily do.)
So it is conceivable that we had Mars 2020 started in 2013, and by 2033 we could have Mars samples back on Earth. That's the Mars community's priority now.
Maybe more rovers will follow in the 2030s, but right now, the path for the program is relatively clear.
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My thanks Blackstar, this was a most informative sequence of posts, and I think that is a very sound point. Given those most proximate to the field argue for MSR, and, preceding that, capable rovers over less capable, then there is not much of an argument to be had on their internal priorities. They know what they want, and have been (insofar as I can tell as a layperson) very coherent as a community through MEPAG pathways, goals etc. I don't know why I am skeptical of MSR, particularly when I have no expertise in the area, just enthusiasm; I think when there are detailed MAV plans and budgets approved, I'm sure it will start to seem very real. And it may be simple impatience on my part, rovers and orbiters of the preceding 15 years have delivered a steady stream of finds, rather than investment toward one giant point of new knowledge. Flying rovers that the Mars community does not seek is about the worst of all options - merely makes everyone unhappy (other programs, and the notional beneficiaries).
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They know what they want, and have been (insofar as I can tell as a layperson) very coherent as a community through MEPAG pathways, goals etc.
They are very coherent, more so than the other planetary science communities. For instance, one problem that the Venus community has had is that they are less consistent about their goals. An example of this was the last Discovery program round, when there were FOUR proposals for Venus radar missions, apparently each with different radar capabilities and goals. When a selection committee sees that, they can only conclude that the community is not speaking with one voice. I have a friend who is no fan of Mars science who does admire the fact that the Mars community is united in their goals and consistent with their message.
I'd also add that although I'm not part of that community or an expert on it, I think that their coherence is relatively new and is a result of all the data that has come in from the missions that have flown. I once had a conversation with Wes Huntress, who was in charge of NASA's science directorate during the 1990s. Around 2007 or so he was not in favor of sample return. But by 2010 or so he said that he was now convinced that it was possible to collect a very good sample. What changed his mind? Published scientific papers and data coming back from the various missions (I think particularly HiRise). I assume that there were others who had a similar conversion--in the 2000s they were not all in favor of sample return, but by 2010 they were pretty much convinced.
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...In addition, #3 has gone away because all of those missions have been done. In essence, scientists have picked all the low-hanging fruit at Mars. There are fewer arguments for doing other kinds of missions. They no longer seem as important. Yeah, there's still plenty of science to be done at Mars, but it is now not viewed with the same previous sense of importance.
I would say that the only mission type you didn't mention is the one I think still has a certain priority, though not quite as applicable to either the road to MSR or the road to manned Mars missions. And that's one or more Mars moon missions.
Only two missions of this type have been attempted, I believe, both Russian and both semi- or complete failures. I think that, as we gain more useful information about small solar system bodies (asteroids and comets), it's time to baseline a couple of interesting examples that happen to be located very close to an object of other interests.
Besides, it's always seemed to me that the best place for an initial ISRU "dig-in" to make fuel and consumables for manned Mars missions is on Phobos, not on the Martian surface. You could reprovision your transit vehicle and fuel up your landers from a nicely appointed Phobos installation. Heck, it could even have pre-positioned human consumables, foodstores, and living space for the crew while they're performing their logistics ops. And you would never have to worry about landing close to your pre-landed ISRU factories -- it seems easier to rendezvous with Phobos than to rely on a pinpoint landing.
So, a Martian moons mission is still in the category of useful, low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked, I think.
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So, a Martian moons mission is still in the category of useful, low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked, I think.
I don't totally disagree with you. However, in general the Mars community doesn't rate Phobos very highly. A lot of them view it as an asteroid. It's not Mars, not their problem, not part of their program. Also, I'd add that the volatiles/ISRU/resources issue is not really a science question. I was talking about a science program and if the scientists are not interested in ISRU, then arguments for doing it on their missions don't resonate with them.
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So, a Martian moons mission is still in the category of useful, low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked, I think.
I don't totally disagree with you. However, in general the Mars community doesn't rate Phobos very highly. A lot of them view it as an asteroid. It's not Mars, not their problem, not part of their program. Also, I'd add that the volatiles/ISRU/resources issue is not really a science question. I was talking about a science program and if the scientists are not interested in ISRU, then arguments for doing it on their missions don't resonate with them.
But, if the ARM mission goes through, a Deimos or Phobos mission is almost a given in exploration. But where it might get really interesting, is what's going to happen with human missions to Mars. I simply don't see any way that exploration won't try to get its feet wet with retropropulsive EDL + a MAV before sending humans. And that is so close to the MSR mission that I believe it would take the most retrograde sort of pettiness for it not to happen.
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Good to hear this.
NASA Considering Options To Save Opportunity Rover.
NASA, which proposed ending the Mars Opportunity rover’s mission for the second year in a row in its 2016 budget request, is still trying to figure out some way of keeping the 11-year-old vehicle operating on the surface of the red planet.
“We will look at what opportunities we have to continue funding Opportunity, but at this time, we haven’t squared all that away,” Jim Watzin, NASA’s Mars exploration program director, told the NASA Advisory Council’s planetary science subcommittee March 30.
http://spacenews.com/nasa-considering-options-to-save-opportunity-rover/ (http://spacenews.com/nasa-considering-options-to-save-opportunity-rover/)
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There was a JPL panel about MER and Dawn at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim last Thursday. Of course, they had to make this presentation relevant to the movie franchise..
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Rover's-Eye View of Marathon on Mars
The VERGE article:
http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2015/7/6/8903963/mars-opportunity-rover-time-lapse-video-marathon
Video mentioned:
Uploaded on Jul 2, 2015
Road trip! This compilation of images from hazard-avoidance cameras on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between January 2004 and April 2015 shows the rover's-eye-view of the Martian marathon covering 26.2 miles(42.2 kilometers) from its landing location. A map of the rover's path is on the right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b1DxICZbGc
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Peculiar 'Cauliflower Rocks' May Hold Clues To Ancient Mars Life
Evidence of water and a warmer, wetter climate abound on Mars, but did life ever put its stamp on the Red Planet? Rocks may hold the secret. Knobby protuberances of rock discovered by the Spirit Rover in 2008 near the rock outcrop Home Plate in Gusev Crater caught the attention of scientists back on Earth. They look like cauliflower or coral, but were these strange Martian rocks sculpted by microbes, wind or some other process?
Silica forms may originate with biology or from non-biological processes like wind, water and other environmental factors. Short of going there and collecting samples, there’s no way to be certain if the cauliflower rocks are imprinted with the signature of past Martian life. But at least we know of a promising place to look during a future sample return mission to the Red Planet. Indeed, according to Ruff, the Columbia Hills inside Gusev Crater he short list of potential sites for the 2020 Mars rover.
http://www.universetoday.com/127238/potential-life-on-mars-follow-the-cauliflower/
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The news from Opportunity seems to have been very limited of late; apparently they have no funding to spare for outreach (per quote below).
The good news, Extended Mission 10 has been approved.
From https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/PMSR2016_Report_Final.pdf (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/PMSR2016_Report_Final.pdf):
Opportunity/Mars Exploration Rovers—Excellent/Very Good.
The 10th Extended Mission proposal is a very compelling EM driven by significant opportunities for ground-break science and new discoveries at Endeavour Crater. It is extremely well focused with 3 objectives directly traceable to high priority science of the Decadal Survey. Opportunity will take advantage of the rover's unique location in and around Endeavour crater, an ancient Noachian environment that holds evolutionary clues to Mars geochemistry and represents a promising epoch to study from the perspective of habitability. The centerpiece of the EM10 is exploration of a small gully. In Endeavour's lower elevations the team expects to find evidence of ancient alteration under neutral pH rather than acidic conditions, the opportunity to observe changes in the aqueous chemistry over time, and contributions of flowing water to gully formation.
The Panel found that a focused and achievable program is proposed with well-defined targets and strong coordination with orbital data. Fundamental science questions are addressed, and there is great potential for new discovery, especially in exploration of the gully. The proposed science program is an excellent use of the remaining capabilities of the rover. Even with a degraded rover this team maximizes the science achievable while operating with no budget reserves. After 9 extended missions the eroding budget requires the operational planning cycle to be reduced. This continual budget erosion has also nearly eliminated important educational and training opportunities for students and post-docs. The Panel found that with the potential for ground-breaking new discoveries along Endeavour crater, the aging rover, reduced operations tempo, and reduced science participation, were of great concern. The Panel consensus was that this mission is at the science and mission-safety/engineering floor so a descope would be irresponsible. It was also a consensus finding that a modest overguide proposed ($1.8M/year) is a highly desirable investment to restore the EM-9 cadence of planning cycles to enable valuable science, reduce operational risk and improve science and operational robustness, which can negate unforeseen delays in progress towards the three critical EM10 scientific objectives. This will help ensure the proposed ground-breaking science is not forfeited after the extended traverse from Victoria crater.
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that's a lot of why what they are doing is great... but not so much what they are doing.
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Add to this the DSN limitations and it would be really hard to land more than a couple of rovers on Mars without substantially improving DSN capabilities.
The DSN could support quite a few more rovers with fairly small changes, I think. The DSN already has at least one dish pointed at Mars all the time. The downlinks don't interfere with each other, and all of Mars is within the beam, so one dish can in theory receive all the data from all the rovers. (They currently do 2 missions at a time, but more decoding hardware would let them do more). Only one mission at time can uplink, but uplink is much less time consuming and could support more rovers, particularly if spread out. Likewise the relay satellites are far from their full relay capability, provided the rovers are spread out on the surface.
Increasing DSN capabilities is not expensive, on the scale of Mars mission costs. For the cost of one Mars mission, they could put an additional dish at each DSN site and improve the science return for all NASA missions. However, such general infrastructure expenditures are a tough sell, with no particular science question to be answered, and hence no champion(s).
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The DSN could support quite a few more rovers with fairly small changes, I think. The DSN already has at least one dish pointed at Mars all the time. The downlinks don't interfere with each other, and all of Mars is within the beam, so one dish can in theory receive all the data from all the rovers.
No, the MER rovers were purposely put on opposite sides of the planet (just like Viking) to avoid interference. The dishes do not receive multiple downlinks. They can only receive one spacecraft at a time
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The dishes do not receive multiple downlinks. They can only receive one spacecraft at a time
This is not correct.
edit:
https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/files/dsn/6_NASA_MOCS_2014_10_01_14.pdf
1.6.5 Multiple Spacecraft Per Antenna (DSN)
Where a multiplicity of spacecraft lie within the beamwidth of a single DSN antenna, it may be
possible to capture data from two or more spacecraft simultaneously using the Multiple
Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA) system. MSPA decreases DSN loading and will save the
project’s money (see Section 2.1.3).
There are a few constraints. First, only a single uplink frequency can be transmitted.
Generally, this means that only one spacecraft at a time can operate in a two-way coherent
mode, while the remainder must be in a one-way (i.e., non-coherent) mode. Second, multiple independent
receivers are required at the Earth station. This sets a practical limit of two
spacecraft that can be served simultaneously. Third, ranging and two-way coherent Doppler
data can only be obtained from the single spacecraft operating in a two-way coherent mode.
Approximately 30-minutes are required to transfer two-way coherent operations from one
spacecraft to another irrespective of whether or not the spacecraft, which will be in the two-way
coherent mode, is currently part of the MSPA cluster. When switching the uplink from one
spacecraft to the next, full Aperture Fee (AF) costs apply to the new two-way coherent user at
the onset of the switching operation. Transfers of two-way coherent operations require:
1) Tuning the uplink of the spacecraft in a two-way coherent mode to its rest frequency,
2) Setting the station uplink frequency to the next spacecraft’s and acquiring the uplink,
3) Reconfiguring the command subsystem (if required) for the next spacecraft,
4) Reconfiguring ranging (if required) for the next spacecraft,
5) Reconfiguring the Monitor and Control subsystem,
6) Relocking the Earth station’s receiver and telemetry processor following the switch.
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The DSN could support quite a few more rovers with fairly small changes, I think. The DSN already has at least one dish pointed at Mars all the time. The downlinks don't interfere with each other, and all of Mars is within the beam, so one dish can in theory receive all the data from all the rovers.
No, the MER rovers were purposely put on opposite sides of the planet (just like Viking) to avoid interference. The dishes do not receive multiple downlinks. They can only receive one spacecraft at a time
No, DSN has the capability of MSPA, multiple spacecraft per aperture (http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationwithearth/busysignals/):
During the landing operations phase on the martian surface, the Mars Science Laboratory is expecting to utilize the Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA) capability of the DSN, which allows a single DSN antenna to receive downlink from up to two spacecraft simultaneously.
It only supports one uplink at a time, but that could support more rovers:
The rover's downlink sessions (when the rover sends information back to Earth) will generally be limited to a couple of hours at a stretch, with perhaps two downlink sessions per martian day (sol). MSPA allows only one spacecraft at a time to have the uplink, and it is expected that the rover will command early in each sol (martian day) for roughly an hour to provide the instructions for that sol's activities.
And the limit of 2 per downlink is just how many receivers they have, and receivers are much less expensive to add than antennas. From Opportunistic MSPA Demonstration #1: Final Report (http://ipnpr.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-200/200B.pdf):
Unlike traditional MSPA in which the number of spacecraft that can be supported is limited by the number of available receivers, OMSPA makes use of a digital recorder at each station that is capable of capturing IF signals from every spacecraft in the antenna beam within the frequency bands of interest.
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1. During the landing operations phase on the martian surface, the Mars Science Laboratory is expecting to utilize the Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA) capability of the DSN, which allows a single DSN antenna to receive downlink from up to two spacecraft simultaneously.
2. Unlike traditional MSPA in which the number of spacecraft that can be supported is limited by the number of available receivers, OMSPA makes use of a digital recorder at each station that is capable of capturing IF signals from every spacecraft in the antenna beam within the frequency bands of interest.
1. Two is a stretch of the word multiple. More dual. But it is still limiting.
2. So if the spacecraft aren't in the frequency bands of interest, it is useless. Plus, if other things are going on, the recorded data may be useless since it isn't acted upon.
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There are a few constraints. First, only a single uplink frequency can be transmitted.
Generally, this means that only one spacecraft at a time can operate in a two-way coherent
mode, while the remainder must be in a one-way (i.e., non-coherent) mode. Second, multiple independent
receivers are required at the Earth station. This sets a practical limit of two
spacecraft that can be served simultaneously. Third, ranging and two-way coherent Doppler
data can only be obtained from the single spacecraft operating in a two-way coherent mode.
And how often are those constraints not in effect.
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And how often are those constraints not in effect.
Often. E.g., MSPA is used more often than not when receiving from Mars orbiters these days.
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The DSN could support quite a few more rovers with fairly small changes, I think. The DSN already has at least one dish pointed at Mars all the time. The downlinks don't interfere with each other, and all of Mars is within the beam, so one dish can in theory receive all the data from all the rovers.
No, the MER rovers were purposely put on opposite sides of the planet (just like Viking) to avoid interference. The dishes do not receive multiple downlinks. They can only receive one spacecraft at a time
The basic premise is wrong. DSN doesn't directly communicate with the rovers. Rovers require more interaction than orbiters and so the upgrades like MSPA don't increase the capability to do more rovers.
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1. During the landing operations phase on the martian surface, the Mars Science Laboratory is expecting to utilize the Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture (MSPA) capability of the DSN, which allows a single DSN antenna to receive downlink from up to two spacecraft simultaneously.
2. Unlike traditional MSPA in which the number of spacecraft that can be supported is limited by the number of available receivers, OMSPA makes use of a digital recorder at each station that is capable of capturing IF signals from every spacecraft in the antenna beam within the frequency bands of interest.
1. Two is a stretch of the word multiple. More dual. But it is still limiting.
2. So if the spacecraft aren't in the frequency bands of interest, it is useless. Plus, if other things are going on, the recorded data may be useless since it isn't acted upon.
Right now, they can do 2 downlinks in real time (limited by two receivers), and all downlinks within the beam via recording. By adding more receivers they could do more missions real time, up to the number within the beam (that's why I said "could support more rovers with minor changes").
Bands of interest is not a limitation here. X band encompasses all the rovers current or planned, and the dishes and low noise amplifiers support all of X band without tuning.
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1. Right now, they can do 2 downlinks in real time (limited by two receivers), and all downlinks within the beam via recording. By adding more receivers they could do more missions real time, up to the number within the beam (that's why I said "could support more rovers with minor changes").
2. Bands of interest is not a limitation here. X band encompasses all the rovers current or planned, and the dishes and low noise amplifiers support all of X band without tuning.
1. No, rovers need more than downlink, so the changes aren't minor. And per your reference "But, sharing an antenna amongst many spacecraft by adding lots of receivers and associated telemetry processing chains could prove prohibitively expensive for the DSN."
2, OMSPA is for smallsat and not major missions because "OMSPA may require up to a couple of days for missions to access and recover their downlinked data," As I said, it is not acted upon when received.
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DSN doesn't directly communicate with the rovers.
Rovers talk both directly to Earth and through orbiters. Uplink is normally straight from the DSN to the rover. From Communications With Earth (http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/comm_data.html):
The data rate direct-to-Earth varies from about 12,000 bits per second to 3,500 bits per second (roughly a third as fast as a standard home modem). The data rate to the orbiters is a constant 128,000 bits per second (4 times faster than a home modem). An orbiter passes over the rover and is in the vicinity of the sky to communicate with the rovers for about eight minutes at a time, per sol. In that time, about 60 megabits of data (about 1/100 of a CD) can be transmitted to an orbiter. That same 60 megabits would take between 1.5 and 5 hours to transmit direct to Earth. The rovers can only transmit direct-to-Earth for at most three hours a day due to power and thermal limitations, even though Earth may be in view much longer.
Note that if using the satellite relays, even more rovers could be supported. At 8 minutes per sol per rover, NASA could support dozens of rovers using only the relay satellites already in orbit around Mars.
Rovers require more interaction than orbiters and so the upgrades like MSPA don't increase the capability to do more rovers.
See above, where the uplink was estimated to take about 1 hour/day/rover. So a lot more rovers could be supported without any additional uplink capabilities. And downlink from many more rovers could be supported now though the relays (without modification) or direct to Earth (with minor upgrades). So there may be good arguments against many rovers, but communications is not one of them.
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The basic premise is wrong. DSN doesn't directly communicate with the rovers. Rovers require more interaction than orbiters and so the upgrades like MSPA don't increase the capability to do more rovers.
There is much more down-link data (from Mars) than up-link (to Mars). MSPA allows more down-link data from more surface or orbiting assets with fewer DSN assets. Real-time or near-real-time interaction based on received data is the exception, not the norm. That virtually all data is relayed through orbiters these days does not change matters.
The basic premise is correct and proven, even if it may not solve all perceived problems.
edit: For example, it is very typical to see one DSN dish receiving data from two Mars orbiters, while sending data to one of them. Then they will switch transmission to the other orbiter. They do that because: (a) all communications are generally scheduled well in advance; and (b) there is a lot more data coming down than there is going up.
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There are a few constraints. First, only a single uplink frequency can be transmitted.
Generally, this means that only one spacecraft at a time can operate in a two-way coherent
mode, while the remainder must be in a one-way (i.e., non-coherent) mode. Second, multiple independent
receivers are required at the Earth station. This sets a practical limit of two
spacecraft that can be served simultaneously. Third, ranging and two-way coherent Doppler
data can only be obtained from the single spacecraft operating in a two-way coherent mode.
And how often are those constraints not in effect.
For rovers in particular, the constraints are almost never in effect. For orbiters, coherent doppler and ranging are needed for orbit determination. For stationary landers, doppler and ranging determine the solar system ephemeris and the geological properties of Mars. But since rovers move, there is almost no science value in coherent doppler or ranging. So they can always work in incoherent mode, meaning they don't need the uplink. And the practical limit of 2 is just that - it's how many receivers DSN has purchased. There is no technical problem to acquiring more. Cost is not a serious issue in this case, since the lower data rates from the rovers can use Software Receiver Processing for Deep Space Telemetry Applications (http://systems.caltech.edu/dsp/students/andre/journal/180E.pdf) and don't need the full (and much more expensive) hardware telemetry decoding.
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The basic premise is wrong. DSN doesn't directly communicate with the rovers. Rovers require more interaction than orbiters and so the upgrades like MSPA don't increase the capability to do more rovers.
There is much more down-link data (from Mars) than up-link (to Mars). MSPA allows more down-link data from more surface or orbiting assets with fewer DSN assets.
If more uplink is needed, both JPL (Noise Bursts and Intermodulation Products Caused by Multiple Carriers at X-Band (http://ipnpr.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-127/127E.pdf)) and ESA (ESA’s Views on MSPA (Multiple Spacecraft Per Aperture) on the Uplink (http://cwe.ccsds.org/sls/docs/SLS-CandS/Meeting%20Materials/2010/201005.%20Portsmouth/MSPA_CCSDS_Spring2010_Portsmouth.pdf)) have studied the problem. The main technical problem is trying to transmit multiple full-power carriers while the same dish is receiving. (very high order IM products become important since the transmitter is about 10^20 times stronger than the received data). You can back off the power somewhat, or (in the worst case) go to two dishes, with one doing all the transmitting, and the other all the receiving. This will work for any combination of uplinks/downlinks.
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For rovers in particular, the constraints are almost never in effect.
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True, but DSN rarely communicates directly with the rovers these days; relay through the orbiters is far more efficient for both DSN and the rovers. IIRC in the last several months, there was only one such instance (29-Jun), which used DSS43 (70m Canberra) to talk directly to Curiosity; may have been related to a rover software update.*
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You can back off the power somewhat, or (in the worst case) go to two dishes, with one doing all the transmitting, and the other all the receiving. This will work for any combination of uplinks/downlinks.
That is how DSN often operates. You will often see one antenna with two down and one up; or sometimes one antenna with two down and a different antenna with one up.
* But my memory is not what it use to be and my logs are a bit scattershot, so take with a grain of salt. In any case, in my experience, it is extremely rare to see DSN talking directly to a rover.
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The basic premise is wrong. DSN doesn't directly communicate with the rovers. Rovers require more interaction than orbiters and so the upgrades like MSPA don't increase the capability to do more rovers.
There is much more down-link data (from Mars) than up-link (to Mars). MSPA allows more down-link data from more surface or orbiting assets with fewer DSN assets. Real-time or near-real-time interaction based on received data is the exception, not the norm. That virtually all data is relayed through orbiters these days does not change matters.
The basic premise is correct and proven, even if it may not solve all perceived problems.
edit: For example, it is very typical to see one DSN dish receiving data from two Mars orbiters, while sending data to one of them. Then they will switch transmission to the other orbiter. They do that because: (a) all communications are generally scheduled well in advance; and (b) there is a lot more data coming down than there is going up.
No, the premise is not correct. If the DSN only communicates via orbiters, then more DSN capability doesn't help. More orbiters are needed
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No, the premise is not correct. If the DSN only communicates via orbiters, then more DSN capability doesn't help. More orbiters are needed
Stop that. This discussion started with whether DSN MSPA is useful. It has proven useful. It is used on a daily basis. It maximizes Earth-Mars rover bandwidth and minimizes DSN resources. The premise is correct; you are incorrect in your conclusion. Or you appear to be constructing a straw-man in order to prove an irrelevant conclusion.
Certainly more orbiter Earth-Mars bandwidth would be desirable, but is the current orbiter capability a limitation to the number of rovers which could be supported? You have presented no data to support such a claim. So do the numbers and present, then we can have a substantive discussion. Otherwise you are just hand-waving.
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If the DSN only communicates via orbiters, then more DSN capability doesn't help. More orbiters are needed
No, a single orbiter spends 8 minutes per day communicating with each rover, plus somewhat less time than that to send the data back to Earth. So a single orbiter (and there are several in Mars orbit with relay capability) could handle any practical number of rovers. The reason they put relays on each new orbiter is not for capacity, it's more that the old orbiters could die at any time.
So there are at least two possible ways to support lots of rovers via DSN. You could use the existing orbiters, with capacity to spare, or you could make minor enhancements to DSN to enable direct-to-Earth, both uplink and downlink, for all of them. The original argument was that DSN capacity was one argument (among many) for not wanting a fleet or rovers. What we have shown here is that DSN capacity is not the limiting factor. This does not affect the other arguments against many rovers, which are more persuasive.
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Anyone know if Opportunity is actually going to take pictures of the sky/horizon during ESA Schiaparelli landing?
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Yes ,read here
http://www.leonarddavid.com/mars-landing-ringside-seat-rover-may-catch-schiaparelli-sky-show/
Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Tapatalk
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OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITY ROVER MAKING ‘AMAZING NEW DISCOVERIES’ 13 YEARS AFTER MARS TOUCHDOWN – SCIENTIST TELLS UT
http://www.universetoday.com/133012/outstanding-opportunity-rover-making-amazing-new-discoveries-13-years-after-mars-touchdown/
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Update on recurring slope lineae (RSL) based on yet to be released abstracts at the forth-coming LPSCs, Includes possible RSL imaged by the Opportunity team in Victoria crater http://www.leonarddavid.com/mars-mystery-new-research-on-recurring-slope-lineae/
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"#Opportunitys latest #panorama from Mars- Click to zoom!" #space #cosmos #nasa #universe
https://twitter.com/step_holt/status/828315708429844480 (https://twitter.com/step_holt/status/828315708429844480)
Edit: Hmm, ok appears to be from last June? Higher resolution attached from http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7861 (http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7861)
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View from @NASAJPL's Opportunity rover on March 12, 2017, hand-colored to a Mars palette. (Yes, that's another planet!)
https://twitter.com/jpmajor/status/842046296458436612 (https://twitter.com/jpmajor/status/842046296458436612)