An article on space.com outlining mission extensions and new funding.
(edited to get rid of copyrighted material)
But they heard from them. Go read it!
Yay!
Established Member
An article on space.com outlining mission extensions and new funding.
(edited to get rid of copyrighted material)
But they heard from them. Go read it!
Yay!
Established Member
Yaaahhhoooooo!!!
http://space.com/missionlaunches/rov...on_040921.html
Originally Posted by Space.com
Vulcan Administrator
It will be interesting to see how long it takes Opportunity to get there. The surface is much more forgiving than what Spirit had to deal with, but power might be an issue.On the other side of the planet, Opportunity will soon leave Endurance Crater, visiting its discarded heat shield along the way, and make a 3-mile journey to Victoria Crater.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
NASA press release
The rovers will be taking weekends off for the rest of the year:
Another change in operations is a shift from seven days per week to five days per week from October through December. This accommodates a temporary trim of about 20 percent in the project's engineering team to about 100 members. The rovers' reduced energy supply, during the rest of the Martian winter, makes the inactive days valuable for recharging batteries. By January, the energy situation will have improved for the solar-powered rovers, provided they are still operating. The team size will rebound to support daily operations.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Order of Kilopi
For the rovers being back in contact =D>
ToSeek:
I would have thought that power was less on an issue for Opportunity once it is out of the crater as it is essentially on the equator driving across a very flat plain.
Cheers
Jon
Established Member
I read in one of the staus reports a few weeks ago that the power situation with Opportunity had improved, possibly due to a clearing atmosphere and that it was receiving as much power as it did way back on Sol 95.
Established Member
whew! I can breathe again, and my productivity will now lag in proportion to the online updates :wink:
of course, the press release wasn't released on the ROVERS page, so I missed it. The JPL homepage has it, I assume NASA as well. I wanted to break this story, but I got "ToSeeked" by pumpkinpie.
wait - what? :-s
Established Member
Yay! I've wanted to ToSeek someone since that term came into existence!
:wink:
Established Member
Great. The next thing you know those rovers will want overtime pay, three weeks paid vacation, and health insurance. Who unionized those machines?
Member
The space.com article mentioned that Opportunity will be heading south about 3 miles to Victoria Crater. I couldn't find a previous mention of this crater, but the mosaic image of the landing area shows a large crater about 3.6 miles south of Endurance, and its a beaut. Here's a THEMIS image of the crater in question (please excuse me if this turns out not to be Victoria Crater.)
http://themis-data.asu.edu/img/V06305001.html
Compared to Endurance, this one is a monster. Its ~750m across.
Established Member
Yep, that's Victoria. Wonder how long it'll take Malin to point the MOC at it?
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
It's a biggie alright. Lets hope it's not too deep / steep to have a good look inside.
Order of Kilopi
Impressive, we definitely got our money's worth with these two. Hopefully this is a lesson to the space agencies for future missions.
Faster and cheaper is NOT better. Spend the money and do it right, the odds are you'll get more out of the machine that what you were after in the first place.
Established Member
If Endurance crater is the size of a college football(US) stadium, then Victoria crater is the size of a college campus.
I think that puts it in perspective.
Established Member
What is a college campus? I don't think we have those here.
Order of Kilopi
Not really, I've seen a few college campuses and they were pretty variable in size.
Moderator
[Stupid Question]
As it would take hundreds or thousands of years for Spirit and Opportunity to meet up, would it be possible to steer either of them to search for the old Viking lander sites?
That would make for great pictures
[/Stupid Question]
Established Member
(To)Seek and ye shall find:[Stupid Question]
As it would take hundreds or thousands of years for Spirit and Opportunity to meet up
That would make for great pictures
[/Stupid Question]
Answer Here!
Order of Kilopi
Read as University campus, though that doesn't exactly help either after all when you compare the size of Massy and Otago.....What is a college campus? I don't think we have those here.
Established Member
I was just curious as to how many rovers have visited Mars in chronological order? The rovers I can think of at the moment (no chorno order) are:
- Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit, Pathfinder, Endurance, Shadows?, Viking?
Order of Kilopi
In my book, three. Sojourner was the rover for the Pathfinder mission. Then roved Spirit and its sibling Opportunity.
The two Viking craft were landers, not rovers. Endurance and Shadows ring no bell for me.
Vulcan Administrator
What the binary guy said. Endurance is the name of the crater Opportunity is currently sitting in.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
Spirit Back To Normal Operations
Spirit has successfully transitioned back to normal operations from conjunction operations, when Mars and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun. During conjunction (sols 244 through 255), engineers and scientists did not attempt normal operations due to the low probability of successful communications.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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