Rovers roll on

ToSeek · #1 (**permalink**) 07-July-2004, 05:43 PM

Rovers roll on (and up and down) Mars
Spirit set for '3,000-meter tune-up' ahead of hill climb

Quote:

From its present position, Callas estimated that Spirit’s route to the summit is about 500 meters long, with an altitude rise of about 80 meters. Operators estimate it will take several weeks to get to the first outcrops, and perhaps a month and a half to get to the summit.

“It will be a dramatic elevation”, Callas continued. “We should be able to see the entire ring of Gusev Crater’s rim on the horizon”. Long exposures will be needed to pull the stark silhouette out of the haze, he admitted, but that view alone -– and panoramas of nearer regions –- will make the climb worthwhile.
...
But that trip will have to wait for next year. By mid-September, winter and its low sun angles will have set in, and Spirit will probably spend a few months atop the hill. “It won’t be a total shutdown,” Callas explained. “We’ll do just a few activities -– maybe move a little each day, forward and back, to keep the gearboxes active.” Early in 2005, with sun angles higher, ‘Spirit’ might travel on, assuming it has survived.

Opportunity, meanwhile, may winter inside Endurance Crater, where the sloping walls actually help by tilting its solar panels more toward the sun.

ToSeek · #2 (**permalink**) 08-July-2004, 05:56 PM

End Not In Sight For Mars Rovers

Quote:

The challenge facing the mission engineers, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is to figure out how much longer the golf-cart-sized rovers can keep rolling along and to figure out how to fund the earthbound controllers, if necessary, for a while longer.

There is enough money to continue through September, or the end of the government's fiscal year. JPL officials are in touch with NASA headquarters in Washington about providing funds for a further mission extension, probably into 2005.

Extended funding or not, mission controllers are planning economy moves. July will be the last full month the rover team will be based in Pasadena. After that, they will use teleconferencing and shared data processing as long as necessary.

And:

Rovers might get further lifeline

Quote:

BBC News Online understands that rover project manager Jim Erickson and JPL's director of Solar System exploration, Firouz Naderi, are in talks with Nasa's associate administrator, Ed Weiler, to extend the mission still further.

Dr Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator for the rover science payload, explained there might be significant discoveries waiting to be made on the planet.

"We've literally and figuratively just scratched the surface of the Columbia Hills and we're about halfway through the Endurance mission," he said.

Yorkshireman · #3 (**permalink**) 08-July-2004, 06:17 PM

Great stuff. I didn't think they were going to risk climbing the hills, but if they do, the views will be fantastic. See you at the trig point, Spirit!

Rob.

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