Mars rover news - Page 6

ToSeek · #**151** (**permalink**) 19-June-2006, 05:49 PM

Scanning Alien Skies: The Roving Astronomers of Mars

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If you ever wondered what it would be like to stand on Mars and view the night sky, two robots have beat you wheels down.

In “Backyard Astronomy from Mars” carried in the August issue of Sky & Telescope magazine (soon to hit newsstands), author Jim Bell details use of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers to carry out nighttime observations. He is an astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and is the leader of the Mars Exploration Rover Panoramic Camera (Pancam) team.

In the article, Bell discusses astronomical sight-seeing utilizing Spirit, fresh from a laborious trek up Husband Hill within the Columbia Hills at the robot’s Gusev Crater exploration zone.

Thanks to a dust devil blowing away particles that had fallen onto Spirit’s solar panels, the intrepid rover became power rich. “We had enough power to run the rover’s computer and cameras, and their associated heaters, at night,” Bell explains.

“It was an embarrassment of riches,” Bell writes. “Several of us on the rover team are astronomers, either professionals or amateurs, and we have always been intrigued by the prospect of stargazing from the surface of another world.”

ToSeek · #**152** (**permalink**) 20-June-2006, 06:53 PM

Good coverage (and maps) from Ms. Emily at the Planetary Society:

Opportunity is on the road again

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Opportunity is again making speedy progress on the road south toward Victoria Crater. It looks like the rover is heading for a landmark called "Beagle Crater," a hole in the ground about 35 meters in diameter. That makes it a little smaller than Vostok but a little bigger than Eagle, two other holes in the ground that Opportunity has visited. What's unusual about Beagle, though, is the apparent brightness of the deposits around it; it's quite visible as a very bright linear feature on Opportunity's horizon, and in the orbital views (see below) you can see what almost looks like a bright splash around it. Could that mean it's a fresher crater than the others that Opportunity has visited? That would be cool, if true. Opportunity has a little more than 300 meters to go to get there, around 10 or 15 driving days. The rover is in restricted sols now, meaning it can only drive every other day because of the timing of orbital communications passes, so that means about 3 or 4 weeks until the rover approaches the crater. After that -- only 500 meters more to Victoria.

ToSeek · #**153** (**permalink**) 21-June-2006, 06:27 PM

Relevant post on the BA's blog:

Earthrise

ToSeek · #**154** (**permalink**) 03-July-2006, 05:14 PM

30 June update from the Planetary Society:

Mars Exploration Rovers Update:

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The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) are wheel deep in winter, and still faring well, working hard, and sending home interesting new finds despite the below freezing Martian temperatures. The next month or so will bring the season's coldest temperatures to the rover's present habitats, but so far, no one on the team is losing any sleep over whether or not they'll make it through, because these rovers just keep going and going . . .

At Gusev Crater, Spirit uncovered two more meteorites while working its winter campaign at Low Ridge, near McCool Hill in the Columbia Hills. Even more intriguing, the rover found calcium sulfates in the target Halley, "That's a significant recent finding, and it was a real surprise," said Steve Squyres, rover principal investigator, of Cornell University, in an interview yesterday. It is,in essence, yet another clue that water flowed there in the past.

On the other side of the planet, Opportunity's drivers got the rover out of the sand jam it got into over the Memorial Day weekend when it partially buried its wheels in loose topsoil as it was repositioning itself to make another run toward Victoria crater, the next major destination. After an intricate extraction process consisting of 6 similar, precision sequences the rover was out of Jammerbugt, onto outcrop, and back on the Meridiani highway on June 8. The rover is currently crossing treacherous terrain, slowly closing in on Beagle crater, the last major roadside attraction before Victoria.

mickal555 · #**155** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 01:46 PM

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With electrical power from Spirit's solar array down to about 300 watt-hours per Martian day, or sol, the science team is able to plan only one major activity per sol and often needs to devote one sol to recharging the rover's batteries.

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Spi...nergy_999.html

Those little rovers are amazing things, still battling it out

Ronald Brak · #**156** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 01:54 PM

Is the power down due to dust build up, or is there something else causing it?

Doodler · #**157** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 02:09 PM

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Originally Posted by Ronald Brak

Is the power down due to dust build up, or is there something else causing it?

Entering the local autumn. Less sun time, poorer angle. Usual this time of Martian year. Dust has actually been a pretty minimal problem, what with the dust devils kindly blowing them clear periodically.

Cugel · #**158** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 03:04 PM

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Originally Posted by Doodler

Dust has actually been a pretty minimal problem, what with the dust devils kindly blowing them clear periodically.

The cleaning events you refer to are not caused by dust devils. Actually, the mechanism behind them is still pretty unclear, but as most of them occured during the night we can rule out dust devils. (Which are driven by temperature gradients that do not exist at night). There are 2 main theories:

1. wind gusts (caused by local topography, like hills or crater walls)
2. frost causing clustering of dust on panels

Also note that we haven't had a cleaning event for many months now and that the dust build-up currently is not a minimal problem.

Saluki · #**159** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 03:39 PM

It amazes me what they can do with 300 watts. Our modern homes here on earth use more than that even when we have the house shut down for vacation.

ToSeek · #**160** (**permalink**) 07-July-2006, 06:36 PM

I think the power problem is a combination of the dust, the lowering Sun angle, and degradation of the solar cells, in about that order. Spirit will do well to make it through the Martian winter, which doesn't even start until next (Earth) month.

Blob · #**161** (**permalink**) 10-July-2006, 10:50 PM

From its winter outpost at "Low Ridge" inside Gusev Crater, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this spectacular, colour mosaic of hilly, sandy terrain and two potential iron meteorites. The two light-coloured, smooth rocks about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom of the frame have been labelled "Zhong Shan" and "Allan Hills."
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/me...-20060710.html

loglo · #**162** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 03:56 AM

Spirit's looking a bit dusty again, needs another willywilly to come along.

badprof · #**163** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 05:20 PM

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Originally Posted by loglo

Spirit's looking a bit dusty again, needs another willywilly to come along.

Hey..... someone finally knows the correct terminology for those things!!!!

Blob · #**164** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 05:43 PM

Hum,
Martian dust devils?

antoniseb · #**165** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 05:49 PM

In other rover news, the Opportunity Rover has been trying to get through another area of very soft surface material. It is just a few tens of meters from "Corner Crater" at the edge of the ejecta blanket for Victoria Crater. Hopefully the folks driving it will find a good way through the maze of dunes.

For those not paying close attention, Corner Crater is a relatively recent looking crater that seems to have only excavating salt cakes, and Victoria Crater is a very large crater with a strangely low dark rim.

ToSeek · #**166** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 07:35 PM

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Originally Posted by antoniseb

Victoria Crater is a very large crater with a strangely low dark rim.

And they need to stop mucking about and get there! (I have a horror of Opportunity breaking down 20 meters from the rim.)

Dragon Star · #**167** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 07:58 PM

Don't even...

antoniseb · #**168** (**permalink**) 11-July-2006, 08:26 PM

I didn't say it.

mickal555 · #**169** (**permalink**) 13-July-2006, 07:43 AM

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Opportunity is healthy. This week, Opportunity continued uplinking its new flight software load and driving toward "Victoria Crater." Opportunity completed three more drives toward the large crater on sols 869 (July 4, 2006), 870 and 871. As of Sol 870, Opportunity is approximately 115 meters (377 feet) from "Beagle Crater" and about 600 meters (just over one-third of a mile) from Victoria Crater.

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mar...rater_999.html