Or it could be a bigger shell.
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Thursday, 5 February 2004 12:28 (twenty years ago) link
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Saturday, 7 February 2004 13:38 (twenty years ago) link
― bnw (bnw), Friday, 27 February 2004 21:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 27 February 2004 21:27 (twenty years ago) link
― maypang (maypang), Friday, 27 February 2004 21:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Dale the Titled (cprek), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 16:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Kerry (dymaxia), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 19:38 (twenty years ago) link
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 19:51 (twenty years ago) link
― bnw (bnw), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 20:53 (twenty years ago) link
― badgerminor (badgerminor), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 21:27 (twenty years ago) link
― bnw (bnw), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 21:38 (twenty years ago) link
Spirit has roved more than 3 kilometers now, a ridiculously huge amount:
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040610a/2NN153ILF65CYL00P1826L000M1-A154R1_br.jpg
Opportunity, meanwhile, is about to explore the Endurance depression/crater in more detail:
http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040608a/06-SS-05-target-B133R1_br2.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:09 (twenty years ago) link
As this Washington Post story summarizes, Opportunity is about to hit the Victoria Crater, and that's some big news right there.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 02:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Butt Dickass (Dick Butkus), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 02:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 02:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― louise jaguar (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 22:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― John Justen, the tap-dancing spirochete in your zesty chicken fingers. (johnjust, Wednesday, 4 October 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Thursday, 5 October 2006 05:41 (seventeen years ago) link
Even cooler, in ways -- the aeriel shot:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20061006c/rover-color-close-up2-annot_br.jpg
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 6 October 2006 19:07 (seventeen years ago) link
i LOVE these little guys
NASA announced it was extending for the fifth time the mission of Mars space probes Spirit and Opportunity
never stop
― jergïns, Monday, 22 October 2007 22:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Going and Going NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity uses its front hazard-indentification camera to capture this wide-angle view of its robotic arm extended to a rock in a bright-toned layer inside Victoria Crater in this image taken during the rover's 1,322nd Martian day (Oct. 13, 2007).
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/17/gallery/mars-rovers-540x540.jpg
― jergïns, Monday, 22 October 2007 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45342000/jpg/_45342003_298552main_solb1687nav-516.jpg
Five years and still trucking!
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Sunday, 4 January 2009 08:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh noes! Microsoft Security Patches?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/6371972.html
― StanM, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 18:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Okay, maybe not MS then. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20090413a.htmlDon't ever stop, li'l dudes!
― StanM, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 18:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha, I was thinking about them the other day. Best rate-of-return on the original investment since the Voyagers, I figure.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 19:03 (fifteen years ago) link
A helping hand:
In May, the Mars rover Spirit became embedded in a patch of fluffy Martian soil, the worst such incident in the more than five years that Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, have been exploring the planet's equatorial region.Since then, engineers have been trying to figure out the best way to extricate the rover, a project that has come to be known at the La Cañada Flintridge laboratory as the "Free Spirit" program. T-shirts are being made to memorialize the effort to liberate the rover.This week, scientists finished replicating the situation on Mars in a 30-foot-square work room, mixing together 5,400 pounds of diatomaceous earth and clay to produce a fine powdery mixture the color of creme brulee and as fluffy and light as flour. Now comes trying to free the Earth Rover to figure out what might work for Spirit."This isn't the same as we have on Mars," cautioned Paolo Bellutta, a rover team member, of the powder. "Diatomaceous earth is made of fossils, and we have no evidence of fossils on Mars."But it is "the closest thing" to the soil on Mars, Rover project manager John Callas said.The engineers then drove the Earth Rover, about 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide, into an 8-foot by 12-foot sandbox. By Wednesday, the rover was stuck -- its six wheels embedded in 5 inches of the Martian soil analog. After sloping the sand so that the test rover was pitched on its side to match Spirit's predicament, the engineering team pronounced itself satisfied that it had succeeded in marooning two rovers on two planets.The trick now, Callas said, is to put together a series of maneuvers on Earth that can be applied on Mars.
Since then, engineers have been trying to figure out the best way to extricate the rover, a project that has come to be known at the La Cañada Flintridge laboratory as the "Free Spirit" program. T-shirts are being made to memorialize the effort to liberate the rover.
This week, scientists finished replicating the situation on Mars in a 30-foot-square work room, mixing together 5,400 pounds of diatomaceous earth and clay to produce a fine powdery mixture the color of creme brulee and as fluffy and light as flour. Now comes trying to free the Earth Rover to figure out what might work for Spirit.
"This isn't the same as we have on Mars," cautioned Paolo Bellutta, a rover team member, of the powder. "Diatomaceous earth is made of fossils, and we have no evidence of fossils on Mars."
But it is "the closest thing" to the soil on Mars, Rover project manager John Callas said.
The engineers then drove the Earth Rover, about 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide, into an 8-foot by 12-foot sandbox. By Wednesday, the rover was stuck -- its six wheels embedded in 5 inches of the Martian soil analog. After sloping the sand so that the test rover was pitched on its side to match Spirit's predicament, the engineering team pronounced itself satisfied that it had succeeded in marooning two rovers on two planets.
The trick now, Callas said, is to put together a series of maneuvers on Earth that can be applied on Mars.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 23:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Yay! Good luck, rocket science guys who get paid to play in the sand! I think we even had pictorial evidence of this terrestrian setup in the Astronomy Picture Of The Day thread a couple of weeks ago.
― StanM, Friday, 3 July 2009 00:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Still stuck:
Besides the fluffy soil, rover scientists are concerned about a small rock under the robot. Further efforts to free the rover could cause the undercarriage to snag on the rock. Tests showed that if that happens, the wheels will lose traction and the rover could become permanently stuck.In such a scenario, Spirit could still do science, but as a station, not a rover. Also, without the ability to move into a position that gets good sunlight to wait out the harsh Martian winter, its batteries could be drained, dooming the robot. Even if the initial efforts Monday are unsuccessful, operators will continue their efforts to salvage Spirit at least through February, when a NASA review panel is scheduled to discuss the rovers' fate. If Spirit is still stuck, the panel could call off the rescue."If Spirit cannot make the great escape from this sand trap, this might be where Spirit ends its adventure on Mars," McCuistion said.
In such a scenario, Spirit could still do science, but as a station, not a rover. Also, without the ability to move into a position that gets good sunlight to wait out the harsh Martian winter, its batteries could be drained, dooming the robot.
Even if the initial efforts Monday are unsuccessful, operators will continue their efforts to salvage Spirit at least through February, when a NASA review panel is scheduled to discuss the rovers' fate. If Spirit is still stuck, the panel could call off the rescue.
"If Spirit cannot make the great escape from this sand trap, this might be where Spirit ends its adventure on Mars," McCuistion said.
:-/
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 13 November 2009 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
RIP as moving lab:
After six highly successful years of exploring the red sands of Mars, NASA's rover Spirit will rove no more.With its six wheels stuck in powdery sand and two wheels no longer working at all, the resilient little explorer will become an immobile scientific observatory -- if it can survive the harsh temperatures of the upcoming winter."Its driving days are likely over," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a telephone news conference Tuesday.If Spirit can be awakened after what could be a six-month hibernation, researchers will use it to attempt to answer one of their most pressing questions: whether the planet has a solid iron core or a liquid one.If the vehicle can't be revived, it will still have far surpassed scientists' original expectations and its design life of three months, traveling nearly 12 miles across the barren surface of Mars and finding strong evidence that water once altered the planet's terrain.
With its six wheels stuck in powdery sand and two wheels no longer working at all, the resilient little explorer will become an immobile scientific observatory -- if it can survive the harsh temperatures of the upcoming winter.
"Its driving days are likely over," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a telephone news conference Tuesday.
If Spirit can be awakened after what could be a six-month hibernation, researchers will use it to attempt to answer one of their most pressing questions: whether the planet has a solid iron core or a liquid one.
If the vehicle can't be revived, it will still have far surpassed scientists' original expectations and its design life of three months, traveling nearly 12 miles across the barren surface of Mars and finding strong evidence that water once altered the planet's terrain.
Hell of a run. Opportunity's still chugging along just fine as well.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 January 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Thank you, little dude!
― StanM, Saturday, 30 January 2010 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Um... I mean the robot! I don't know how tall Ned is! (Thank you, Ned, as well, of course)
I am towering or something.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 January 2010 19:08 (fourteen years ago) link
opportunity, i <3 u, lil guy
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20100519.html
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, 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.
― rahni, Friday, 21 May 2010 23:29 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/455868main_pia13147-full.jpg
― rahni, Friday, 21 May 2010 23:30 (fourteen years ago) link
wall-e
― Jarlrmai, Saturday, 22 May 2010 00:30 (fourteen years ago) link
My boss and CSO of the startup I work for worked on the batteries for Spirit and Opportunity, he was pretty chuffed about this today.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Saturday, 22 May 2010 00:42 (fourteen years ago) link
here comes Curiosity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wkq_Y2I2-M&feature=player_embedded
The Curiosity Rover will be launched in late 2011 and land on Mars in August of 2012.
― harl (harlan), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 02:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Nice!
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 03:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Meantime, the Spirit mission is about to come to a formal close. Opportunity still thrives.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 25 May 2011 05:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Didn't know that Spirit was moonlighting as a nighttime telescope.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 00:48 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-says-mars-mystery-rock-that-appeared-from-nowhere-is-like-nothing-weve-ever-seen-before-9070323.html
― StanM, Sunday, 19 January 2014 22:11 (ten years ago) link
I, for one, welcome our new donut overlords etc
― StanM, Sunday, 19 January 2014 22:12 (ten years ago) link
The view from the Opportunity rover a couple of days ago
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2014/03/13469862903_d57d32399c_o.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 11:34 (ten years ago) link
Also some handy wind/dust devils cleaned off the solar panels so it's gained a lot of power
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 1 April 2014 11:41 (ten years ago) link