12-05-2005 18:39									#1
	Mars Rovers: 1 year 5 months... Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Mars Rover Struggles to Escape Sand Dune By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer The Mars rover Opportunity is facing its biggest challenge since it landed on the Red Planet last year: how to get out of a sand dune where it's been stuck for two weeks. Engineers spent this week simulating the Martian terrain at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to try to figure out why the robot got bogged down and how to get it moving again. Engineers performed several tests driving a dummy rover over a man-made sand dune. Scientists sent the first new driving directions to Opportunity on Wednesday, commanding it to start inching down from the dune in a series of "mini-drives." The six-wheeled Opportunity had driven about 130 feet of a planned 295-foot trip when its wheels started to slip April 26. The rover, going backward at the time, eventually stopped moving — its wheels stuck hub deep in fine soil while trying to drive over a foot-high sand dune. "Mars gives us surprises on a regular basis — some major, some minor," said project manager Jim Erickson. "This is something we consider a major one." In the meantime, the rover has been taking pictures of its surroundings at the edge of an area known as the "etched terrain," where scientists believe they will uncover rocks exposed by the gentle erosion of wind. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in January 2004 and have uncovered geologic evidence of past water activity on the planet. Both rovers outlasted their primary, three-month missions long ago. This is not the first time a rover has encountered a wheel problem. In June 2004, Spirit's right front wheel became balky. Spirit overcame the problem by driving in reverse, allowing it to drag the faulty wheel while driving itself with its five other wheels. ___ On the Net: Mars Exploration Rovers: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mars_rovers

Well one might be trapped in a sand dune, but it's nice to know that we still have 2 functioning exploratory pieces of equipment on the face of Mars. 17 months no less.

	12-05-2005 18:43									#2
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to space exploration....and i am going to read DUNE again

	12-05-2005 18:43									#3
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They were designed to only last 90 days, at least officially. We definately got our money's worth.

	12-05-2005 18:52									#4
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We sure did. These two rovers have worked so well I think it's very possible send up some more, maybe some big ones that can set up a permanent lab to test out the planet some more.

	12-05-2005 18:54									#5
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I agree, but note that these rovers didn't travel that far once on the Mars surface. I think each has traveled something like 2 miles in that time span.

	12-05-2005 18:56									#6
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seriously not more then 2 miles? damn...why is that? batteries? general lazyness of NASA? or just because of scientific stuff?

	12-05-2005 19:00									#7
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Let's see... http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/

Says here that Opportunity has traveled 1.24 miles and Spirit 2.45 miles by the end of 2004.

Oooh, check it out http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/01/03/

you can actually see the trail that Spirit left!

	12-05-2005 19:00									#8
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A lot of reasons. These are low power devices, and therefore have low speeds. Also, the rover pathseeking (AI) algorithms are rather primitive -- impressive for our current state of technology, but our current state of technology is modest.

	12-05-2005 19:01									#9
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Well, they've stopped to examine things and they stop at night so that they don't waste battery life. I think they can only go about 1 mph anyways. Can't have the things going off a cliff or anything.

	12-05-2005 19:03									#10
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"Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/ASU/New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

The yellow line on this map illustrates the path traveled by Spirit from its landing point at Columbia Memorial Station to "West Spur"at the "Columbia Hills" -- a distance of about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles). "

Attachment: traveled.jpg
This has been downloaded 164 time(s).

	12-05-2005 19:04									#11
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They also require a lot of handholding from Earth. This is just the nature of the beast, given the autonomous technology developed to date.

	12-05-2005 19:06									#12
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nm

	12-05-2005 19:10									#13
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ok i know they are slow and essently babies but damn in 17 month not more then 3.5 km...that is just a little bit sad

	12-05-2005 19:12									#14
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quote: Originally posted by DeathByTheSword that is just a little bit sad

Why? They got lots of new stuff to look at.

	12-05-2005 19:15									#15
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ofcourse and i am totally happy with what the rovers did...but damn i have seen turtles have sex (with foreplay and the smoking of a sigaret aftwards) that are faster than these high tech billion dollars buggies

	12-05-2005 19:16									#17
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If you had humans on Mars, they would tramp all over Hell's half acre in no time. On the other hand, it would cost a couple hundred $ billion to put together the mission.

	12-05-2005 19:23									#18
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It really is incredible that the two rovers keep going and still provide new and exciting discoveries, as well as further experience for the rover teams to operate them under the challenging conditions that Mars has to offer.

I still check the Rover Mission site frequently to see some of the new images and keep up to date with the rovers' progress. It's amazing to see how the rover teams have continuously managed to overcome most if not all of the problems and obstacles, often in very surprising and creative ways. They always make the best with what they have, which I find very interesting to follow.

They had Spirit start driving in reverse to solve the problem of one of the front wheels getting jammed, they tried to park at a sloped angle when possible during the Martian winter to optimize power generation from the solar panels. They've dug little trenches by blocking 4 or 5 of the wheels to get deeper into the soil and so on. And I'm sure the mission team will manage to get Opportunity out of the dune also.

It's funny, when you follow how they're doing on a regular basis, after a while you get the feeling you have two distant relatives, little half-nephews perhaps, working away on Mars and sending home pictures for all the family to see.

	12-05-2005 19:40									#19
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quote: Originally posted by DeathByTheSword ok i know they are slow and essently babies but damn in 17 month not more then 3.5 km...that is just a little bit sad

When Spirit landed and transmitted the first detailed panorama of it's surroundings, the Columbia hills were seen at a distance of about a mile. I've heard scientists on the team dreaming about Spirit surviving long enough to maybe start moving towards those hills and get a better view of them before dying.
Today Spirit is busy climbing these hills.

IIRC the criterion for mission success was 90 days and 400 meters of driving, while the current odometer shows ~5000 meters. This is even more impressive that the length of the mission.

	13-05-2005 03:14									#20
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quote: Originally posted by DanS If you had humans on Mars, they would tramp all over Hell's half acre in no time. On the other hand, it would cost a couple hundred $ billion to put together the mission.

as an interesting thought, it takes a spacecraft say one year to get to mars right? If we were to send a manned/womaned mission to the red planet, how would you stop the crew from killing each other out of boredom on the trip? 12 months with one or two other people and no 'time out corner' urgh....

	13-05-2005 03:18									#21
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Rock'em, Sock'em Robots?

	13-05-2005 03:49									#22
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quote: Originally posted by Winston It's funny, when you follow how they're doing on a regular basis, after a while you get the feeling you have two distant relatives, little half-nephews perhaps, working away on Mars and sending home pictures for all the family to see.

you worry me

	13-05-2005 04:21									#23
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We're sending a nuclear powered SUV next.

	13-05-2005 04:46									#24
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quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara They were designed to only last 90 days, at least officially. We definately got our money's worth.

We should have those guys design the next shuttle.

	13-05-2005 13:26									#25
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nuclear SUV and designing new shuttle

	13-05-2005 13:32									#26
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nuke-powered robots, next, plz.

	13-05-2005 17:16									#27
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The Mars Rovers are one of the best stories of the past 5 years.


USA at it's best.

	07-06-2005 01:58									#28
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/...r.ap/index.html

it has been freed from the sand dune

	07-06-2005 02:05									#29
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quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara They were designed to only last 90 days, at least officially. We definately got our money's worth.

I bet they just tell people that so it looks like NASA is doing much better than expected.

	07-06-2005 02:16									#30
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quote: Originally posted by Ted Striker USA at it's best.

Hoooooray!

Now if we can just get NASA to build that solar-powered plane for Venus. It'd be marvelous! Thick atmosphere and slow (117-earthday day) makes for good flying high over the clouds of sulphuric acid. It could fly forever, and the radar imaging would be magficient!