[release][url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20100730/pia12477-full.jpg][img]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20100730/pia12477-browse.jpg[/img][/url]
Last year, Spirit became partially embedded in the loose sand seen around its left-front wheel in this image. Mobility problems prevented getting the rover to a sun-facing tilt for the current Martian winter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its toughest challenge yet - trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.
The rover team anticipated Spirit would go into a low-power "hibernation" mode since the rover was not able to get to a favorable slope for its fourth Martian winter, which runs from May through November. The low angle of sunlight during these months limits the power generated from the rover's solar panels. During hibernation, the rover suspends communications and other activities so available energy can be used to recharge and heat batteries, and to keep the mission clock running.
On July 26, mission managers began using a paging technique called "sweep and beep" in an effort to communicate with Spirit.
"Instead of just listening, we send commands to the rover to respond back to us with a communications beep," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "If the rover is awake and hears us, she will send us that beep."
Based on models of Mars' weather and its effect on available power, mission managers believe that if Spirit responds, it most likely will be in the next few months. However, there is a very distinct possibility Spirit may never respond.
"It will be the miracle from Mars if our beloved rover phones home," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington. "It's never faced this type of severe condition before - this is unknown territory."
Because most of the rover's heaters were not being powered this winter, Spirit is likely experiencing its coldest internal temperatures yet -- minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit). During three previous Martian winters, Spirit communicated about once or twice a week with Earth and used its heaters to stay warm while parked on a sun-facing slope for the winter. As a result, the heaters were able to keep internal temperatures above minus 40 degrees Celsius (which is also minus 40 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale).
Spirit is designed to wake up from its hibernation and communicate with Earth when its battery charge is adequate. But if the batteries have lost too much power, Spirit's clock may stop and lose track of time. The rover could still reawaken, but it would not know the time of day, a situation called a "mission-clock fault." Spirit would start a new timer to wake up every four hours and listen for a signal from Earth for 20 minutes of every hour while the sun is up.
The earliest date the rover could generate enough power to send a beep to Earth was calculated to be around July 23. However, mission managers don't anticipate the batteries will charge adequately until late September to mid-October. It may be even later if the rover is in a mission-clock fault mode. If Spirit does wake up, mission managers will do a complete health check on the rover's instruments and electronics.
Based on previous Martian winters, the rover team anticipates the increasing haziness in the sky over Spirit will offset longer daylight for the next two months. The amount of solar energy available to Spirit then will increase until the southern Mars summer solstice in March 2011. If we haven't heard from it by March, it is unlikely that we will ever hear from it.
"This has been a long winter for Spirit, and a long wait for us," said Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for NASA's two rovers who is based at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "Even if we never heard from Spirit again, I think her scientific legacy would be secure. But we're hopeful we will hear from her, and we're eager to get back to doing science with two rovers again."
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, began exploring Mars in January 2004 on missions planned to last three months. Spirit has been nearly stationary since April 2009, while Opportunity is driving toward a large crater named Endeavour. Opportunity covered more distance in 2009 than in any prior year. Both rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.
NASA's JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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[url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-252]Source[/url]
Mandatory Mars Rover comic:
[img]http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lonely-rover.jpg[/img]
Although this is the opposite situation at the moment...
Nasa making me sad over a rover
Aliens awaken at the martian winter and they destroyed the rover.
Obviously.
[QUOTE=ManningQB18;23741194]Mandatory Mars Rover comic:
-B'AWWWWW Picture-
Although this is the opposite situation at the moment...[/QUOTE]
Exactly what I was going to post ):
Poor little rover, m,y heart goes out to you.
This makes me sad. Poor little rover, trapped forever in the rust covered world of Mars. :saddowns:
We should make an rescue mission or something. It doesn't matter if it's waste of resources, we should never let our people (or robots for that matter) in the shit we sent them into. :colbert:
They told the story in a way that made it sound like the rover was a living creature. :frown:
[quote]22:51 - Space Dino from Station 13: ...:c
22:51 - Space Dino from Station 13: ;C
22:51 - Space Dino from Station 13: BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
22:51 - Space Dino from Station 13: POOR LITTLE ROBOT
22:51 - Space Dino from Station 13: BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
22:52 - Space Dino from Station 13: i bet they jinxed it with the name
22:52 - Space Dino from Station 13: now it's gonna be a spirit robot :c
[/quote]
We should also boot the computer in it and let it analyze the soil in it's enclosure just to make it able to stay alive.
[QUOTE=Thomo;23743835]Maybe in 100 or so years we will arrive on mars and take it back to earth along with the other stuff we lost there and put it in a museum and give it the honor it deserves.[/QUOTE]
Or they will think it was aliens when history is erased from the people in 100 years.
Goddammit I hate it when there are threads about the rovers because they're never good, just sad.
Poor rover...
A true loss for humanity.
Hang in there, little guy!
:ohdear:
:saddowns:
[QUOTE=ManningQB18;23741194]Mandatory Mars Rover comic:
[thumb]http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lonely-rover.jpg[/thumb]
Although this is the opposite situation at the moment...[/QUOTE]
When I clicked this thread I was opening up a tab to go to LMAO Pictures to reqest the same picture.
rover waiting night after night
[img]http://likeawhisper.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/2750_wall_e_preview_image_1186184869.jpg[/img]
just to come home
Why cant they use the other rover to push Spirit out?
And the damn thing is six wheel drive. How does one wheel being stuck ruin the whole vehicle?
Because its engine has an amazing .5 horsepower.
[QUOTE=MightyMax;23753542]Why cant they use the other rover to push Spirit out?
And the damn thing is six wheel drive. How does one wheel being stuck ruin the whole vehicle?[/QUOTE]
The rovers are pretty much antipodal to one another. Opportunity can't drive half way around mars.
Soon, the rover will join the red, rusty dust that covers the planet, as it is torn apart by sandstorms.
Bye, little rover. We'll miss you.
I'm sorry NASA, but my time here is rover.
I can't help but feel bad for the rover.
[QUOTE=robowurmz;23754433]Soon, the rover will join the red, rusty dust that covers the planet, as it is torn apart by sandstorms.
Bye, little rover. We'll miss you.[/QUOTE]
But hey will go to robot heaven right? Right? :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Baldr;23759649]But hey will go to robot heaven right? Right? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
...
:frown:
All good things must come to an end. Goodbye Spirit. It was nice knowing you.:frown:
I just don't understand why they aren't issued atomic battery cells.
Yes, the batteries will not provide power on a 1:1 power ratio with energy consumption, but if you switch into hibernation it should charge the battery slowly allowing the vehicle to eventually build up enough power to move to a location to recharge via solar.
They are beta particles, which should pretty much have no influence outside of the shielding.
I mean I assume there is a reason and that they aren't idiots, I just don't know what the reason is. Funding is always a possible issue, but a nuclear battery has to cost a tiny fraction of what it would to send an entirely new rover. Original mission length may be part of it, but frankly I don't buy their original mission length parameters.
voyager 1 and 2 are equipped with plutonium powered generators that operate basically as batteries. You want to talk about a long running program? Those were launched in 1977 and still send back data.
The next one is supposed to have some, or so I'm told.
Such an intricate process to get everything there, making sure it works, moving it slowly and then BAM.
Stuck
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