[img]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2012-05-09/pia15681-640.jpg[/img][URL]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-131[/URL]
[quote][B]May 09, 2012[/B]PASADENA, Calif. -- With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's durable Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, called Greeley Haven, where it worked during its fifth Martian winter.
Opportunity's first drive since Dec. 26, 2011, took the rover about 12 feet (3.67 meters) northwest and downhill on Tuesday, May 8. The rover operations team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received confirmation of the completed drive late Tuesday, relayed from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
"We're off the Greeley Haven outcrop onto the sand just below it," said rover driver Ashley Stroupe of JPL. "It feels good to be on the move again."
While at Greeley Haven for the past 19 weeks, Opportunity used the spectrometers and microscopic imager on its robotic arm to inspect more than a dozen targets within reach on the outcrop. Radio Doppler signals from the stationary rover during the winter months served an investigation of the interior of Mars by providing precise information about the planet's rotation.
Opportunity will look back with its panoramic camera to acquire multi-filter imaging of the surface targets it studied on Greeley Haven.
The rover team will also check that the power supply still looks sufficient with the rover at a reduced tilt. Opportunity kept a northward tilt of about 15 degrees in recent months at its winter haven. In Mars' southern hemisphere, that tilt kept its solar panels favorably angled toward the winter sun low in the northern sky. The winter solstice for southern Mars was at the end of March. The northward tilt after Tuesday's drive is about 8 degrees.
Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani region of Mars since landing in January 2004. It arrived at the Cape York section of the rim of Endeavour Crater in August 2011, and has been studying rock and soil targets on Cape York since then.
"Our next goal is a few meters farther north on Cape York, at a bright-looking patch of what may be dust," said Opportunity science-team member Matt Golombek of JPL. "We haven't been able to see much dust in Meridiani. This could be a chance to learn more about it." Beyond the dust patch, the team intends to use Opportunity to study veins in bedrock around the northern edge of Cape York. A vein inspected before winter contained gypsum deposited long ago by mineral-laden water flowing through a crack in the rock.
Endeavour Crater offers Opportunity a setting for plenty of productive work. The crater is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter -- more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, which Opportunity examined for two years. One type of deposit detected from orbit at some locations on Endeavour's rim contains ancient clay minerals, interpreted as evidence of ancient, wet conditions with less acidity than the ancient, wet environments recorded at sites Opportunity visited during its first seven years on Mars.
Unless wind removes some dust from Opportunity's solar array, allowing more sunlight to reach the solar cells, the rover will need to work during the next few weeks at locations with no southward slope. "We'll head south as soon as power levels are adequate to handle the slopes where we'll go," said Mars Exploration Rover Deputy Project Scientist Diana Blaney of JPL. "There are some deposits on Cape York where, based on their geologic setting, we think there's a good chance of finding ancient clays."
A later destination for Opportunity lies farther south, on a rim segment named Cape Tribulation, where ancient clays have been detected from orbit.
Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped communicating in 2010.
NASA launched its next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, on Nov. 26 for arrival at Mars' Gale Crater in August 2012.
Landing successfully is quite a challenge, and Curiosity's mission is pioneering a new landing method to enable use of a heavier rover. Curiosity is about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover. Its size and mass accommodate a science payload designed to study whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is online at: [URL]http://www.nasa.gov/rovers[/URL] and [URL="http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/"]http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov[/URL] . You can follow the project on Twitter at [URL]http://twitter.com/MarsRovers[/URL] and on Facebook at[URL]http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers[/URL] .[/quote]
[editline]9th May 2012[/editline]
It woke up after winter and began driving again fully resposive
Actually sounds like it went into robo hibernation
[QUOTE=MajorMattem;35892658]Actually sounds like it went into robo hibernation[/QUOTE]
Well, it would be more like robot coma, they weren't sure the thing wouldn't freeze to death.
Yaaaaay i love that little thing.
And now, To colonize mars, I want my total recall
It's incredible that the thing is still working. Makes me wonder how long Curiosity will last.
Some of the finest engineering NASA ever put out there.
[QUOTE=OvB;35892724]It's incredible that the thing is still working. Makes me wonder how long Curiosity will last.[/QUOTE]
I have a feeling Curiosity will be bringing us some good stuff for years to come. It's the ultimate probe, to date.
So lets put more funding into this sort of stuff and put ourselves on other planets, instead of killing each other, gangs, poverty and all that shit.
Please, World? :(
[QUOTE=OvB;35892724]It's incredible that the thing is still working. Makes me wonder how long Curiosity will last.[/QUOTE]
Will last no longer than nuclear battery I'm afraid, no solar panels.
[QUOTE=farmatyr;35892893]Will last no longer than nuclear battery I'm afraid, no solar panels.[/QUOTE]
The battery will last a long time though, past the expected end of the mission
I love you you curious little bugger.
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;35892919]The battery will last a long time though, past the expected end of the mission[/QUOTE]
If I remember correctly the battery has a life of 14 years, but that's without extensive use. I wouldn't be surprised if it surpassed expectations though.
This is the stuff I love. Man vs Space instead of Man vs Man.
[img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png[/img]
never forget
Nasa's not structured greatly, nor are they very efficient with the little money it gets to be honest, but the fact that some of the countries finest minds work there really shows in their amazing technology. I love you Nasa, I wish someone would re-structure you a little then quadruple your budget.
[QUOTE=OvB;35892940]If I remember correctly the battery has a life of 14 years, but that's without extensive use. I wouldn't be surprised if it surpassed expectations though.[/QUOTE]
It's not a battery, it's basically a tiny nuclear generator.
It generates a certain amount of electricity all the time.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;35892993]It's not a battery, it's basically a tiny nuclear generator.
It generates a certain amount of electricity all the time.[/QUOTE]
It's still not indefinite though.
[QUOTE=World Eater;35893011]It's still not indefinite though.[/QUOTE]
True, as OvB said, minimum lifetime is estimated at 14 years.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;35892993]It's not a battery, it's basically a tiny nuclear generator.
It generates a certain amount of electricity all the time.[/QUOTE]
Oh, I know. It's just generally referred to as a nuclear battery. It's got a finite life span though so a battery is not very far off. It's just a very advanced battery that runs nuclear power.
[QUOTE=OvB;35893073]Oh, I know. It's just generally referred to as a nuclear battery. It's got a finite life span though so a battery is not very far off. It's just a very advanced battery that runs nuclear power.[/QUOTE]
Alright, seems like a reasonable way of putting it. :smile:
Am I the only one that finds those rovers adorable? [img]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-3.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;35892965][img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png[/img]
never forget[/QUOTE]
maybe they could use Opportunity to nudge Spirit free.
[QUOTE=Dacheet;35893100]Am I the only one that finds those rovers adorable? [img]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-3.gif[/img][/QUOTE]
[img]http://old.tehrantimes.com/News/10980/09_OP%20ROVER.jpg[/img]
opportunity is pretty cute but curiosity is more of
[img]http://www.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/curiosity-rover.jpg[/img]
holy shit thats badass
Opportunity is Batman, with his cape.
Curiosity is spiderman. Because it looks like a robo-spider.
[QUOTE=Liem;35892717]And now, To colonize mars, I want my total recall[/QUOTE]
And women with 3 boobs! :v:
[img]http://watchusplaygames.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/triple-breasted-girl-total-recall.jpg[/img]
To celebrate Opportunity being alive and kickin', have this fine photo taken by Spirit (R.I.P):
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/MarsSunset.jpg/998px-MarsSunset.jpg[/IMG]
The Martian Sunset.
[QUOTE=mac338;35893202]Opportunity is Batman, with his cape.
Curiosity is spiderman. Because it looks like a robo-spider.[/QUOTE]
It also has laser vision.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/oXnUf.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=farmatyr;35892893]Will last no longer than nuclear battery I'm afraid, no solar panels.[/QUOTE]
Although at first it sounds like kind of a step back from solar panels, it's really not that bad.
The problem with solar panels is that they tend to get covered in Martian dust and stop working.
Every once in a while a big gust of wind will clear off the panels, but its always a gamble.
Spirit died because the panels were too covered with dust and couldn't put out enough power to keep the rover warm enough to last the martian winter.
Although the nuclear battery has a finite lifespan, it's much more reliable and a safer bet for such an expensive piece of technology.
[QUOTE=Hidole555;35893143]maybe they could use Opportunity to nudge Spirit free.[/QUOTE]
practically on the other side of the planet, and in the 6~ years Opp has been traveling it only covered ~18 mi
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