NASA's twin Rovers still Kickin' it on Mars!

[Doctor_K]

So cool!!  It's great to see that these things are still making the headlines, 6 3/4 years after they were supposed to kick the bucket. 

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/100102-mars-rovers-year-seven.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Long-Lived Mars Rovers Begin Year 7 on Red Planet
By Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
posted: 02 January 2010
07:29 am ET

Six years ago, NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the red planet with a team of scientists eagerly looking ahead to their short, three-month missions.

As they embark on their seventh year on Mars, the longevity of the plucky rovers continues to amaze their minders back on Earth, even with Spirit potentially permanently stuck wheel-deep in Martian sand.

Spirit set down at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, 2004, at 11:35 p.m. EST, with its younger sister rover Opportunity landing on the other side of the planet â€" on the plains of Meridiani Planum â€" more than two weeks later at midnight EST on Jan. 25. While Sunday marks the mission's sixth anniversary on Earth, it has only been 3.2 Martian years since one year on Mars is about 687 Earth days long.

Originally slated to trundle across the Martian surface for only 90 days each, Spirit and Opportunity blew past those deadlines and have continued their missions for far longer than mission engineers ever thought possible. Opportunity even passed the 11-mile mark on its odometer earlier this year and beamed home more than 132,000 images of Mars.
"They're all so far out of warranty," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin.

The observations by the two rovers over the course of their six years on Mars have substantially shaped our understanding of the nature and evolution of the Martian surface, particularly by supplying ample evidence that at least portions of the Martian surface were once wet.

But the going hasn't always been smooth.

Spirit has had a particularly rough go of it, suffering a set of computer glitches after landing, and coming close to a chilly demise last year as its power levels dwindled during the dark Martian winter.

The latest challenge to beset the rover is a sand trap that Spirit fell into on May 6 as it moved away from a rocky plateau called Home Plate to a pair of targets 600 feet (180 meters) away. The rover's wheels fell through a thin layer of crust and became stuck in the sand below. Mission engineers have been working sine then to spin Spirit's wheels to extract her.

Spirit's situation hasn't been entirely negative though, as its stuck wheels have churned up dirt with interesting properties that suggest the site once hosted hydrothermal vents.

Opportunity, meanwhile, has discovered its third meteorite on the Martian surface during its ongoing trip to the monster crater Endeavor, which is about 7 miles (12 km) away and nearly 14 miles (22 km) wide.

What will happen to the rovers and what they will find as they begin their seventh year on Mars is anybody's guess, though mission managers are concentrating on freeing Spirit and getting her into a better position before winter sets in on the red planet.

[Bostech]

NASA should sell this space rover technology to GM.

[jandar]

NASA should sell this space rover technology to GM.

LOL, I have two GM vehicles. While yes, it does seem that GM makes a car that will break, they can be fixed.

My 2001 Chevy Malibu has 162K miles, only 7 of which are not mine.
My wife's 2003 Saturn Vue is currently at 98K (only 5 of which was not ours), and I have the motor torn down to replace the timing belt and other 100K maintenance stuff.

I will concur that the Saturn Open V6 engine is a bitch to work on, but it can be maintained for another 100K easily.

Im not planing on getting rid of the Malibu until it hits 300K miles.

[BridgeTroll]

Spirit will rove no more...

January 26, 2010

Now a Stationary Research Platform, NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Starts a New Chapter in Red Planet Scientific Studies 
   

WASHINGTON -- After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.

The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several months to years.

"Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit's current location on Mars will be its final resting place."

Ten months ago, as Spirit was driving south beside the western edge of a low plateau called Home Plate, its wheels broke through a crusty surface and churned into soft sand hidden underneath.

After Spirit became embedded, the rover team crafted plans for trying to get the six-wheeled vehicle free using its five functioning wheels - the sixth wheel quit working in 2006, limiting Spirit's mobility. The planning included experiments with a test rover in a sandbox at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., plus analysis, modeling and reviews. In November, another wheel quit working, making a difficult situation even worse.

Recent drives have yielded the best results since Spirit became embedded. However, the coming winter mandates a change in strategy. It is mid-autumn at the solar-powered robot's home on Mars. Winter will begin in May. Solar energy is declining and expected to become insufficient to power further driving by mid-February. The rover team plans to use those remaining potential drives for improving the rover's tilt. Spirit currently tilts slightly toward the south. The winter sun stays in the northern sky, so decreasing the southward tilt would boost the amount of sunshine on the rover's solar panels.

"We need to lift the rear of the rover, or the left side of the rover, or both," said Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL. "Lifting the rear wheels out of their ruts by driving backward and slightly uphill will help. If necessary, we can try to lower the front right of the rover by attempting to drop the right-front wheel into a rut or dig it into a hole."

At its current angle, Spirit probably would not have enough power to keep communicating with Earth through the Martian winter. Even a few degrees of improvement in tilt might make enough difference to enable communication every few days.

"Getting through the winter will all come down to temperature and how cold the rover electronics will get," said John Callas, project manager at JPL for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "Every bit of energy produced by Spirit's solar arrays will go into keeping the rover's critical electronics warm, either by having the electronics on or by turning on essential heaters."

Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research.

"There's a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving," said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. "Degraded mobility does not mean the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science."

One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches.

"If the final scientific feather in Spirit's cap is determining whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful -- it's so different from the other knowledge we've gained from Spirit," said Squyres.

Tools on Spirit's robotic arm can study variations in the composition of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. Stationary science also includes watching how wind moves soil particles and monitoring the Martian atmosphere.

Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. They have been exploring for six years, far surpassing their original 90-day mission. Opportunity currently is driving toward a large crater called Endeavor and continues to make scientific discoveries. It has driven approximately 12 miles and returned more than 133,000 images.

JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.