Celebrating the Fourth Martian Year for the Rovers
“We’re happy with the rovers’ overall performance,” concurred Jake Matijevic, chief of rover engineering at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the rovers were designed and are being managed.
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Recently passing through their third Martian winter, both Opportunity and Spirit have made their mission a landmark in history, with individuals such as Steve Squyres, principal investigator at Cornell University for rover science, more than content about their overall performance .
When the rovers emerged from the winter hibernation, what surprised everyone was the power and solar energy that Spirit emerged with, while Opportunity crawled out of a sandbox it had been stuck in since last April onto the base of Cape Verde at Victoria Crater. With two huge successes to begin their next year on Mars, we need to remember that Spirit had never been expected to survive the first Martian winter, nonetheless four of them. Significant achievements for field geologists and the MER mission, many memorable mission milestones will go down in history.
Opportunity is holding center stage at Meridiani Planum, which is where Opportunity eventually roved on in June. After making four attempts to back out of its deathtrap sandpit before getting out, zigzagging in toward the base of Cape Verde, it is now about 25 to 30 feet from the cliff base ready to take a Pancam panorama for the ages of the base area. Spectacular images are being returned to home from a slippery, steep terrain which approaches the base of a big cliff—blocking out the sky and casting shadows. The impact of this kind of setting on power to communication blocks out the view of the Martian sky from the orbiter, with future plans to move Opportunity even closer to the cliff.
Spirit’s power production had dropped to 235 watt-hours last April, when the Martian winter had begun, with the mission engineers kicking into gear with power conservation mode for the rover. What made the rovers beat the odds was its capability to reach the Columbia Hills and onto the slope, tilting just enough to maximize its intake of sunlight “fuel,” enabling it to achieve enough power to survive during the Martian’s frigid months. Weather-wise, it experienced -166 Fahrenheit temperatures at night and -4 to -22 F temperatures in the middle of the day. “Its current levels are around 230 watt-hours,” noted Matijevic, “so it’s better than we predicted and we’ve basically gotten to the bottom of the energy curve, again.”
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 5:22 am and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
