Increasing Time Helps Prepare for Martian Habitation-Part III
“What you’d be looking for in Gusev is deep, possibly long-lived standing water bodies,” he says. “I mean, a big lake. If Ma’adim Vallis was carved by running water - and I’ve heard no credible alternative to that hypothesis and there’s an enormous amount of evidence to support it - there’s just no way around the idea that Gusev had a great big lake in it. I mean, lots of water, and lots of sediments.[giving reasons why the site was chosen as a landing site].
Different missions require different time frames on Mars. The Pathfinder was a 30-day mission, while the Spirit/Opportunity mission is of 90 days. So take whatever a person goes through on the Pathfinder and times that two to three times. In addition—when it is daylight on the Spirit side at Gusev Crater, it will be night on the Opportunity side at Meridiani Planum.
Gusev Crater is almost halfway around the planet from Meridiani Planum, with Gusev noted for its geologic setting and Meridiani Planum noted for the presence of hematite, which is a mineral that is typically formed by any long-term water interaction with iron-bearing rocks. The Gusev is a very large crater basin, about 105 miles across, with many scientists believing it was once fed by water flowing through a very, very enormous valley channel, called Ma’adim Vallis, which is 1.5 times as long as the Grand Canyon.
The two teams from the rover mission will have completely opposite routines while the rovers are on Mars, offset by about 12 hours and 20 minutes. A grueling schedule for those involved, crewmembers admit that when the mission first begins, they are excited and care little for Martian time, until about the time the mission is almost over.
Mission controllers modify Mars time using a “slightly Earth-centric approach” to the timekeeping, according to NASA. Events will be logged in Earth receiving time, or ERT. This specialized time adaptation will take into account the time it takes for a radio signal to travel—which is the speed of light—between Mars and Earth. And during the 90-day mission, Earth and Mars will be moving apart on a steady basis. The time when the Spirit lands and when it leaves will steadily increase from 106 million miles apart to 180 million miles apart with a 10-minute lag, while at the end being about a 17 or more minute lag.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 12:14 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, 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.
