Opportunity Is Preparing To Descend Into The Victoria Crater

[JaneYoung]

Lookey, lookey - how cool is this!

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007...ia_Crater.html

[JohnBoucher]

You beat me to it. I was just going to post this from MSNBC.
Rover may R.I.P. on Mars after its next descent

I bet they won't be able to kill it....

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I bet they won't be able to kill it....

PLEASE don't give us a challenge like that!

-dave

p.s. the images of Victoria crater (several of them are available here) are pretty cool. If you look very closely at the next-to-last image (the one titled "Opportunity Gets Read To Roll") you can see a little blue dot half-way between the "Ripple" and "Cape Verde" legends. That blue dot is actually the Opportunity rover, seen from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Also, we particularly like the animation of the rover entering the crater at the bottom of the page.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

You beat me to it.

Sorry John - I had just finished reading an article about whale fossils that Çhilean students found that are believed to be 5 million years old and then saw the article on Opportunity. I went into the Nasa website to see what they had to say. I remember when they started looking for a good point of entry into the crater - it is very exciting...

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I bet they won't be able to kill it....

makes me think of this

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

makes me think of this

Maybe they can name the next two rovers "Thelma" and "Louise".....

[Roger]

Sounds like dlavery is a proud papa with all the pictures. But Dave, where is the green target light?

Originally Posted by msnbc

... aging rover ...

Not to be overly critical (Monday morning quarterback/backseat driver/etc), but given that they designed this thing to last only 90 days, and it lasted 3 years, why didn't they design it to last a longer time? There's a lot of exploring to do there and the scientists have it stop at almost every rock. Or did we have extra good engineers building it? It's sort of like Columbus finding America and going back to Europe at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I bet they won't be able to kill it....

My money is on the rover. Obviously it had time to practice climbing ramp-bots.

[DonRotolo]

If it gets stuck down there, all they need to do is get a few of the better 2006 drivers together. Ours climbed the ramp with only 3 wheels!

They could have designed them to last forever... but they had a budget. And weight restrictions. (sound familiar?). So at least 90 days was the lower limit.

Yes, they just did a really good job with the resources they were permitted, and also had a bit of luck, and so here we are 3 years later and still running. If I was a betting man, I'd bet there's a pool at JPL as to which component proves the be the crippling element. (I think it'll get smooshed by a meteor. In 2013. Unlikely, but then nobody has to eat their hat 'cause their system is the one...)

Don

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

If it gets stuck down there, all they need to do is get a few of the better 2006 drivers together. Ours climbed the ramp with only 3 wheels!

They could have designed them to last forever... but they had a budget. And weight restrictions. (sound familiar?). So at least 90 days was the lower limit.

Yes, they just did a really good job with the resources they were permitted, and also had a bit of luck, and so here we are 3 years later and still running. If I was a betting man, I'd bet there's a pool at JPL as to which component proves the be the crippling element. (I think it'll get smooshed by a meteor. In 2013. Unlikely, but then nobody has to eat their hat 'cause their system is the one...)

Don

My money would be on any system that Dave didn't have his hand on.

[EricRobodox]

Maybe they can name the next two rovers "Thelma" and "Louise".....

Oh, next rover by the way is called Mars Science Laboratory, they have a mission page up already. The critical design meeting was i think May 25th, where it became solid that they were going to make this mission happen. I'm sort of working on that mission....

Opportunity going into the crater has been the sort of chit chat news on JPL the past week. That and Dawn being launched next week!!! I find it funny that there are multiple animations of opportunity going into the craters yet when MER first launched, there was only one animation (if i remember correctly). lol.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Roger

Not to be overly critical (Monday morning quarterback/backseat driver/etc), but given that they designed this thing to last only 90 days, and it lasted 3 years, why didn't they design it to last a longer time?

Because it was never designed to last only 90 days. It was designed to respond to the Mission Success Criteria requirement that it absolutely must last at least 90 sols (a sol is a Martian day, which is 24 hours 40 minutes).

-dave

[Roger]

Sorry for sounding like a penny-pinching bureaucrat. The news reports just read it that way.

NASA Mars Rover Ready for Descent Into Crater (RELEASE: 07-146)
...the long-lived robotic explorer...

The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

On preview: this may be a NASA positive spin to keep the bureaucrats away.

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

They could have designed them to last forever... but they had a budget.

Then the engineers (fortunately) didn't get that memo. I'm glad the rovers work longer than expected. I'm hoping that when people finally get to Mars, the rovers will still be driving around.

Originally Posted by Roger

where is the green target light?

Found it:

NASA Press Release, June 04, 2004
Mars Rover Opportunity Gets Green Light To Enter Crater

Wait a minute -- 2004? Sorry -- wrong crater.

(I'll shut up now.)

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by dlavery

(a sol is a Martian day, which is 24 hours 40 minutes).

-dave

40 extra minutes per Martian Day?

Sweet! Sign me up to live on the first colony.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

40 extra minutes per Martian Day?

Yeah, just think of them as bonus time. Me, I'd use them for sleep...

[Roger]

Not if you work down here but your business is up there. If you're on Mars time (like all the rover watchers) you have to keep on the rover's day schedule to stay in the sun. Every day you start work later and later (it's actually 39 minutes 35+ seconds solar day), then eventually get bumped in time to align again, or take time off to realign to Earth time. Your work time is shifted to all hours of the day or night, making for interesting scenarios for family and friends.

On the plus side, you get to have a Mars Clock! Or a commercially made one. Or one for your computer.