Rover hits one-year mark on Mars

Space.com via CNN ^ | January 3, 2005 | Tariq Malik

[ProudVet77]

Sitting on the hill of an alien world millions of miles from home, a hardy NASA robot celebrates an anniversary Monday -- one year on the planet Mars. The Mars rover Spirit has come a long way since it hurtled down through the planet's atmosphere and came to a bouncy, airbag-protected stop at Gusev Crater on January 3, 2004. It has survived more than four times its initial 90-day mission, driven miles across the Martian landscape and weathered a red planet winter only to scale hills for its human handlers. A live webcast of NASA's One Year on Mars celebration begins Monday at 1:00 p.m. ET. NASA will commemorate Spirit's first year with a full day of programming, news conferences and even a rover birthday cake on NASA TV also beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) today. Spirit continues to return data from the Columbia Hills, a region more than two miles (3.2 kilometers) from its Gusev Crater landing site. Scouring those hills has given Spirit -- and researchers -- more evidence that water shaped Mars' past. Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars at Meridiani Planum, Spirit's robotic twin Opportunity is studying its own heat shield while it seeks to dig up more details on the area's watery past.

[ProudVet77]

Should watch if the LSM picks this story up. It's a great achievement for the US. Or will the media spend their time beating us up for note responding to the earthquake.

[Paradox]

The long-term performance of these rovers has been astounding. I don't think ANYONE at JPL even dreamed they'd be doing this after ONE YEAR!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Too bad GM and Ford can't match this !

[Bogey78O]

Start sending supplies to Mars. A crew of crude robots can start getting the planet ready for us. We have a couple of decades to let them build.

[ProudVet77]

Would love to see us planning two more follow up missions. The technology up there is already several years old. Keep the core systems that have worked so well, but add some extra/new science experiments. We can do lots of good science till we're ready to send men up there.

[Andrewksu]

I thought they were supposed to run out of juice after the first 90 days. I have a sneaking suspicion that the used a different power supply than what they say in public. It was supposed to be batteries and solar, because nuclear is "too unsafe", but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a little something special on board.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Too bad GM and Ford can't match this !

Wait until the 3-year 36,000 mile warranty runs out on it! It'll break down for sure then.

[kidd]

Technically, this is one Earth year.

A Martian year is 687 Earth days long.

Nevertheless, the achievement is amazing. I check in on the rovers every now and then.

[My2Cents]

The rover's reliability is in sharp contrast to John Kerry's Senate attendance.

[Bogey78O]

What's happening is the Rover's are benefiting from a martian environment which is keeping their batteries stable and their solar panels clear and receptive. The power loss as a result is far lower than expected.

[ProudVet77]

One of the rovers, I think it was Opportunity, actually had a boost in solar cell output a few months ago. The best they can figure is that while it was in a tilted position going up and down the crater, more of the solar cell array was exposed to the Martian wind and it actually blew some dust off of it.

[OldFriend]

Another proud accomplishment for AMERICA.

Makes me darned proud!!!!

Had a brother in law who worked for NASA for years. Dedicated engineer, way back when.

Hope he's watching from heaven.

[Andrewksu]

I would imagine that they had calculated for all of the martian conditions and were expecting a problem with dust on the solar cells and batteries suffering from the cold. It seems unusual that these guys would massively underestimate a vehicle's abilities. I know they over engineer, but they still know what to expect.

I would imagine that the power requirements are pretty high compared to the size of the solar cells, so it seems it would be cutting it close anyway.

It's not unfathomable, but it seems a little odd.

[kidd]

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity gained this view of its own heat shield during the rover's 325th martian day (Dec. 22, 2004). The main structure from the successfully used shield is to the far left. Additional fragments of the heat shield lie in the upper center of the image. The heat shield's impact mark is visible just above and to the right of the foreground shadow of Opportunity's camera mast. This view is a mosaic of three images taken with the rover's navigation camera.

[Howlin]

[hattend]

Cool Picture

[OldFriend]

LOLOLOLOL.......oh how funny.