Opportunity Hits the Martian Dirt Tonight

JPL ^ | 30 Jan 2004 | JPL

[Fitzcarraldo]

NASA's Spirit rover on Mars has resumed taking pictures as engineers continue work on restoring its health. Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, extended its rear wheels backward to driving position last night as part of preparations to roll off its lander, possibly as early as overnight Saturday-to-Sunday.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Possible Schedule for Opportunity:

1/30 2005 PST Rover Wakeup (0845 LST)
1/31 0012 PST Go For Egress sent to S/C (1245 LST)
1/31 0318 PST ODY pass earth receive time to confirm Egress status (1545 LST)

[Fitzcarraldo]

[Blood of Tyrants]

If Opportunity is Spirit's twin, wouldn't it make sense to tell it to go to sleep until they figure out the problem on Spirit?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Map of crater Opportunity is in:

[AmericanInTokyo]

Hmmmm. Quite possibly, it will find the texture and makeup of the Martian crater soil amazingly akin to that which is in one of John Kerry's facial botox canals.

[Izzy Dunne]

Conflicting times: overnight Saturday/Sunday is NOT tonight.

[Fitzcarraldo]

They think they understand the problem on Spirit well enough now to be able to collect science data and debug at the same time - on Opportunity they have already deleted a set of files from the flash memory suggested as a cause of the problem on Spirit.

[brownsfan]

If Opportunity is Spirit's twin, wouldn't it make sense to tell it to go to sleep until they figure out the problem on Spirit?

Yes, it would, but they've figured it out. Before the weekend is done, both rovers should be working. It had to do with having too many files in the flash memory, and when Opportunity woke up, they began deleting files immediately so it wouldn't happen to Opportunity too. They are deleting files from Spirit, and she should be good as new! :)
I haven't heard about the heater problem on Opportunity, anyone know if that was fixed?

[MarkeyD]

I think they have.

[Fitzcarraldo]

The heater problem on Opp. is still being studied - but they will study it as it goes.

[justlurking]

If Opportunity is Spirit's twin, wouldn't it make sense to tell it to go to sleep until they figure out the problem on Spirit?

They believe they know what caused the problem with Spirit, and have already taken pre-emptive steps to avoid the problem with Opportunity.

The problem is apparently the number (not size) that have accumulated in the flash memory. By deleting the unneeded files in Opportunity (which accumulated during the flight), they will avoid the problem.

[Fitzcarraldo]

CSPAN

Click on the above link and find "NASA Mars Missions Briefing" under "latest video"- for a replay of today's press conference.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Previous briefings can be found at :

http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?z1=&PopupMenu_Name=Science/Technology&CatCodePairs=Issue,ST;

[John H K]

Spirit's gonna really have to road trip to find a nice deep crater if they're gonna find any sedimentary rocks at Gusev, I think. That volcanic regolith is probably pretty deep.

[RightWhale]

wouldn't it make sense to tell it to go to sleep until they figure out the problem on Spirit?

Yeah, that problem was figured out last week. No doubt Opportunity's procedures have already been revised.

[Sloth]

Actually, if they really didn't know what happened with Spirit, I'd think they should have rushed Opportunity out to gather as much data as possible before it died, too, instead of lollygagging on the lander for days.

[Fitzcarraldo]

That volcanic regolith is probably pretty deep.

Supposedly, the ground at the Gusev site is a lake bottom, and the volcanic rock they are looking at now was thrown out of some unknown crater.

The crater they want Spirit to get to is fairly deep and as they get closer to it will see a sequence of rocks corresponding to the bedrock underneath the rover.

[Fitzcarraldo]

rushed Opportunity out to gather as much data as possible

The scientists are going crazy to get a look at that outcrop.

[RightWhale]

instead of lollygagging on the lander

Getting ready to deploy the Rover is vastly complicated. Slow and easy is the only alternative.

[Fitzcarraldo]

From what I've seen it may be a week before they get Oppie to that outcrop.

The Go for egress is dependent on successfully accomplishing and verifying cable cut #3, and and the pre-egress mobility "bump" earlier in the day.