Opportunity is now positioned closer to edge of crater
as seen in this photo downloaded today.
Finally, onward intrepid explorer!
Posted on 06/28/2007 5:22:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - NASA's aging but durable Mars rover Opportunity will make what could be a trip of no return into a deep impact crater as it tries to peer further back than ever into the Red Planet's geologic history.
The descent into Victoria Crater received the go-ahead because the potential scientific returns are worth the risk that the solar-powered, six-wheel rover might not be able to climb out, NASA officials and scientists said Thursday.
The vehicle has been roaming Mars for nearly 3 1/2 Earth years. Scientists and engineers want to send it in while it still appears healthy.
"This crater, Victoria, is a window back into the ancient environment of Mars," said Alan Stern, the NASA associate administrator who authorized the move.
"Entering this crater does come with some unknowns," Stern added. "We have analyzed the entry point but we can't be certain about the terrains and the footing down in the crater until we go there. We can't guarantee, although we think we are likely to come back out of the crater."
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in January 2004, discovering geologic evidence of rocks altered by water from a long-ago wetter period of the now-dusty planet.
Blasted open by a meteor impact, Victoria Crater is a half-mile across and about 200 to 230 feet deep — far deeper than anything else the rovers have explored.
"Because it's deeper it provides us access to just a much longer span of time," said Steve Squyres, the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He said it's not known just how much time is represented in the crater's layered walls.
Opportunity's first target will be a band of bright material like a bathtub ring about 10 feet below the crater's rim.
"That was the original, pre-impact surface so this bright stuff is the stuff that was in contact with the Martian atmosphere at the time Victoria formed, which may have been billions of years ago," Squyres said.
The initial entry is expected on July 7 or 9. To get into the crater, the rover will have to safely cross a ripple of wind-formed material at the lip of the crater, the kind of feature that has given it trouble before. The team plans to initially drive only far enough to have all six wheels on the slope and then back up to the top, to analyze how it performed.
"We call that a toe dip," said John Callas, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Since inception, the twin-rover mission has cost more than $900 million, and now costs $20 million to $24 million annually. Planned to last 90 days, the mission is in its fourth extension and another proposal would continue operations to the end of October 2008.
not sure, it sounded like if the batteries drain this time, it’s toast time.
“Toasted Rovers”
Another great rock band name!
Too bad. But NASA and the American people and eggheads should be proud!
Them that ain’t watching Paris Hilton news, that is.
How is that possible considering it had all of that time to be covered up with space dust and stuff.............
Just sort of curious, it’s been weeks since the decision to enter the crater, I understand about the dust storms etc, but the raw data pictures sure seem uninformative.
Perhaps in a few days, here is what it posted on site.
Opportunity began performing activities requested by the science team during Sol 1263. Those images and other data are currently being sent back to Earth for posting on Sol 1264. Any data not transmitted on Sol 1264 will be stored onboard the rover and sent on subsequent days during the next possible communications opportunities.
One can only hope those activities relate to beginning the
descent.
I’m sure looking forward to seeing new geology.
tet.
looks like they are finally preparing to make a go of it into the crater and soon, the dust storms have quieted down a bit and they have been prepping both of them for action.
During the dust storms, both rovers were kept in a very low power use mode and didn’t run the batteries dead. So fingers crossed, they may still have a few more discoveries in them still.
Still no new pix or comments, last major entry about dust storms 20 days ago, could they have a problem?
I sure hope not, this crater descent is really breaking new
territory as far as Mars geology.
Bumpity Bump.
Posted as of Aug 7th.
.... Dust storms obscuring the sun have cut daily output as low as 261 watt hours on Spirit and 128 watt hours on Opportunity in recent weeks, compared with levels above 700 watt hours per sol before the current series of Martian dust storms began in June. One hundred watt hours is what it takes to run a 100-watt bulb for one hour.
The increased output from the solar panels, though slight, has allowed Opportunity to fully charge its batteries and Spirit to bring its batteries to nearly full charge. Also, the temperature of the core electronics module on Opportunity, which was of concern when it fell to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 37 Celsius) last week, has increased to minus 28.1 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 33.4 degrees Celsius).
“Conditions are still dangerous for both rovers and could get worse before things get better,” said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
“We will continue our cautious approach to the weather and configure the rovers to maintain a high state of charge on the batteries. Communication sessions with both rovers will remain limited until the skies clear further.”
Maybe I’m just jaded, maybe I expect too much after all the success but when I see the same pic day after day....
Patience tet, patience...
“The descent into Victoria Crater...”
I remember when she played the Rialto back in the ‘50s.
Piece of cake, it’s all downhill,, nice easy slope..
Bon voyage!
Remember to keep vehicle in gear at all times.
Next Stuckey’s...........millions of miies.
This is going to be exciting!
Wish they were going to do a live descent, at least the start.
August 24, 2007
Mars Exploration Rover Status Report: Rovers Resume Driving
NASA's Opportunity rover used its front hazard-identification camera to obtain this image at the end of a drive on the rover's 1,271st sol, or Martian day (Aug. 21, 2007). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
After six weeks of hunkering down during raging dust storms that limited solar power, both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have resumed driving.
Opportunity advanced 13.38 meters (44 feet) toward the edge of Victoria Crater on Aug. 21. Mission controllers were taking advantage of gradual clearing of dust from the sky while also taking precautions against buildup of dust settling onto the rover.
"Weather and power conditions continue to improve, although very slowly for both rovers," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, project manager for the rovers. With the improved energy supplies, both rovers are back on schedule to communicate daily. Opportunity had previously been conserving energy by going three or four days between communications.
No new storms have been lifting dust into the air near either solar-powered rover in the past two weeks. Skies are gradually brightening above both Spirir and Opportunity. "The clearing could take months," said rover Project Scientist Bruce Banerdt. "There is a lot of very fine material suspended high in the atmosphere."
As that material does settle out of the air, the powdery dust is accumulating on surfaces such as the rovers' solar panels and instruments. More dust on the solar panels lessens the panels' capacity for converting sunlight to electricity, even while more sunlight is getting through the clearer atmosphere.
Opportunity's daily supply of electricity from its solar panels reached nearly 300 watt-hours on Aug. 23. That is more than twice as much as five weeks ago, but still less than half as much as two months ago. It is enough to run a 100-watt bulb for three hours.
One reason the rover team chose to drive Opportunity closer to the crater rim was to be prepared, if the pace of dust accumulation on the solar panels increases, to drive onto the inner slope of the crater. This would give the rover a sun-facing tilt to maximize daily energy supplies. The drive was also designed to check performance of the rover's mobility system, so it included a turn in place and a short drive backwards.
The next day, a favorable wind removed some dust from Opportunity's solar panels, providing a boost of about 10 percent in electric output. This forestalled the need to hurry to a sun-facing slope. The team is still excited to get Opportunity inside Victoria Crater to examine science targets on the inner slope that were identified in June, shortly before dust storms curtailed rover activities. An estimate of how soon Opportunity will enter the crater will depend on assessments in coming days of how dust may be affecting the instruments and of how much energy will be available.
On Spirit, dust on the lens of the microscopic imager has slightly reduced image quality for that instrument, although image calibration can compensate for most of the contamination effects. The team is experimenting with ways to try dislodging the dust on the lens. Spirit's solar arrays are producing about 300 watt hours per day as dust accumulation on them offsets clearing skies. Spirit drove 42 centimeters (17 inches) backwards on Aug. 23 to get in position for taking images of a rock that it had examined with its Mössbauer spectrometer. The rover team is planning additional drives for Spirit to climb onto a platform informally named "Home Plate." ###
The rover has now moved up to the exposed rocks at the rim of the crater.
New up date.
Approx 40 yds to crater entry area.
Interesting pix at home site.
Descent to begin near future.
Remember, keep your eyes on those pix, a freeper could be the first to spot a fossil on Mars, have your name tagged
to a whole new science.
we’re close to dune buggying in a crater
Mars rover making way inside giant crater (Victoria Crater) ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1894720/posts
Posted by NormsRevenge
On News/Activism ^ 09/11/2007 9:38:48 AM PDT · 9 replies · 127+ views
AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 9/11/07 | AP
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is making its way into a giant impact crater to learn more about the Red Planet’s geologic past. Engineers sent commands to Opportunity to drive into Victoria Crater and received a confirmation signal from the rover. It will be several hours before NASA knows how well the drive went. Opportunity is expected to drive all six wheels into the crater and back out before making the full plunge several days from now. The drive comes two months after a massive Martian dust bowl kept Opportunity and its twin Spirit hunkered down to conserve energy.
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