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Subscribe to RSSWhile NASA's Spirit rover is frozen in place on Mars and potentially dead to the world, the Opportunity rover is hale and hearty as it begins its eighth year of operation on the Red Planet.
"Seven years is a long time, but we're all delighting in it," John Callas, project manager for the rover missions at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told me today.
When Spirit and Opportunity bounced to their airbag-cushioned landings on Mars, back in 2004, the $800 million twin missions were supposed to last only 90 days.
Now both probes have hit their seventh anniversary (Jan. 3 for Spirit, Jan. 24 for Opportunity, both dates according to Pacific time at JPL). Because of their longevity, the rovers look like the one of the best deals going when it comes to interplanetary exploration. Callas estimates that the current spending rate for a two-rover operation is about $17 million a year. The cumulative cost of keeping Spirit and Opportunity going for seven years has been about $900 million, or "about 1 percent of the AIG bailout," Callas joked.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Opportunity rover's mast shows up as a shadow in a picture taken by its navigation camera on Mars on Jan. 10.
From the beginning, success has come more easily for Oppy than it has for Spirit. Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, the head of the rover science team, has referred to Opportunity as "Little Miss Perfect." Except for a nagging problem with the rover's mini-thermal emission spectrometer, Opportunity is running just fine with nary a service call.
Opportunity is currently sitting at the rim of Santa Maria Crater in Mars' Meridiani Planum region and will be out of communication for about two and a half weeks, due to Mars' position relative to the sun and Earth. Because of the solar conjunction, communication between Mars and Earth is disrupted by interference. Thus, the rovers as well as NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be put on autopilot until the communication links clear up again.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU
A stereo image from the Opportunity rover shows a section of the Santa Maria Crater panorama. The 3-D effect can be seen using red-blue glasses.
That doesn't mean Oppy is getting the time off, however. Callas said Opportunity has been programmed to set its Mossbauer spectrometer down on a patch of hydrated sulfate minerals and "integrate for a good long time." Hydrated sulfate deposits are considered an indicator that water once flowed through the area — and so Opportunity's work over the break could set the stage for a fresh round of discovery.
After studying the terrain around Santa Maria Crater, Opportunity will continue its southward odyssey. "We're pretty much going to pull up stakes and head for Endeavour Crater, 6 kilometers away as the crow flies," Callas said. Getting to the crater could take another Martian year — or almost two years of Earth time. It could take even longer, depending on how many stops the science team wants to make along the way.
The 13.7-mile-wide Endeavour Crater would rank as Opportunity's most impressive vista, and the destination with the most potential scientific value. The crater would reveal Mars' geological layers to a phenomenal depth, serving as a time machine for scientists trying to reconstruct the Red Planet's history. Mission scientists are particularly interested in studying the phyllosilicate clay minerals that have been detected from orbit. Such minerals are thought to have formed under wet, warm, non-acidic conditions — just the kinds of conditions that might have been favorable for life.
Spirit still silent
Meanwhile, Callas and his colleagues are still hoping Spirit can be brought back to life as well. Right now the rover is stuck in a sandtrap on the other side of the planet, and mission managers haven't heard from it since last March. The rover team is hoping that the solar-powered Spirit weathered the Martian winter and will build up enough power to come out of hibernation and re-establish contact. But there's always the chance that Spirit has given up the ghost.
"We're probably moving into the regime that, if there's something wrong with the rover, it's probably more than one thing," Callas said. Mission managers are trying a variety of strategies that should get through to Spirit even if there were multiple failures.
How long will NASA keep trying? "It'll be more driven by us exhausting all the reasonable things to try," Callas said. "We're still developing that list. ... Longer-term, we can continue to listen for Spirit at a reduced level of activity for an extended period of time, at minimal cost to the mission."
Even though he's keeping hope alive, Callas recognizes that time is running out. Plans and budgets are already being drawn up for a one-rover operating mode.
"Candidly, it's likely to start rolling off after the March-April time frame," Callas said.
In honor of Opportunity's anniversary and the latest stereo image of the Red Planet, we sent free 3-D glasses to some of the folks who "like" the Cosmic Log's Facebook page. Hit the "like" button on Facebook to get ready for next month's 3-D glasses giveaway. You can also join the Cosmic Log community by following b0yle on Twitter. To learn more about Alan Boyle's book about Pluto and the search for planets, check out the website for "The Case for Pluto."
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Leave No Rover Behind!!!
Spirit is only offline because NASA refused to keep paying the rent on the sounstage they were leasing for it.
Good news is that we are saving lots of money now that the Orion project isn't requiring us to refurb the moonlanding set like W had wanted us to.
[/sarcasm]
It's a barren planet, whats the point of sending humans to explore it. Are we that idiotic, I mean come on, What a waste of time.
@fritz
We are exploring Mars, because it among all others here happen to close to ours. Venus was, but something started a runaway effect that is called Greenhouse. We are also interested in the possibility that Mars is also inhabited. And I am not referring to the sort of inhabitants that one of my alter-egos went up against either.
The one stuck in a sandpit is planning on coming back, but its thinking of what to say.
Fritz your comment was a waste of time.
These rovers have been an invaluable asset to discovering Mars. I wish we could do more of this kind of thing. I would love to see 50 or 100 rovers moving all over the planet, but I suppose that is cost prohibitive, even if you could get a discount for ordering your robots in bulk.
I am extremely excited to see Curiosity join the Mars rover team (in 2014?). It's an exciting time!
50 to 100 rovers is about the cost of the corporate bailouts we taxpayers are paying for. Which is the better deal?
Considering the amount of business prepping and launching 50-100 robots and establishing the logistics for handling all of them, it would have been a real boon for our aerospace industry and robot designers.
Sadly, it was more important that the bailouts go towards the legal defense_of_Fannie_&_Freddie_Executives for their illegal practices getting us into this mess. That and insuring that AIG and Goldman Sachs execs got their bonuses ;D
High school economics would tell you the research and development that out of this would be the better long-term deal. As it were, basic R&D is one area America is sadly falling behind on.
Looking for indications of life is good, but why not try to find rare or valuable elements too. If we can find a way to pay for the explorations, we will see lots more $$ for missions.
Finding valuable minerals and metals is on the agenda. remote sensing instruments are still being refined. Building robot miners would likely be a billion dollar industry. Anyone with the money to invest in that industry stands to make quite fortune. I wish I had the billions of dollars to invest because once that gold rush boom hits it's really going to unleash a floor of money to the first to tap those veins. Utilizing mankind's greed is a good way of getting more missions to other planets but that greed needs to be tempered with wisdom. Reckless exploitation needs to be avoided at all costs.
Finding valuable minerals on Mars would certainly make money for someone. Would you set up a robot smelter there or bring the ore back here to smelt? Are these going to be minerals unknown on Earth, or merely those that are trapped in the possession of the Iranians or others hostile to our interests? A refined metal arriving here from Mars would be worth maybe $2,000,000 per ounce, so I hope there will be a high demand for it.
Volunteers are now being sought for the position of resident manager of Mars Metals, Inc. The position pays on survivorship and candidates may bring their families. They are also advised to bring their own food and water. Sunscreen will be Provided by Mars Metals. The job includes on-planet vacations, but the candidate must provide his/her own transportation and fuel.
I have always been fascinated by humans' exploration of the space. But all I can do is to gaze at the marvelous images sent back by these pioneers:
www.viewposters.com/posters/subjects/astronomy
Good link Franku, but check this out, look through the archive too... http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
If one compares the cost:benefit ratio of the manned missions (ex., ISS) with the cost:benefit of the unmanned missions (ex. Cassini and Mars rovers) it is plain to see that the manned stuff should be ended, and that funding used for more sophisticated robot missions. If this nation (or this world) had an excess of capital, perhaps manned missions could be justified. But not in this world, not in this economy.
Meh, depends on what you think is beneficial. I guarantee you that one geologist with a rock hammer, microscope, small chem set, and transportation could learn more about mars in one months time of being there than everything we have learned up until now and what we might learn in the foreseeable future.
Not to dismiss what any of the probes that have been sent out have done, it's just that there really is no substitute in productivity than having an actual human there.
That said, love that fact that we are doing this at all, I've always been cheering on the little rovers.
Mitchell
I'm always amazed at people that think that all of this should be done by robots. We need to develop our skills in creating and sustaining habitable environments in space as well, if we put all our eggs into robots, we're still going to be stuck on this planet when the next cataclysmic event occurs.
It has to be both manned and unmanned exploration, it is pivotal for our long-term interests that we develop both skillsets and technologies, that is only going to happen so long as we keep experimenting and practicing.
Simulations and sky-blue thinking alone doesn't cut it! You still have to put things into practice to see how they work in the field!
Case in point: M16 vs AK47 during Vietnam
There are pretty good objective arguments against manned space flight that are practical in nature. One being the sheer difficulty of maintaing an astronauts holistic health while on a long trip in space.
The performance of all our robotic explorers have been extremely good overall (even accounting for the failures.) But the stellar (NPI) example set by Spirit and Opportunity really takes a lot of NASA's future to a new level of discussion.
Why do we want to send men to Mars? Just to say we can? Why indeed?
Robotic landers are becoming more and ore sophisticated. As Artificial Intelligence software to operate them more continuously with less timely Earth-based intervention continues to improve, the landers will become more complex and autonomous. Eventually, there will be very little that actually needs a man.
If you send a man, most of the weight sent to Mars is related to supporting the man, not doing exploration and science once there. And the first priority after landing on Mars will be to start preparing to get the people back to Earth. And even one of thousands of possible accidents will start an unending round of re-naming Middle Schools all across the country.
Sending robots makes the best use of the throw-weight of our rocketry and propulsion systems. The yield is all power and payload with no need for much life support except a small amount of heat. And there are no health risks along the trip to endanger the mission, such as bone and muscle loss and DNA damage from cosmic radiation. And best, of all, if there is an accident, we have lost some money and have learned a lesson that can be applied in the future --- but we have not lost human lives. The humans are still here supplying their intelligence and guiding hand. But those humans are not in harm's way.
>> Why do we want to send men to Mars? Just to say we can? Why indeed?
We may need to send mankind to Mars to confirm if Mars has/had life, if the robot finds some evidence of fossil or living cells. Such a big question may not be settled with machines alone.
We may also need to send humankind to Mars because one day we hope to terraform the planet and colonise it. It's for the survival of our species and Mars is a good test bed to start off with.
Chris - I understand your point. It's a good argument. Send robots and save lives. It can be as simple as that. However, when asking yourself "why do we want send humans to Mars," the motives for such an undertaking are not quite as simple as "just to say we can".
There are a lot of very good reason to send human beings to Mars. And the reasoning will inevitably change depending on who you talk to. For me "just saying we can" counts for quite a bit. We are human beings and we will explore our boundaries as we find them. It is part of our nature. Like it or not we will explore space with our physical presence.
Let me just say that I agree with your assessment of what robots can do. I personally believe we should be sending entire armies of robots throughout our solar system. If we can explore it with a robot I think it's worth it to do so. It is simply amazing what we can get those little machines to do.
But, there is a lot of science that can only be done by human beings. Namely, the science of keeping people alive in space is of great importance. We can learn a great deal about ourselves when we put ourselves in new conditions. It might sound like I'm suggesting putting people in harms way for the sake of putting them in harms way but that's not the case. We can mitigate the dangers we know about and certain unknown-unknowns will only become apparent if we get out there and face the dangers we don't know about.
Known unknowns can be mitigated. There are strategies for mitigating dangerous things like cosmic rays, weightlessness, micrometeorites, etc.. People are hard at work as we speak trying to figure out the answers to those dangers. All of this is in an effort to provide a cushion of safety to future astronauts. Mankind will explore space in person, so we need to get on board and help them do it safely.
I'm not a big fan of the comparison to pioneers heading west in the old days but the fact remains that if they didn't do that I would not be here. For me it is that simple. Who knows, maybe someday my great grandson will be communicating with a friend about the need to explore some other great boundary while living and working in a Mars colony. If we lay the foundation for a bold new world then they can build the cities of that world. All these things are possible, we need only to follow our dreams and make them reality.
There probably is not a poster on this thread whose grandchildren will be alive when the first man goes to Mars. Even knowing that there is cellular life there would benefit mankind not at all. Hopefully, in the next century, when we are ready with our manned (or womaned) Mars mission, we will have learned how to manage the fragile ecosystems of our own planet, how to manage our population numbers, how to stabilize the use of Earth's resources. If we haven't, the ones sent to Mars may as well stay there.
Well said, Chris. You get my vote. Actually, speaking of votes, I'd like to borrow your note and send it to my senators and house rep. With your permission, of course.
Manned space missions are inspired by science fiction tales and a lust for adventure - not science. Too often science is used to excuse our adventurism. It this economy those "we need to send men to Mars because..." excuses are insulting if not obscene.
Oh God...right. Watch the movie "The Right Stuff". That attitude applied perfectly to that era..the so-called "jet age", and most of that was inspired by an arms race. Now, NASA has to scrimp and save to get these missions off the ground.
Besides, spend some getting a degree in some hard-science. All that time in labs, lectures, not to mention lack of sleep...your interest in your particular subject of study will have to transcend mere adventurism if you want to make something out of it.
I work for AIG and I am proud of my company. AIG will repay the U.S. taxpayers with interest!
I am also proud of being an American - I have followed our Space Program since its inception. The two Mars rovers rekindled the "can do" spirit in America. I have followed the two rovers from their launch, to landing to every foot of their mission. The Mars rovers should be used an example of mankind's ingenuity and tenaciousness against knowing the unknown!
Keep up the good work NASA and JPL. You are a good investment of MY tax dollars!
Offensive
Offensive
For all the trillions, the Fed had to Conjure Up to fill the Black Hole left by people who should be in Russian Gulags, we could have sent Iran to Mars. We will never know the damage estimate in terms of lost lives, and what would have been. No sympathy here. Probably a Troll, anyway, Troll is Troll does.
You are a good investment of MY tax dollars!
...You are not a good investment of MY tax Dollars... funny cause my tax dollars are what are paying your tax dollars...
Yo Dawg! I heard you like bailouts! So we took some other people's money to pay your pay so you can spend while they spend!
Lol - full of win right there!
I have built computers for my customers that last this long and longer, it required forethought whereas many machines I decommisioned were built for obsolesence by the likes of hp and dell and many others(did I mention packard bell..haha..). From the engineering perspective it is a culture, an attitude, something that goes beyond pride and the bottom line...it is a sense of doing something right the first time. Good enough ain't gonna cut it.
Nasa did these robots right, personally I like how they can operate in a semi-autonomous role, soon our cars will have collision avoidance, but I hate to think that those engineers will be carrot sticked, bonused and under reprive from the bottom line. No where near the quality that these bots have...and narry a mention of the aerogels incorporated within them...amongst so many engineering feats related to the little bots that are not mentioned....with luck the next bot will have a long term powersupply...narry a mention though lest I wake the to-green-to-be-true snoozers and boozers...anyways, I hope the next robotic exlporers have a sand wiper for the solar cells, a better radiation sheilding set covering the flash ram modules, even more AI so it can ignore requests to obliterate things that look like fossils with it's rock drill and of course...REDUNDANT COMMUNICATIONS!!!....I was one of the orginals pulling for robotic space missions but make no mistake ladies and gentlemen...WHEN we put boots on the ground it will be with intellgence garnared from our little r2d2's...I have already coined the term los huevos as the first mexican settlement on mars positioned where a fictional robot finds fictional eggs, as such cause we failed to lead. Lets not let that happen, the first manned sciece outpost is where it should be, the iss, the next should be the moon, THEN mars (phobos as an interim)...perhaps after that an orbiting observation post around one (or two) of the gas giants and then perhaps either on those moons or out towards the ibex ribbon...we should be planning the moonbase now and dreaming about the mars base now...the rest should only be sketches on napkins at the bar. Period. <soapbox> This was the plan before I was born and talked about by scientists through the 60's...then regan happened, then bush, then bush again...or scratch all that and say god awful greed happened. If AIG wants to repay us, they can just shut down now, and turn over everytihng incriminating on their bosses to the US-AG...a lot of us feel that way. Some do not. I do. In the meantime some things need to be debunked about venus...first co2 only absorbs and reflects at one or two very small bandwidths...the sun puts out radiation across the entire spectrum not one or two wavelengths, it is not a runaway green house effect, lest you want to explain the crushing atmosphere of venus to a set of fifth graders, rather you should reflect your statement to include the entire composition of venuses atmosphere and account for the heavier elements in the venutian crustal plates, this unsubstantiated talk of co2 excess is already costing us life liberty and dollars, mostly so some manipulators can get rich off the exact same volume of co2 generation that will happen anyways...was it cooler or hotter on this planet in 1492 when chris sailed across the atlantic? (hint:seal level was higher)...also note that it is about a degree warmer on all the solar systems planets over the last two decades...can't blame that on the success of the toyota camry can ye? Personally I got my eye that plasma that filtered into sols path over the last couple of decades, but that may just be coincedence, I will need more than just emperical evidence to just say we need plasma trading credits and they all gotta be banked through me <soapbox>....anyways...keep it up oppurtunity, and spirit, we got our ears on, just in case meanwhile more robots, more robots more robots then boots on the ground and competent engineers...ALWAYS.....thanks rover team, you deserve the noble peace prize, even though they set the bar low enough to honor anyone that beats bush...er scratch that, palin.....
Most of what you say makes sense, but Phobos is USELESS as a base. It is a glorified asteroid.
Also, after Earth orbit and lunar bases, let's not forget Lunar Orbital Bases and the Lagrange Points, Earth-Moon L-4 and L-5, and after that Mars and the Earth-Sun Lagrange points.
@fritz
Exploration and gaining knowledge this way is cost effective and quite valuable to some of us (like me), even though it doesn't seem to be your cup of tea.
I realize there are some (i'm not implying you) that feel that (for example) lavish percs for our elected reps is money better spent than space exploration, but that's the great thing about democracy: we may not agree but we'll be respectful of others while we push and shove to influence how our tax dollars are spent.
I think NASA wastes a lot of money, but with this program they got it right and deserve a hearty congratulation.
Really...why can't you people keep the politics to the political forums?
These probes are really amazing, and I see why some people think manned missions are a waste. However, when you read the article and how it will take this probe 2 years to travel 6 kilometers, that goes to show why we need to send humans there. A human could better recognize and perform these experiments much faster than a probe. We are also closer technology wise to being able to send a human to mars today, than we were to sending a man to the moon in the early 60's. The moon program did alot to get kids into science and engineering as well as bringing the country together behind a common goal. I believe that a manned Mars mission would probably have similar results. I'm in my late 20's now, and I really hope to be able to see the day when the first human takes that journey.
Interesting all the side topics that come off this article.
Anyway, Since Opportunity and Spirit have proven so successful, why not 'mass produce' 50 to 100 or so more just like these two and send them out over multiple places on Mars? Every round of exploration is always done with new hardware. Why? Making multiple similar rovers like these, that have such a proven track record, could be a good bang for the buck in terms of economical efficiency.
Just my thoughts.
all nasa has to do is make a fake image of a bible sitting on mars and SUDDENLY endless amounts of money would be flowing towards new projects
And your point IS?????? Why can't anyone comment on anything without bringing up religion and/or politics, unless it is relevant?
I for one think that this marketing ploy would work wonders!
Quit being palin-stupid.
I wish we could get this good a return on all of our investments! Eight years out of a project that was meant to last 90 days? Pretty good, I'd say.
...well why don't you marry them?!
^_^
Why do we always have to assume that "life" will fall under our definition of it? I alway hear the scientist saying that this or that planet couldnt possibly support life - what if life on that particular planet is mercury based or helium based or 'mystery element' based?
There could be "life" teaming all around these probes - maybe we just dont have the technology or insight to see it.
this is so very cool!! see for more on unn