Mars Exploration Rovers 2004

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by James R, Jan 4, 2004.

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  1. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    This is a thread for discussion of the progress of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover missions.

    A couple of handy links:

    NASA's Mars Rovers Home Page

    Spaceflightnow.com has up-to-date news.

    There are two rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity".

    Current status is that "Spirit" has landed on Mars today, and its signal has been received at mission control. The rover is intact, and the probe has landed right-side-up, which will make things a bit easier for the deployment of the rover.

    The people at NASA are excited to have a successful landing on Mars - the first since Pathfinder.
     
    James R, Jan 4, 2004
    #1

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  3. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Last edited: Jan 22, 2004
    ElectricFetus, Jan 4, 2004
    #2

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  5. thed

    thed IT Gopher Registered Senior Member

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    First pictures are stunning

    <a href="http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040104a.html"><img src="http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040104a/PIA04980_br.jpg" alt="click for more" border="0"></a>
     
    thed, Jan 4, 2004
    #3

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  7. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Sorry about that, WCF.
     
    James R, Jan 5, 2004
    #4
  8. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    The first color photo of the Martian surface from the Spirit Rover has been downloaded. This is the highest resolution image ever captured from the surface of another planet.

    NASA has decided to call the landing site (in the Gusev crater) "Columbia Memorial Station", in honour of the astronauts who died in the Columbia shuttle accident.
     
    James R, Jan 7, 2004
    #5
  9. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    James R, Jan 9, 2004
    #6
  10. sargentlard

    sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    I saw the special highlighting the production of Spirit and Oppertunity and i must say what an ordeal. The team was shaken after their intial tests of airbags and parachute failed miserably. They were riddled with stressed when they had to stress test the x-ray camera...the actual model which, if damaged even slightly would have taken 6 months to fix and cost 5 million a pop....

    ...god bless those engineers and scientist who put this together.
     
    sargentlard, Jan 9, 2004
    #7
  11. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    The Spirit rover will most likely drive off the lander on Thursday. It will turn around before it drives off, because an airbag is blocking the originally-planned route.
     
    James R, Jan 12, 2004
    #8
  12. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    You know what really pisses me off? That NASA does not have a live feed on what going on in the rover mission control anymore! I mean I have been waiting 3 days now to hear if the rover is done analyzing dirt!!! They don’t update anything. I want a live web radio hocked up to a mic in mission control right now! This is the government they should have these things unless they like people making up conspiracy theories!
     
    ElectricFetus, Jan 19, 2004
    #9
  13. EI_Sparks

    EI_Sparks Registered Senior Member

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    WCF, they've not been doing any science. If you'd listened to the last press conference, they're planning out the route and using the time to download data from the rover and run tests and sims on the ground...

    Plus, with MER-B's (Opportunity's) trajectory correction burn on saturday, they had a fair amount of work to do. And with MER-B's landing coming up this week, they won't be doing a whole hell of a lot with MER-A according to the press conference as they'll be focussing efforts on MER-B operations temporarily.

    Remember WCF, NASA TV is your friend

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/missions/live/livetv.ram

    (And there's no webcam in JPL - but there is for the manned centers. At the time I guessed they figured that there'd be more activity there than in JPL most of the time.)
     
    EI_Sparks, Jan 19, 2004
    #10
  14. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Why thank you EI_Sparks.

    now suck my balls
     
    ElectricFetus, Jan 19, 2004
    #11
  15. EI_Sparks

    EI_Sparks Registered Senior Member

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    EI_Sparks, Jan 19, 2004
    #12
  16. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, well I will try not to ask again.


    Why thank you EI_Sparks.

    now suck my balls
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2004
    ElectricFetus, Jan 19, 2004
    #13
  17. spuriousmonkey

    spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    Do I dear to ask if they already found little green aliens?
     
    spuriousmonkey, Jan 19, 2004
    #14
  18. EI_Sparks

    EI_Sparks Registered Senior Member

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    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Not unless you believe EnterpriseMission.com is a factual documentary site spurious

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    EI_Sparks, Jan 19, 2004
    #15
  19. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Sprit Rover in trouble: communication lost!!!
    http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status.html

    Oh god fearing the worse, (pessimistic) hyperventilating, I'll be sweating bullets tell 10:30am tomorrow... then I'll either calm down or have a heart attack!
     
    ElectricFetus, Jan 22, 2004
    #16
  20. James R

    James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    <img src="http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040121a/Lander_Pan_Sol16-A18R1_br.jpg">
    Columbia Memorial Station, Gusev Crater, Mars.

    This is a photo taken from the Spirit rover, looking back at the lander.
     
    James R, Jan 22, 2004
    #17
  21. EI_Sparks

    EI_Sparks Registered Senior Member

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    WCF, this happened with Pathfinder as well. It's not that communication was lost, it's that commands were sent and reported to be received by the rover, but no data was then sent afterwards.

    Nice photo James but sadly those colours are somewhat wrong since it's the infrared filter and the high-end blue filter rather than the R,G,B filters (L4/L5/L6)

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    I do wish they'd take an L4/L5/L6 series of shots with the panospheric

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    EI_Sparks, Jan 22, 2004
    #18
  22. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    ElectricFetus, Jan 22, 2004
    #19
  23. EI_Sparks

    EI_Sparks Registered Senior Member

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    Yup, it's gotten much, much more serious

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    They are receiving a tone from the rover indicating that the hardware is still working, but something's definitely wrong

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    EI_Sparks, Jan 22, 2004
    #20
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