Mars Rovers&#39; Break Time Over
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NASA&#39;s robotic explorers are back at work on Mars following an extended siesta that had left mission managers with only hope and optimism that the rovers
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The Mars rover Opportunity has sent back its first color panorama of the large Martian crater it recently reached after a 21 month trek, and NASA scientists could barely contain their excitement about what they found.
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NASA&#39;s Mars rovers have uncovered more tantalizing evidence of a watery past on the Red Planet, scientists said Wednesday. And the rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are continuing to do their jobs months after they were expected to ...
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LONDON - An unexplained phenomenon akin to a space-borne car wash has boosted the performance of one of the two US rovers probing the surface of Mars, New Scientist magazine said on Tuesday.
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The Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, received another 6 months of funding from NASA. The two rovers were originally designed to complete a primary mission of three months, but have continued to operate for 5 additional months.
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LOS ANGELES - NASA&#39;s Mars rover, Opportunity, has found more signs that rocks on the Red Planet were once submerged in water. Data sent by Opportunity suggest a crater was drenched a second time after drying out, scientists said.
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NASA (news - web sites)&#39;s Mars rover Opportunity will back its way out of a crater it has spent four months exploring after reaching terrain that appears too treacherous to tread.
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Description: The two Mars Rovers, Opportunity and Sprit, are showing signs of wear... not surprising, since their mission was expected to end in April.
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If they last, the space agency has funded another extension of their mission for the next six months. The latest funding came as NASA regained reliable contact with the rovers Spirit and Opportunity after
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As NASA (news - web sites)&#39;s Mars rovers keep rolling past all expectations of their useful lives, scientists have a happy mystery: For some reason one
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NASA thinks its Mars rovers just might keep going and going and going. The space agency has funded another extension of their mission, for an additional six months, if they last.
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NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is closing in on what may be the grandest overlook and richest science trove of its long mission. During the next two weeks, the robotic geologist is likely to reach the rim of a hole in the Martian surface wider and deeper than any it has visited.
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Ten months after NASA&#39;s twin rovers landed on Mars, scientists reported this week that both robotic vehicles are still navigating their rock-studded landscapes with all instruments operating
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Extreme PlanetThough both rovers are exploring Mars well beyond their initial 90-day missions, electrical connections and moving parts are showing signs of temperature-related fatigue.&quot;Every day we have a huge thermal cycle,&quot; notes Jake Matijevic, chief of the rover engineering team. &quot;That causes the solder in electrical connections to expand and contract until it breaks.&quot;Seasonal ChangeDuring their exploration of Mars, the rovers have recorded temperatures ranging from midday highs of about 35 degrees C. (95 degrees F.) in spring and summer to nighttime lows of about minus 110 degrees C. (minus 166 degrees F.) in winter. Spirit has experienced greater swings in temperature because its location is farther from the martian equator, which puts it seasonally closer to or farther from the Sun than Opportunity.Three Years of DataRover engineer Dan Porter has been tracking temperatures recorded by 50 or so sensors on each of the rovers since shortly after they landed on Mars in January 2004. The results are not only of interest to scientists, they're a favorite of human audiences as well.&quot;People ask about this all the time,&quot; says New Mexico geologist Larry Crumpler, a member of the Mars rover science team who created the charts showing monthly average temperatures superimposed on panoramic-camera images from each of the rovers. &quot;These plots of daily temperature are destined to become an important part of all my public outreach talks.&quot;Cold vs. ColderJust as on Earth, temperatures on Mars are not uniform everywhere. Objects exposed to direct sunlight are apt to be warmer than those in the shade. Some objects retain heat better than others. A source of relative warmth on Mars is rocky terrain, because it retains heat better than sandy terrain.A solar panel is sort of like a &quot;warm wall in mid-winter,&quot; says Crumpler. Components beneath the solar panels, such as the hazard avoidance cameras, are closer in temperature to the martian air. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a thick, atmospheric blanket to seal in warmth by night or minimize the Sun's heat by day.Wear and TearEngineers have traced stalls in a shoulder joint on Opportunity's robotic arm to a broken electrical wire. The shoulder motor has experienced greater temperature swings than other parts because of its location beside a heater that has been stuck in the &quot;on&quot; position since shortly after landing.Notes Matijevic, &quot;Our theory is that one of the wires in the electrical coil broke free and disabled the motor.&quot;Mechanical ProblemsExtremely cold temperatures have also caused mechanical problems. Recently, Opportunity's right front wheel began drawing excess electrical current, reminiscent of Spirit's right front wheel in 2004. The demand for more electrical current suggests that the wheel motor is working harder than usual. Engineers suspect that, like motor oil that can't handle freezing temperatures on Earth, gelid lubricant failed to flow properly and caused Spirit's right front wheel to fail.Adjusting ExpectationsRover drivers have compensated for Spirit's stuck wheel by driving on the other five wheels. They have compensated for Opportunity's stalled shoulder joint by unstowing it before going to sleep at night. This way, if the motor fails during the night, when temperatures are at their lowest, they would still have limited use of the arm by operating the remaining working joints. Each rover has lost a few temperature sensors as well, while dozens more continue operating.Time Will Tell
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Clearing dust storms on Mars allow Nasa's robotic rovers to increase their workload.
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In the next few weeks the twin Mars rovers will be out of touch with Earth when the Sun lines up to block communications. Daily operations will be taken over by longer-term instructions without radio links between the two planets.
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Mars rovers have found new evidence that water was once plentiful in the hills and plains of the now-barren Red Planet. After discovering the plains where it landed was once a