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Subject: Mars rover
Replies: 11 Views: 472
mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:48am
Mars rover may not escape sand trap for weeks
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:49am
NASA's Spirit rover is stuck in the sand up to its hubcaps, and a quick escape does not look likely
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:50am
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove on Thursday for the first time since April 8, acting on commands from engineers who are still investigating bouts of amnesia and other unusual behavior exhibited by Spirit in the past two weeks.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:50am
toward destinations about 150 meters (about 500 feet) away. The rover has already operated more than 20 times longer than its original prime mission on Mars.
This week, rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., judged that it would be safe to send Spirit commands for Thursday's drive. They also anti ted that, if the rover did have another amnesia event, the day's outcome could be helpful in diagnosing those events.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:53am
The team is also investigating two other types of problems Spirit has experienced recently: failing to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions about two weeks ago and rebooting its computer on April 11, 12 and 18. Engineers have not found any causal links among these three types of events. After checking last week whether moving the rover's high-gain antenna could trigger problems, routine communication via that dish antenna resumed Monday.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:53am
Spirit has maintained stable power and thermal conditions throughout the problem events this month, although power output by its solar panels has been significantly reduced since mid-2007 by dust covering the panels.
We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again, Laubach said. Given Spirit's limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the south, there would be risks associated with not driving.
The team has made a change in Spirit's daily routine in order to aid the diagnostic work if the rover experiences another failure to record data into flash memory.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:53am
To conserve energy, Spirit's daily schedule since 2004 has typically included a nap between the rover's main activities for the day and the day's main downlink transmission of data to Earth. Data stored only in the rover's random-access memory (RAM), instead of in flash memory, is lost during the nap, so when Spirit has a flash amnesia event on that schedule, the team gets no data from the activity period. The new schedule puts the nap before the activity period. This way, even if there is a flash amnesia event, data from the activity period would likely be available from RAM during the downlink.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:54am
Press Releases
April 24, 2009
Spirit Resumes Driving While an*lysis of Problem Behaviors Continues
'Von Braun' Mound in Spirit's Drive Direction
Full Image and Caption
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove on Thursday for the first time since April 8, acting on commands from engineers who are still investigating bouts of amnesia and other unusual behavior exhibited by Spirit in the past two weeks.
The drive took Spirit about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) toward destinations about 150 meters (about 500 feet) away. The rover has already operated more than 20 times longer than its original prime mission on Mars.
This week, rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., judged that it would be safe to send Spirit commands for Thursday's drive. They also anti ted that, if the rover did have another amnesia event, the day's outcome could be helpful in diagnosing those events.
Three times in the past two weeks, Spirit has failed to record data from a day's activity period into non-volatile flash memory. That is a type of computer memory where information is preserved even when power is off, such as when the rover naps to conserve power.
We expect we will see more of the amnesia events, and we want to learn more about them when we do, said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.
The team is also investigating two other types of problems Spirit has experienced recently: failing to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions about two weeks ago and rebooting its computer on April 11, 12 and 18. Engineers have not found any causal links among these three types of events. After checking last week whether moving the rover's high-gain antenna could trigger problems, routine communication via that dish antenna resumed Monday.
Spirit has maintained stable power and thermal conditions throughout the problem events this month, although power output by its solar panels has been significantly reduced since mid-2007 by dust covering the panels.
We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again, Laubach said. Given Spirit's limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the south, there would be risks associated with not driving.
The team has made a change in Spirit's daily routine in order to aid the diagnostic work if the rover experiences another failure to record data into flash memory.
To conserve energy, Spirit's daily schedule since 2004 has typically included a nap between the rover's main activities for the day and the day's main downlink transmission of data to Earth. Data stored only in the rover's random-access memory (RAM), instead of in flash memory, is lost during the nap, so when Spirit has a flash amnesia event on that schedule, the team gets no data from the activity period. The new schedule puts the nap before the activity period. This way, even if there is a flash amnesia event, data from the activity period would likely be available from RAM during the downlink.
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides of the planet through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope with various symptoms of aging on both rovers.
This week, Opportunity completed drives of 96 meters (315 feet) Tuesday, 137 meters (449 feet) Wednesday and 95 meters (312 feet) Thursday in its long-term trek toward a crater more than 20 times larger than the biggest it has visited so far.
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mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:54am
Teams of students and teachers in the Athena Student Interns Program become part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission science team as they work one-on-one with scientists to prepare for research and discovery *
mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:55am
Through the Mars Exploration Student Data Team, teachers and students work from their schools to help study and characterize different aspects of Mars -- from the atmosphere to the surface -- to help support the landed Mars Exploration Rover mission *
mr.dev 14.05.09 - 05:55am
Mars for Educators
Passport To Knowledge's FIRST LOOK will be replayed on NASA TV. Check the schedule
First Look is also archived at:
http://passporttoknowledge.com/mars/firstlook.html
click on WEBCAST OF BROADCAST. It will open up in Real Player. (get RealPlayer)
ROVERquest Classroom Activities
MarsDial Classroom Activities
MarsQuest Online
For an online rover image experience, visit:
Mars Classroom Resources
Here are two of our favorites:
Mars Activity Book
For Teachers Only:
Sign up to receive your FREE Earth/Mars comparison poster, with classroom activities on the reverse.
View poster front
View poster back
Mars Education Programs
You can parti te in four major programs:
Imagine Mars teaches students science through the arts, letters, and humanities.
The Mars Student Imaging Project allows students to use a camera on the Odyssey orbiter to take their own image of the red planet and an*lyze it using the scientific method.
Mars Robotics Education is a program in development that aligns with technology-education standards.
Mars Educator Workshops offer professional development opportunities for teachers.
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neilmrtn 21.03.10 - 05:40pm
GooD Mr.Dev .... *
