A problem that affects the steering on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has recurred after disappearing for nearly two weeks.
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are working to fully understand the intermittent problem and then implement operational work-arounds. Meanwhile, Spirit successfully steered and drove 3.67 meters (12 feet) on Oct. 17.
Rover engineers are also analyzing a positive development on Spirit’s twin, Opportunity: a sustained boost in power generation by Opportunity’s solar panels.
October 21st, 2004
Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status
October 20th, 2004
Spirit investigating ancient rocks
Spirit had a productive week investigating the rock “Tetl.” On sol 277, Spirit attempted a drive to the next rock target, “Uchben,” which means “ancient” in the old Mayan language. Halfway into that drive, Spirit experienced a repeat problem in the steering motor control system that engineers first saw on sol 265. Engineers repeated diagnostic tests for the problem on sol 278. Those tests showed that the electronics relay in question is still functional, but appears to operate intermittently. Spirit is otherwise healthy and is in a safe location.
October 18th, 2004
Mission to Mars: Risky Business Astrobiology Magazine
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission has sent back groundbreaking information about the history of Mars. The most important result is the discovery of salt deposits that indicate that some regions of the planet were once “drenched” in water. These findings bolster the notion that, at least in its distant past, Mars was a habitable world. But preparing the rovers for launch was an arduous and exhausting marathon. In a recent talk given at a NASA symposium on risk management in Monterey, California, MER Principal Investigator Steve Squyres explained how the mission team made it to the finish line.
October 18th, 2004
Aging Mars Rovers stay alert and able Los Angeles Times
Winter on Mars is a cruel season.
Nights are long. The sun is a shrunken orb, half its size on Earth. With temperatures plunging to a heart-stopping minus 175 degrees, there is little relief from the alien chill.
What lies ahead is even worse: dust storm season, when howling, planet-wide siroccos can claw at the surface and choke the atmosphere.
NASA’s twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been operating in this brutal environment since they landed on Mars in January.
And it shows.
October 14th, 2004
Astronomer traces Mars mission highlights Buffalo News
Steven Squyres, the face and voice of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, took thousands of University at Buffalo students on a walk Wednesday through the search for traces of water in the wastelands and craters of Mars.
“I don’t get out much,” admitted Squyres, who even 17 months after the launch of the modules Spirit and Opportunity is steering the $400 million wheeled robots by remote control around rocks and up hills as they gather more and more evidence that water – the mother of life – once flowed extravagantly over the red planet.
October 13th, 2004
With robots on Mars, NASA hits a home run Richmond Times-Dispatch
Many people think that the planet Mars is cursed. Scientists don’t believe in curses, but it is true that two-thirds of all missions to Mars have failed. Doing laboratory work on Mars is very hard.
We cannot send humans there (yet). We send robots instead, to look for water and signs of life.
Today there are two six-wheeled robots cruising on the surface of Mars. To be there, after a six-month trip through space, is a miracle of modern technology.
October 11th, 2004
Father of Spirit and Opportunity Scientific American
With the success of twin rovers on the Red Planet, Steven W. Squyres and his team are showing how to conduct robotic missions–and setting the stage for human exploration. A professor of astronomy at Cornell University, Squyres, 48, is the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Team, which consists of 170 members. He is responsible for all the scientific activities of both the Opportunity and Spirit rovers, leading colleague John Grotzinger to liken him to a “flea on a hot griddle,” with his hands in everything.
October 8th, 2004
Mars Rovers Probing Water History At Two Sites
NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled. The more they look, the more evidence of past liquid water on Mars these robots discover. Team members reported the new findings at a news briefing today. About six months ago, Opportunity established that its exploration area was wet a long time ago. The area was wet before it dried and eroded into a wide plain. The team’s new findings suggest some rocks may have gotten wet a second time, after an impact excavated a stadium-sized crater.
October 6th, 2004
Spirit Rover Disabled by Steering Problem
A steering problem disabled the Mars Rover Spirit Oct. 1, NASA officials said yesterday. The robot has not moved since.
While a fix of some sort is expected, Spirit could proceed with a greater chance of causing other problems.
The robot’s right-front and left-rear wheels “did not operate as commanded” on the first day of the month, the space agency said in a statement. Engineers are investigating possible causes and remedies, which might include disabling the brakes on the two wheels so the craft can proceed with its mission in a hampered fashion.
October 1st, 2004
Looks like Mars, sounds like the Arctic Nunatsiaq News
If there are any native Martians on Mars, they may be shocked to learn that U.S. scientists are renaming places on their planet as fast as they can, in the same way that explorers and every wave of newcomers gave their own foreign place names to the Eastern Arctic. A little bit of Canada’s North has been transported to Mars as names for places, people and events on Earth are transported to locations on the Red Planet. Borrowed place names for Martian craters include Inuvik, Nain, Nutak and Thule. The names of vessels used in past polar exploration are also now on Mars.