Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Opportunity is dying!!!
Maybe.
Mars Exploration Rover-B reached Endurance Crater about a month ago - but has been sluggish since then. Despite more favorable environmental conditions than at the Spirit landing site, a balky heater is chewing up much Opportunity's energy budget. The drain on the batteries is threatening the rover's ability to ward off the effects of the daily 100?C freeze-thaw cycle. The first likely victim - the beamsplitter on the MiniTES spectrometer. There had been ambitious plans to roam Meridiani Planum before committing to a decision regarding Endurance Crater, visiting the pitchains and the heat shield. But there is no power left for such ambitious drives.
Today's press conference apparently brings the news that Opportunity will be going into the crater, to specifically sample the banded material that underlies the sulfate-hematite evaporite "cap" examined at the landing site.
There is a good chance that this is where the mission will end - although there is talk of keeping the rovers alive through to next year. (Funding will be another matter).
Mars Exploration Rover-B reached Endurance Crater about a month ago - but has been sluggish since then. Despite more favorable environmental conditions than at the Spirit landing site, a balky heater is chewing up much Opportunity's energy budget. The drain on the batteries is threatening the rover's ability to ward off the effects of the daily 100?C freeze-thaw cycle. The first likely victim - the beamsplitter on the MiniTES spectrometer. There had been ambitious plans to roam Meridiani Planum before committing to a decision regarding Endurance Crater, visiting the pitchains and the heat shield. But there is no power left for such ambitious drives.
Today's press conference apparently brings the news that Opportunity will be going into the crater, to specifically sample the banded material that underlies the sulfate-hematite evaporite "cap" examined at the landing site.
"'If we knew the rover was going to last for a year, we could run around and do other things before we went to the crater,' Squyres said in a telephone interview from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'But that's not the case. Every day there's a falloff in efficiency.'
Opportunity has been scouting the crater for about a month, looking for the best way down and the shortest traverse to the lower layers of rock, but Wallace said the rover's limited electricity has sharply curtailed activity in recent days."
There is a good chance that this is where the mission will end - although there is talk of keeping the rovers alive through to next year. (Funding will be another matter).
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