The Ongoing Mars Explorer Thread (1 Viewer)

[BrianShort]

That would be cool. I can appriceate the beauty of a pretty flat, barren terrain, but I'd LOVE to see some hills

**edit** One interesting thing that was mentioned during the briefing this morning was that because of the relative lack of large rocks, they might be able to drive the rover further than originally thought. Coupled with a hopeful extension of the mission length, like Pathfinder, I bet it could be possible to drive the rover up to those hills, if they are indeed only a couple of km away.

Brian

 

[John Nelson]

Boy, there is a lot of information in these color pics, isn't there?

Apparently, the first non-Human communication received from Mars stated, "Why are there big black bars around the TV picture?"
The question of intelligent life on Mars remains, therefore, unanswered.

http://forum.racesimcentral.com/atta...hmentid=141704

 

[Peter Kline]

I wonder if those hills are alive with the sound of music?

 

[CharlesD]

Of the four landing sites so far on Mars this is certainly the least visually entertaining. The landscape is still interesting though, there are many sand/dust/sediment/whatever filled depressions around the landing site. Some appear to be impact craters but some, at least to me, appear to be something else!

It is going to be fantastic to see any portion of Mars from the differing perspectives made possible by the MERs, and I can't wait to see what they are able to discover about the geology of the area.

These Mars landings are so fascinating! I clearly remember seeing the first Viking pictures (I was 10) and followed Pathfinder closely online. The concept of rovers that can cover 100s of meters during their missions is just mind boggling, I'm even more excited about this project than the previous visits to Mars

 

[John Nelson]

Ditto here!
I remember watching the first strips of the first photo sent by the Viking lander appear one by one on TV (My god, that's actually Mars!). It's still amazing-- an entire other world where no human has ever been, holding amazing, grand vistas that no human eyes have yet seen. Every photo is something that has never been witnessed before and that generations before us could only imagine. And now it's actually a place. It's so easy now to imagine what it would be like to stand upon the plain in Gusev Crater--in the appropriate space suit, of course. It's been too long since we've experienced the sense of wonder that the space program used to bring us on a regular basis in the past.

 

[AndyVX]

So umm, how long until Starbucks opens up shop there?

Back on topic, can't wait to see more shots. But am really looking forward to those Saturn pictures... ooh, I really can't wait!

 

[Peter Kline]

Eventually many of the color shots taken by the Panorama camera will be available in stereo. I remember after the Viking landing NASA produced a book which included photos taken on the surface, some of which were in 3D with red and green glasses included. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to my copy of the large format book.

 

[Peter Kline]

BBC Reports:

No bark heard from Beagle 2 probe

All along Beagle's best hope has been Mars Express

The British-built Mars probe Beagle 2 has failed to call Earth, dashing hopes that its mothership Mars Express would establish contact with the robot.

Wednesday's attempt to reach Beagle was considered the last - and best - hope of locating the missing lander.

But the European orbiter picked up no signal as it passed over the presumed landing site at 1213 GMT, mission controllers in Germany have announced.

If other attempts to communicate fail, the mission will be classed as lost.

At a news conference held at 1500 GMT in Darmstadt, Germany, Professor David Southwood, head of science at the European Space Agency (Esa), gave journalists the sad announcement.

"We did not get any content of a signal or indeed a signal from the surface of Mars," he said.

"This is not the end of the story; we have many more shots to play. But I have to say, this is a setback. I have to say it makes me very sad."

Sad occasion

Professor Colin Pillinger, lead scientist on the Beagle team, was disappointed but was determined not to give up yet.

"We will play to the final whistle. It only takes a fraction of a second to score a goal. Let's not give up yet. But it really is a moment when we have to start looking at the future as well.

"There was no RF [radio frequency] signal seen by Mars Express," said Dr Mark Sims, mission manager on Beagle 2.

Further flyovers of the presumed landing site by Mars Express will occur on 8, 9, 10, 12 and 14 January.

But Prof Pillinger said Mars Express' transmitter may have to be shut off if contact has not been made after 22 January.

Other attempts will be made with the Jodrell Bank telescope after Beagle switches into a another communications backup mode on 2 February.

"My personal view is if we have not received a signal within 7-10 days after that event, we have to assume Beagle is lost," Dr Sims explained.

"You all know I'm full of football analogies. Where I've reached at the moment is like a football manager whose team, having been giant killers, have had a fantastic run in the tournament," Prof Pillinger said.

We're still playing - still playing for the final whistle - but we might have to score two because the other team have scored an away goal and equalising ain't going to be enough."

On 9 January, the orbiter will use its high-resolution stereo camera to hunt for signs of Beagle's parachutes and airbags.

A spectrometer on Mars Express may also be able to search for signs of ammonia in the atmosphere from Beagle's airbags.

 

[Jay H]

All the news have reported how the MER has landed, nobody mentioned how are we going to pick it up!

Seriously, I gather that the MER is just going run out of power someday and be left there to erode and decay? Or is there some kind of explosive charge to obliterate it into nothingness? A little sign that says "free to a good home" for some alien?

Jay

 

[CharlesD]

I imagine they'll just keep going until it fails to "wake up" one morning just like they did with Pathfinder. Hopefully it will last beyond the planned 90 days. First things first though, they still have to stand it up and get it off the lander.

 

[Malcolm R]

Good point. Are we littering the environment of another planet already?

 

[Peter Kline]

Yes. We have vehicles on the Moon and Mars. I'd like to open a parking garage at either site. I could charge incredible prices (even higher then New York City!).

If you remember, one of the Apollo journeys to the moon had the Astronauts go up to a previous unmanned moon lander to take a look.

 

[BrianShort]

Morning Briefing:
Recognition of Columbia Astronauts, and image of plaque that was carried on the rover on back of the high gain antenna. The landing site is named the Columbia Memorial Station.



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Examination of the martian atmosphere at the Meridiani landing site where Opportunity will land is not good apparently, caused by a dust storm over the area.


New pancam data - They now have the first stereo data with the pancam. Half of the "Mission Success panorama" is onboard the rover. The largish hills in the distance in the navcam panorama are probably 2km away and may be a drive target.



All of the insturments on the robot arm are ready to go. Strong debate on the type of landform the rover is actually on. It could even be volcanic, but they need to get off the base and start some geology.

The color shot from yesterday now includes some of the lander airbag, I wonder if they'll release that on a web.

Spirit is working just fine and all the subsystems are fine. Lots of data is coming from the Odyssey links, no relay from MGS yesterday, but there is a MGS relay today. They've upped the data rate to 128kb/s for the relays. Spirit took an hour nap before the Odyssey pass yesterday afternoon to keep it cooler, since the atmosphere is slightly warmer than they expected.

They've tested the High Gain Antenna again, which was experiencing current spikes, and everything worked fine. They think maybe there was debris in the motor housing. They will start using the HGA on Sol-5.

They retracted the airbags very slightly, lowering one of them by about 5cm. They're still trying to get it down more so they can drive off the side they want to.

They are going to try some other methods to retract the airbag more, by lifting one of the landing petals up, retracting the bag, then resetting the petal.

Two high gain sessions are planned today, as well as some low gain sessions and Odyssey passes, so it sounds like there is a lot of data they can receive. They expect to egress around Sol-12 (next Wednesday).

I have to go take my car for an oil change now, so I can't watch the Q&A session.

Brian

 

[CharlesD]

Thanks for the update Brian!

 

[BrianShort]

I'll try to do these updates whenever I watch the briefings. I'm not working now :frowning: so my mornings are very free I do have the first day of my EMT class on Saturday, all day, so I won't be able to watch the briefing then.

**edit** I updated my above post to include the stereo pancam image (B&W) that was released today.

Brian

 

[BrianShort]

Jan 08 Briefing:

It starts with an image of part of the panorama, but I think it was accidental. It looked VERY nice.

They will take "First Time Activities" one step at a time. That is, the first time they try anything with the rover, they will go VERY SLOOOWLY.

Pancam is very healthy. Sol 5 was the busiest yet. 4 more "Mission Success" octants were taken. The full panorama is taken now. 40% is on the ground.

(Panoramic image - it's tilted because the rover is tilted - includes image of Sleepy Hollow)
Image



The idea of the sundial came from Bill Nye - Yes, Bill Nye The Science Guy.

Some lucky ass High School kids talk about the sundial more, and a DVD. DVDs on MARS!!!

They continued to work with the HGA, and they made 2 successful links yesterday. They also continued to attempt to retract the airbags. Their lift and tuck attempt wasn't sucessful. They will try to retract it more on the next Sol. If that doesn't work, they can turn the rover and drive off in a different direction. The first 2 portions of Stand-Up will start too. A lift will lift the rover up, and then rotate the front wheels out. It can then be lowered back to the deck, and they can set the rover back down, and secure the latches that will hold the legs out. This will be during the 2nd half of tomorrow. More images will also be taken, including more color panoramic images and Mini-TESS images. Earliest date for Egress is still Wednesday, but it could be delayed 2 or 3 more days if they have to play with the petals more.

A guy goes into more detail about the HGA issues they had, which were current spikes 5x what they expected. They think there was debris in one of the gear drives. He goes into a lot of detail. They ran some diagnostics, and everything works fine now, however, they have a position they can keep it in if something else goes wrong where they will still be able to do data passes in the afternoon even without moving the antenna.

Q&A Session:

They think it's possible some of the tendons that allow them to pull back the airbags are broken, or parts of the airbag that are sticking out aren't attached to any tendons. If the latter is the case, they should see it pull in eventually with more revolutions.

They wont release Mini-TESS data until they are sure the insturment is properly calibrated. They don't want to do any misinterpretation.

The Rover is capable of multitasking, but during critical operations they can only do one thing at a time, just because of planning and operator issues.

They have a copule of red filters they use. The one they are using for the panorama so far is the infrared filter, because they have one on each "eye" so they can also obtain stereo imagery. There is also a "true color" red similar to what humans would see.

Standup process will take about 3 days.

They are starting to see some compositional differences in rocks.

Brian

 

[CharlesD]

Here is a link to the new portion of the panorama showing Sleepy Hollow (large file).

The discolorations in the hollow do look like they might be bounce marks

 

[BrianShort]

Charles: I think the one I have was color corrected. The one you posted must have been patched together differently as well, since it's cutting off part of the sundial. I don't have a link to a large JPEG yet though, just the monsterous TIFF.

Brian

 

[CharlesD]

yeah I did notice the color difference, the one I linked to might be the raw images before any processing/correction.

Thanks again for the update BTW

Its good to hear that they are going to start standing the rover up on Sol 6... this waiting is frustrating, but of course they have to go carefully as it would be a shame to come all this way and then tip the rover over coming off the lander because they were rushing things!

I read something about that sun dial the other day... the article mentioned that Bill Nye is mechanical engineer and designed some hydraulic oscillation surpressor for the Boeing 747 before he became "the Science Guy".

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Photographic evidence for life on Mars now exists!

http://www.lilypix.com/photos/data/c...105_p22290.jpg