Plucky NASA Rovers Complete Fifth Year on Mars

When it comes to Mars missions, NASA's twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity seem to be the robots that never quit. The two plucky probes were each built for a 90-day romp across the Martian surface, a mission that began when Spirit bounced to a stop on the planet's expansive Gusev Crater five years ago today. Opportunity touched down on the other side of Mars a few weeks later and now - after half a decade - both rovers are still exploring the red planet after surviving more than 20 times their planned lifetime. "The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the prime mission plan," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science missions at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, in a statement. "The twins have worked almost 20 times that long. That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times." The rovers reportedly cost about $20 million to operate each year since their 2004 arrivals on Mars. Roving Mars Spirit set down at Gusev Crater on Jan. 3 at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. PST), where it overcame initial computer glitches and went on to scale nearby hills and brave the frigid Martian winter



year after year. Opportunity bounced to a stop inside what scientists later dubbed Eagle crater just after midnight (EST) Jan. 25 in an interplanetary hole-in-one on the vast Martian plains of Meridiani Planum. Since then, the rover has spotted a Martian meteorite, visited the heat shield cast off during its landing and explored ever larger craters as it makes it way toward Endeavour, a monster crater 14 miles (22 km) across.

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I found this cool article and wanted to share, enjoy

[edit on 4-1-2009 by alyosha1981]

Mod Note: Starting A New Thread – Please Review This Link

[edit on Sun Jan 4 2009 by Jbird]

Cool.

I also think it is worth pointing out that even though they have been there 5 years, Spirit and Oppurtunity have only traveled 4.7 miles (7.5 km) and 8.5 miles (13.6 km) respectively.

I am by no means criticizing NASA, the rovers, or the mission itself; I think what the rovers have done is remarkable...I just thought this was an interesting tidbit of information for people to know.

In the past there have been people on these boards who seem to think that the Rovers are able to explore the whole planet and go wherever they want. This is not the case. The rovers have only explored a VERY minute portion of Mars. It's pretty much the same as you exploring the area around your hometown (or -- in the case of Spirit -- around your neighborhood).

[edit on 1/4/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

You know whats sad?

With all the gloom and doom now a days nobody really cares about good stuff anymore!

I think this is awesome when something outlives it's original design specs like the Voyager space probes did and now the rovers I say atta boy NASA.

Now release more Black Budget High Tech we can use it



[edit on 4-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

Actually the congrats should go to JPL and the many great engineers (like me.. ), that designed and built and tested those rovers and probes to outlive the mission parameters.

Hopefully they will continue running when we send a manned mission to the planet Mars and they can go up to them and pose for a picture, and replace those narrow filters with full range visual RGB filters so we can get a true color image from them.


Cheers!!!!!

Has anyone ever thought they were not quite telling us the truth about the longevity of the rovers. What better way to test a top-secret power supply than to put it in use on Mars. Probably that is the reason they are lasting much longer than they told us. Just my observation of how they work.

reply to post by TH3ON3


Not really. They are just very well designed and use the latest power generation and storage technology at the time they were built.

What I think is more the issue is that the environment on Mars might not be so harsh as NASA has been telling us. Even the most well insulated electrical storage battery or fuel cell will go bad under the huge variance of temperature changes that occur on the planet....unless those temperature changes are not as they say they are.

Going through 5 years of daytime temperatures that often reach up to 65*F during the Martian summers, and down to as low as -150*F at night, thats quite a jump in temperature shift, and over that long span of time. Plus the frequent heavy Martian dust and wind storms.

But those little 6 wheel Martian ATV's are pretty tough. It would be neat if they did last long enough for a manned mission to meet up with them and check them out, get a photo op and let them continue roaming the surface till they eventually die out.



Cheers!!!!

Although I am not surprised that the rovers "lasted" as long as they did i am however, slightly disappointed with the limited amount of travel completed on the martian surface. Not to down NASA or JPL as well as the engineers who worked on the projects, I just feel that there is much they are not telling us or showing us for that matter. My hopes are in line with many in that a manned mission will occur soon and the next steps for a mars colony will begin.

Posted by SLAYER69
You know whats sad? With all the gloom and doom now a days nobody really cares about good stuff anymore! I think this is awesome when something outlives it's original design specs like the Voyager space probes did and now the rovers I say atta boy NASA. Now release more Black Budget High Tech we can use it

I completely agree, it is time to introduce more black budget tech into the civilian sector! and why not? we are ready!

Posted by RFBurns
What I think is more the issue is that the environment on Mars might not be so harsh as NASA has been telling us. Even the most well insulated electrical storage battery or fuel cell will go bad under the huge variance of temperature changes that occur on the planet....unless those temperature changes are not as they say they are.

Exactly! so what else are they hiding from us? and why? I believe they know a great deal more then they are letting on to and for reasons unknown to the public they choose to keep these secrets behind closed doors, why?

Originally posted by alyosha1981
....so what else are they hiding from us? and why? I believe they know a great deal more then they are letting on to and for reasons unknown to the public they choose to keep these secrets behind closed doors, why?

It all goes back to the infamous Brookings report. That there would be a breakdown of civilization...that we cannot handle the truth.

If this was 1950 I would agree. But I think it goes much further than just a notion of we cannot handle the truth.

What it probably is..is that we would not "accept" the truth. I mean look at all the different ideologies and religions. Look at all the conflict going on right now at this very moment, and what for. Its all basically the old tradition of tribal warfare over religious beliefs and ideology. To insert something like "well mars is nice and warm and earth like and there is life up there and the human race's roots are intertwined with that life and our history is actually several hundreds of thousands of years than the 5 thousand you have been told all your life"....well would that be accepted?

I seriously think that the reasons for hiding the truth are not because we cant handle the truth, it is because the human race will not accept the truth.

Sad...but I think that is the "why". Imagine what kind of tribal conflict would occur about "well it was our God that made that life up there that links to our life and not your God"...etc etc.



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 11-1-2009 by RFBurns]

reply to post by RFBurns


Good point, but I feel many would tend to disagree, the ideal of "accecptance" is IMO a relitive term when this subject comes up, weather or not the cultural beliefs of a group of people co inside with the "truth" is irrellevant , and more so the information would be "real" so one's willingness to accecpt is shawdoed by " well here it is do with it what you will"

It's a not case of them not thinking we can’t handle the truth.
Because I think that they know we can, It's a matter of if they do tell us the truth that means that they have lied and if they have lied about this that opens a very nasty can of worms as per what else have they've been lying to us about and how often have they lied.


[edit on 12-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by RFBurns

The power subsystem on the rovers consists of solar panels feeding lithium ion batteries. During the day the batteries are not needed, the solar panels provide all the power, excess power is used to charge the the batteries. The batteries have a specified operating temperature range of -20C to 30C. The rovers carry RHUs (radioisotope heater units) to keep the battery and electronics from getting too cold at night. During the day a passive thermal switch is used to keep the battery temperature down.

Spirit, being the farthest from the equator, has experienced the widest temperature range. From a low of -130F to a high of 95F.

[edit on 1/12/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by RFBurns


Man you all are getting into some interesting things on this thread.

I just watched the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still and I have to say the writer Arthur Tofte had to be either on the inside of the Majestic 12, or someone who knew about all of the supposedly secret info told him about it.

I really believe they brought him in after the recovery because he had already been writing about space aliens and robots and such way before we recovered the downed vessel.

I'm going to write a thread possibly in a few days explaining my theory. I know that man was on the inside for sure, and I will prove it.

reply to post by TH3ON3


Hey Phage Deja Vu?


TH3ON3
I'm looking forward to your thread.

Also check out my post here
Definitive Back Engineered Alien Technology Research thread


[edit on 12-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

Originally posted by SLAYER69
It's not case of them not thinking we can’t handle the truth.
Because I think that they know we can, It's a matter of if they do tell us the truth that means that they have lied and if they have lied about this that opens a very nasty can of worms as per what else have they've been lying to us about and how often have they lied.

Couldn't have said it better myself SLAYER, they don't want the reprocussions that will come as a result of their lies and disinformation. For too long they have kept the public in the dark that eventually when the truth comes out it will take even longer for us to sort through it all.

reply to post by alyosha1981


Well it could be the reason they wont have a full disclosure in the foreseeable future on anything regarding possible visitors to earth in our past.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I agree SLAYER, this theory, IMO is one of the rare speculations that seem to hold weight. We all agree that something is amiss and that they hide it from our eyes, this really could be why it just makes sense.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Eventually the cycle has to break, otherwise the lie exposure and blame game will be even greater and that much more difficult for them to explain and deal with.

Thats why way back in the 70's, there were efforts to get at the truth and to get government to start the process of "wiping the slate clean".

But as I pointed out, humanity as a whole isnt ready for it, psycologically and socially. There are way too many primative habbits that must be overcome first before mankind can claim their place in the universal community.

Rest assured, if there are in fact civilizations out there that have advanced themselves socially to be beyond our primative ways, there is no way they will want us out there among them bringing our war like tribal traits with us. Those that are in the know, also know this.

In the meantime, its "drip, drip" disclosure, one microbe at a time, one rock at a time, one fossil at a time.



Cheers!!!!

I don't believe that there's any current civilization living on Mars at this time, but in the distant past - perhaps millions of years ago, there certainly may have been. There's a lot of evidence that Mars was once a very different planet, with liquid water on the surface, which seems to be sort of a smoking gun for the possibility that life not only started there at the single cellular level, but indeed went on to flourish there.

Right now, though, with Mars' extremely harsh weather patterns and diminished atmosphere I don't think anything but the hardiest organisms can survive. But even finding something so simple as a living single celled organism would result in something of a paradigm shift, and the first step in deprovincializing the idea of life.

We're starting to Drift, guys....


"Plucky NASA Rovers Complete Fifth Year on Mars"




TIA



[edit on Tue Jan 13 2009 by Jbird]