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Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

nytimes.com

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Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#101

Post by mos_basik »

classicsnoot wrote: post #92
felipemnoa wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly the reason they did not expect the mission to last longer than that was because they expected the solar panels to get covered with dust and thus render them useless. I don't think they had banked on martial winds to regularly clean them.

Your recollection is correct. Consider too the dust accumulation predictions for the moon landing. It would appear that we (as humans) are not very good at dust estimates (dustimates?). This is reinforced by the continuing struggle/inability to manufacture dirt. As an avid composter with a ton (lol sorry) of experience, I can make you hummus for days. I can turn 90% of your organic household waste into growth medium,…

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy talks a lot about the "can't make dirt fast" problem, and I was surprised and impressed at how fascinating such a mundane-appearing problem could be. I had never thought about it before.

Note: I think you mean humus. Hummus is "a Levantine dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas... blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic."

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#102

Post by gebeeson »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #80
pjmlp wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More interesting would be when someone else from another species finds them in a couple of million years in the future and wonders what their purpose was all about.

Cassini was deliberately pushed into Saturn's atmosphere and destroyed (so as not to potentially contaminate habitable worlds) so we probably don't need to worry about that. Also, there's a great documentary TV series called "7 Days Out" on Netflix which covers the last week of the Cassini mission.

I watched that show "7 Days Out" specifically for the Cassini mission. It did not disappoint. There were feelings involved.

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#103

Post by ragebol »

bad_alloc wrote: post #94
pjmlp wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More interesting would be when someone else from another species finds them in a couple of million years in the future and wonders what their purpose was all about.

If found in the current state, I'd speculate they'd conclude it's a planetary explorer: * Lots of sensors * Lots of communcation equipment * No external controls * Parts built without maitenance access * Solar power * Found on a mostly empty planet, with only a few other rovers around * A planet next door littered with similar technology

How would you recognize this and reach that conclusion if you were a different species, with different technology?

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#104

Post by pjmlp »

bad_alloc wrote: post #94
pjmlp wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More interesting would be when someone else from another species finds them in a couple of million years in the future and wonders what their purpose was all about.

If found in the current state, I'd speculate they'd conclude it's a planetary explorer: * Lots of sensors * Lots of communcation equipment * No external controls * Parts built without maitenance access * Solar power * Found on a mostly empty planet, with only a few other rovers around * A planet next door littered with similar technology

Possibly, however who knows if in a million of years Earth even still exists to make associations viable.

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#105

Post by Ianworld »

slg wrote: post #23

Opportunity's and Spirit's original missions were planned to last 90 Martian days each. They ended up lasting over 8,000 combined. That is almost as impressive as getting the rovers to Mars in the first place.

I remember talking to a high up on the program at a FIRST robotics event who complained about them running so long. They weren't making any major new discoveries and sucking up resources and mindshare stopping him for kicking off and focusing on new projects. He said nobody would take the PR hit to decide to just end a mission like this so he was stuck.

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#106

Post by mattkrause »

Simon_says wrote: post #91
LifeLiverTransp wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they make it over 9000 days, they can state the just did a error on the exponent

Then the units would be time squared. That doesn’t make any sense!

Nah, just use scientific notation: 9e1 vs 9e3 days.

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#107

Post by 2trill2spill »

sanj wrote: post #31

Is it possible for someone other than NASA to send a message to the rover? I'd be happy throwing a little money at a project to ping it monthly to see if there is a response.

You could send a message. The source code is available[1], but you would need to build or have access to a large antenna, which would be extremely difficult and/or expensive.

[1]: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ion-dtn/files/ion-3.6.2.tar...

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#108

Post by fivefive55 »

buboard wrote: post #42
deusofnull wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of those classic situations where the "why not both" meme is really appropriate. AIs and Robots and Humans working together.

the cost of sending humans is disproportionately larger

The cost of failure is even higher.

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#109

Post by jessriedel »

Ianworld wrote: post #105
slg wrote: post #23

Opportunity's and Spirit's original missions were planned to last 90 Martian days each. They ended up lasting over 8,000 combined. That is almost as impressive as getting the rovers to Mars in the first place.

I remember talking to a high up on the program at a FIRST robotics event who complained about them running so long. They weren't making any major new discoveries and sucking up resources and mindshare stopping him for kicking off and focusing on new projects. He said nobody would take the PR hit to decide to just end a mission like this so he was stuck.

What's the limiting factor on just running with reduced staff support? (Honest question.)

Re: Nasa’s Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

#110

Post by bitwize »

classicsnoot wrote: post #92
felipemnoa wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly the reason they did not expect the mission to last longer than that was because they expected the solar panels to get covered with dust and thus render them useless. I don't think they had banked on martial winds to regularly clean them.

Your recollection is correct. Consider too the dust accumulation predictions for the moon landing. It would appear that we (as humans) are not very good at dust estimates (dustimates?). This is reinforced by the continuing struggle/inability to manufacture dirt. As an avid composter with a ton (lol sorry) of experience, I can make you hummus for days. I can turn 90% of your organic household waste into growth medium,…

Hummus? Or humus? Because one I'd like to eat with pita bread and a nice shawarma.The other...not so much :)
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