New Mars Forums

Excellent webcase that talks thru all the instruments

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures … /oct04.cfm

Good descriptions here as well
http://mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/s … nstru.html

For many - HiRISE is far from being the most interesting instrument on board.  I'm not one of them though - BRING ME .3m RES IMAGES

Doug

Dont worry about Oppy at all - it's about 5m short of the rim, somewhere between the entry point, and Burns Cliff. 

I think we'll see a genuine exit attempt this week

Doug

Actually - the exact opposite is true.

Sat in Endurance crater - Opportunity is getting more than 800 WHr's per sol - compared to the roughly 1000 Whr's per sol on the day of landing. This is more than enough to operate and have a verbose science program as well.  Despite it's stuck heater switch on the IDD - it's only using deep sleep occasionally, because power is so good at the moment. This excellent power situation is for many reason - but the main one is that being on the SW rim of the crater gives it an excellent tilt to the sun - and infact leaving the crater as it will in a few days will see the daily power drop slightly - to perhaps 650 or 700 Whr's per sol as the sun incidence angle increases a little by being on the flat terrain outside the crater.

However - Spirit - is struggling along on as little as 400 Whr's per sol. Depsite a favourable tilt that it also has, the sky's are murkier, the local season less favorable and the solar arrays much dirtier.  Whilst it's not a critical situation, and it is an improving situation, of the two rovers, it is the one with power issues, not Opportunity.

Doug

Over at my mer forum, we all KNEW they'd end up leaving the way they went in - it's the only logical, low risk strategy

I'd say another week at Burnsie cliff, a week to traverse back to the entry point, two sols to leave ( they wont want to finish a sol on the nasty away-sun-slope on the far side of the rim ) - then a long drive straight to the heatshield in about 3 sols.

Heatshield before December. Doug's brave prediction

Put it this way - my Birthday is Dec 23rd - and I want a nice 4 x 3 Pancam mosaic of the Heatshield to build before then

Doug

No way, no how.

Mass / volume / time constraints make it a no no from an engineering point of view.

Not to mention, Colin P has become the laughing stock of most of the space industry

Doug

Huygens is light enough to float.

Doug

From a scientific standpoint maybe, but from an engineering / survivablility stand point

Doug

The only power that comes via the lander to the rover is from the solar arrays on the cruise stage - to which we waved bye bye before EDL.

There is a UHF antenna for comms to MGS during EDL - but the transmitter is within the rover WEB, ditto the two LGA antennae as well. The accelerometers are within the WEB also - not the lander.  Whilst there are some batteries on board the lander structure - I imagine they will be quickly exhausted by the critical deploy and most likely non-rechargable.

There is no command / memory / data / transmission / power system onboard the lander structure - all that has to come from the rover basically. 

The point is mute really - as the MER platform whilst succesfull is unlikely to be reflown. however - the job of converting the Lander into an active spacecraft in its own right is impossible due to mass/volume limits - and complex to the point of making more sense just to dump microprobes or a netlander type mission instead.

Doug

Well - Phoenix doesnt have one ( the next lander ) - and I dont believe the MSL has plans for one either ( as it's mobile )

Hopefully a netlander type mission will be put in place as a scout mission sooner rather than later - for global climactic monitoring and seismic observations.

Doug

It was fiscal reasons that held the '01 lander from being reflown quickly.  The money was dumped over to Odyssey and MER to ensure they were both succesfull.

If MRO and MPL taught us anything - it's that rushing, and doing things without enough cash - is just madness.

As far as I see it - the '01 lander is being flown at the earliest available opportunity - '07.

Unfortuantely, I think other, more scientifically bold and interesting scout finalists were barged out simply because Phoenix 'closes the book' - on the '01 hardware.

Doug

It's driven 3 x further than Opportunity - over considerably rougher ground.

I'd say the wheels on Spirit have done 6 x as much work as those on Opportunity

Doug

But - given more money and/or more time - the bugs could have quite easily been ironed out of those missions that failed

Doug