View Full Version : [Space] NASA - Mars Exploration Rover MER-A "Spirit" - Update Thread
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2004
Twin rover Spirit remains on the move, surpassing the 300-meter mark Monday night (U.S. time).
"Spirit completed another 29 meters (94 feet) of its drive toward the rim of Bonneville Crater on sol 64, which ended at 11:49 p.m. PST, bringing its total odometry to 314 meters (1,030 feet) -- 14 meters (45.9 feet) past the minimum mission success criterion," NASA said.
"Spirit began the morning with an 18-meter (59 feet) direct drive that safely maneuvered the rover through a field of rocks. Spirit then traversed 11 more meters (35 feet) using autonomous navigation and at 11:30 a.m. Mars Local Solar Time completed the drive. Spirit had some difficulty finding a way around an obstacle during the last portion of the commanded drive. That resulted in some repeated forward and backward maneuvering which left an interesting 'trench' for scientists to have the rover peer into.
"Spirit is climbing up a very steep part of Bonneville now, and ended this sol's drive tilted at a forward pitch of about 15 degrees."
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
ci si aspetta che ci sia qualcuno, specie se interessanto in astronomia e nel campo aerospaziale che conosca un minimo di inglese, e poi, mica pretenderai che traduca tutto... :O
No, non pretendo che truduci tutto, ma mi fa na' rabbia, xche' l'argomento mi interessa !;)
Originariamente inviato da gegeg
No, non pretendo che truduci tutto, ma mi fa na' rabbia, xche' l'argomento mi interessa !;)
Diciamo che è tutto ok, per ora... Spirit è arrivato al margine del cratere Gusev (300 m dal lander) e si sta lentamente dirigento verso le colline a nord (2 km).
Opportunity ha appena "forato" un'altra roccia, "Humphrey".
Spirit ha raggiunto il cratere:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040311a/01-cl-01-site17crop-A067R1_br.jpg
Mars Rovers See Earth, Moons and Stars
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 03:00 pm ET
11 March 2004
The Spirit rover on Mars took the first picture of Earth ever made from the surface of another planet. It also did a little astronomy, imaging bright stars.
It also spotted what could be a Viking Orbiter spacecraft or a meteor -- scientists aren't sure which.
The photo of Earth shows the planet as a bright dot above the horizon about an hour before sunrise. The image is not in color, though scientists say if a human stood in the same spot and looked earthward, home would probably appear pale blue.
On the other side of the planet, Opportunity captured animated images of Mars' moon Phobos eclipsing the sun. This, along with the previous image of Deimos' solar eclipse, will help astronomers pin down the small moons' orbits around the planet. Mark Lemmon, a rover science team member from Texas A&M University, said Phobos' orbital position is uncertain, with its actual route varying by about 6 miles (10 kilometers), which is roughly the size of the moon itself.
Knowing Phobos' exact orbital path would allow satellites orbiting Mars to obtain close-up photos of the moon. Researchers do not know if the moons formed along with Mars or are captured asteroids.
Stars and streaks
Spirit is also seeing stars. The rover took nighttime images in the direction of the constellation Orion. The bright star Betelgeuse is visible in the upper right. Orion's belt, a row of three bright stars, can be seen near the bottom of the photograph.
Faint specks on the image are the result of cosmic rays hitting the camera, Lemmon said.
None of Spirit's astronomy images are part of the rover's primary mission, but by taking more of them, scientists hope to learn something about the amount of dust and water vapor in the nighttime atmosphere of Mars.
Another sky photo from Spirit shows a thin and short streak of light.
"That streak could have been a meteor," Lemmon said. Or it could have been the Viking Orbiter 2, still circling Mars long after its 1970s mission ended. Lemmon said the other nine spacecraft currently orbiting Mars -- three of which are presently in working order -- have known positions and did not create the streak.
Spirit reaches Bonneville
Meanwhile, carrying out its day job, Spirit has finally peered down into an impact crater called Bonneville. It is the first view of a good-sized impact crater on Mars ever taken from this vantagepoint, said Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The crater does not appear to harbor any sedimentary rock outcroppings, like what was found at the Opportunity landing site, Golombek said at a press conference today. Instead, the rocks around the rim appear to all be similar to rocks the rover has encountered running up to the rim. They are all thought to have been cast out by an ancient impact.
The lack of outcroppings of bedrock is somewhat of a disappointment for scientists, because it suggest there might not be any easy-to-find signs of standing water at the Spirit site. The craft has found signs of past water associated with volcanic activity, but not the sort of soggy situation revealed by Opportunity.
Spirit will explore the crater rim for a week or two before deciding whether to drive down in or move on toward the distant East Hills. The decision will be made based on both science and rover safety.
On the other side of the planet, the Opportunity rover is in the process of analyzing the "blueberry bowl," a high concentration of BB-sized spheres. Scientists are confident the spheres, which they sometimes call blueberries, formed in water, but they don't yet know their composition.
Hematite was water-generated
One of Opportunity's next tasks will be to further investigate a mineral called hematite, which is abundant on the plains that surround the shallow depression in which the robot landed. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University in Tempe said the latest infrared observations show the hematite is highly concentrated in hot spots.
"We call them the mother lode of hematite," Christensen said. The hotspots suggest the hematite has been on the plains for perhaps a billion years and has been broken up from an original rock. He also figures the hematite was long ago punched out of the landing-site crater, which contains very low quantities of the mineral.
Over the eons, some hematite has been transported back down into the shallow crater, but "that's a very slow process," he said.
On Earth, hematite usually forms in the presence of standing water. Scientists had sought to determine if water was the source of the Martian hematite, which had first been detected from orbiting spacecraft and was one reason Opportunity's landing site was picked.
Given the discovery of past water at Opportunity site announced earlier this month, "I think it's fair to say the hematite also formed in water," Christensen said. His team will now try to find out how the hematite fits into the overall story of past water on Mars.
http://space.com/images/h_orion_spirit_0311_02.jpg
Spirit took images in direction of the constellation Orion. Betelgeuse is the bright star in upper right-hand corner. Orion's 'belt' is near bottom. Faint spots on the image are cosmic rays hitting the detector. Credit: NASA/JPL
http://space.com/images/h_earth_spirit_0311_02.jpg
Spirit also captured the Earth in the sky during sunrise on Mars. Mars' rotation is different than Earth's rotation, so the trails of the stars are not what Earth-based observers would see here at home. Credit: NASA/JPL
Spirit looks down into crater after reaching rim
MISSION CONTROL REPORT
Posted: March 11, 2004
NASA's Spirit has begun looking down into a crater it has been approaching for several weeks, providing a view of what's below the surrounding surface.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/images/0403011bonneville.jpg
Spirit reaches Bonneville. Credit: NASA/JPL
Spirit has also been looking up, seeing stars and the first observation of Earth from the surface of another planet. Its twin, Opportunity, has shown scientists a "mother lode" of hematite now considered a target for close-up investigation.
"It's been an extremely exciting and productive week for both of the rovers," said Spirit Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dr. Chris Leger, a rover driver at JPL, said, "The terrain has been getting trickier and trickier as we've gotten close to the crater. The slopes have been getting steeper and we have more rocks." Spirit has now traveled a total of 335 meters (1,099 feet).
Spirit's new position on the rim of the crater nicknamed "Bonneville" offers a vista in all directions, including the crater interior. The distance to the opposite rim is about the length of two football fields, nearly 10 times the diameter of Opportunity's landing-site crater halfway around the planet from Spirit.
Initial images from Spirit's navigation camera do not reveal any obvious layers in "Bonneville's" inner wall, but they do show tantalizing clues of rock features high on the far side, science-team member Dr. Matt Golombek of JPL said at a news briefing today. "This place where we've just arrived has opened up, and it's going to take us a few days to get our arms around it."
Scientists anticipate soon learning more about the crater from Spirit's higher-resolution panoramic camera and the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, both of which can identify minerals from a distance. They will use that information for deciding whether to send Spirit down into the crater.
From the crater rim and during martian nighttime earlier today, Spirit took pictures of stars, including a portion of the constellation Orion. Shortly before dawn four martian days earlier, it photographed Earth as a speck of light in the morning twilight. The tests of rover capabilities for astronomical observations will be used in planning possible studies of Mars' atmospheric characteristics at night. Those studies might include estimating the amounts of dust and ice particles in the atmosphere from their effects on starlight, said Dr. Mark Lemmon, a science team member from Texas A&M University, College Station.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/images/040311earth.jpg
Earth as seen from Mars' surface. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M
Opportunity has been looking up, too. It has photographed Mars' larger moon, Phobos, passing in front of the Sun twice in the past week, and Mars' smaller moon, Deimos, doing so once.
Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer has taken upward-looking readings of the atmospheric temperature at the same time as a similar instrument, the thermal emission spectrometer on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, took downward-pointed readings while passing overhead. "They were actually looking directly along the same path," said science team member Dr. Michael Wolff of the Martinez, Ga., branch of the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. The combined readings give the first full temperature profile from the top of Mars' atmosphere to the surface."
When pointed at the ground, Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer has checked the abundance of hematite in all directions from the rover's location inside its landing-site crater. This mineral, in its coarse-grained form, usually forms in a wet environment. Detection of hematite from orbit was the prime factor in selection of the Meridiani Planum region for Opportunity's landing site.
"The plains outside our crater are covered with hematite," said Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, lead scientist for the instrument. "The rock outcrop we've been studying has some hematite. Parts of the floor of the crater, interestingly enough, have virtually none." The pattern fits a theory that the crater was dug by an impact that punched through a hematite-rich surface layer, he said. One goal for Opportunity's future work is to learn more about that surface layer to get more clues about the wet past environment indicated by sulfate minerals identified last week in the crater's outcrop.
Christensen said that before Opportunity drives out of the crater in about 10 days, scientists plan to investigate one area on the inner slope of the crater that he called "the mother lode of hematite."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Schummacherr
13-03-2004, 11:54
Che impressione vedere la terra da marte :O :)
Originariamente inviato da Schummacherr
Che impressione vedere la terra da marte :O :)
Vi rendete conto che esseri piccoli ed insignificanti che siamo ? :rolleyes: :mc:
Bellissima immagine del cratere a colori:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040315a/x_pubeng_bonnevillecolor-A071R1_br2.jpg
Domanda: che cos'è quella cosa color grigio che si trova sul bordo del cratere, dalla parte opposta, verso sinistra? L'avevo notata anche nella foto in bianco e nero, ma adesso si vede proprio bene. Speriamo che vadano alla svelta a vedere che cos'è...
A chi interessasse, qui c'è il link per l'immagine ad alta risoluzione da 26Mb:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040315a/x_pubeng_bonnevillecolor-A071R1.jpg
Questo è l'oggetto preso dall'immagine ad alta risoluzione.
Sembra un rottame o qualcosa di simile :confused:
http://gpaolo79.interfree.it/oggetto.jpg
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Domanda: che cos'è quella cosa color grigio che si trova sul bordo del cratere, dalla parte opposta, verso sinistra? L'avevo notata anche nella foto in bianco e nero, ma adesso si vede proprio bene. Speriamo che vadano alla svelta a vedere che cos'è...
è la stessa immagine che hai visto tu, solo che questa è quella destinata alla press release, colorata con i valori rilevati dai sensori, e in base al filtro usato. L'imperfezione è probabilmente dovuta ad un problema di trasmissione, capita spesso che manchi uno o più "bit" per costruire l'immagine.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
è la stessa immagine che hai visto tu, solo che questa è quella destinata alla press release, colorata con i valori rilevati dai sensori, e in base al filtro usato. L'imperfezione è probabilmente dovuta ad un problema di trasmissione, capita spesso che manchi uno o più "bit" per costruire l'immagine.
Macchè imperfezione, guarda l'ultimo post.
Comunque questa foto a colori non è stata fatta con quelle che ti ho mandato io, ma con delle nuove riprese fatte oggi per avere la risoluzione massima. Son 26 mega di roba eh... mica te la mandavo per email l'altro giorno sennò :D
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Macchè imperfezione, guarda l'ultimo post.
Comunque questa foto a colori non è stata fatta con quelle che ti ho mandato io, ma con delle nuove riprese fatte oggi per avere la risoluzione massima. Son 26 mega di roba eh... mica te la mandavo per email l'altro giorno sennò :D
gp, la foto la possono aver rilasciata oggi ma è stata "scattata" 2 giorni fa.
cmq io propendo sempre per il cosidetto "information loss".
Non è mai ammartata nessuna navetta in questa zona.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
gp, la foto la possono aver rilasciata oggi ma è stata "scattata" 2 giorni fa.
cmq io propendo sempre per il cosidetto "information loss".
Non è mai ammartata nessuna navetta in questa zona.
No, c'è scritto che le foto sono state scattate oggi.
Ieri, vabbè:
"During its 69th sol on Mars, ending at 3:07 a.m. Sunday, PST, NASA's Spirit finished shooting frames with its panoramic camera for a full 360-degree color view of the surroundings visible from the crater rim where the rover is perched. "
Guarda bene la foto da 26 mega, e dimmi se ti sembra una information loss...
Originariamente inviato da gpc
No, c'è scritto che le foto sono state scattate oggi.
vabbè, acciu sbagliate... :O :D
Guarda bene la foto da 26 mega, e dimmi se ti sembra una information loss...
cosa vuoi che sia gp? :p :D
l'ho guardata, si capisce anche dal fatto che la teorica illuminazione è scorretta, se noti l'obra è in direzione opposta.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
vabbè, acciu sbagliate... :O :D
non ti fidi mai di me :O
cosa vuoi che sia gp? :p :D
l'ho guardata, si capisce anche dal fatto che la teorica illuminazione è scorretta, se noti l'obra è in direzione opposta.
Ombra sbagliata? Non mi par mica... tra l'altro sulla sinistra si vede anche una scia più scura, che potrebbe essere il segno dell'impatto.
Non ho idea di cosa sia... ma io escluderei al 100% dei bit sbagliati...
Originariamente inviato da gpc
non ti fidi mai di me :O
fascio! :Prrr: :p
Ombra sbagliata? Non mi par mica... tra l'altro sulla sinistra si vede anche una scia più scura, che potrebbe essere il segno dell'impatto.
Non ho idea di cosa sia... ma io escluderei al 100% dei bit sbagliati...
allora è un artefatto marziano... :boh:
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
allora è un artefatto marziano... :boh:
No, svelato il mistero!
Era nella descrizione dell'immagine in bianco e nero:
"Just above the far crater rim, on the left side, is the rover's heatshield, which is visible as a tiny reflective speck. "
Quindi, caro Gio, questa volta te lo meriti tutto, visto che mi dai torto solo perchè sono un fascio...: COMUNISTA :fuck: :D :D
Originariamente inviato da gpc
"Just above the far crater rim, on the left side, is the rover's heatshield, which is visible as a tiny reflective speck. "
vero, è a nord! :doh:
Quindi, caro Gio, questa volta te lo meriti tutto, visto che mi dai torto solo perchè sono un fascio...: COMUNISTA :fuck: :D :D
:cry:
:D
Gio, per caso tu hai scaricato Maestro?
Hai problemi con la prima missione di Spirit? A me si chiude tutto dopo avermi fatto vedere la panoramica dall'alto del lander e del rover... :wtf:
Adesso sto scaricando l'ultima versione della JVM, speriamo che sia quello... se non l'hai preso anche tu Maestro, scaricalo che è una figata...
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Adesso sto scaricando l'ultima versione della JVM, speriamo che sia quello... se non l'hai preso anche tu Maestro, scaricalo che è una figata...
si, ce l'ho... bellissimo, lo sto studiando dato che è fatto in Java... cmq non mi da problemi, tutto ok.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
si, ce l'ho... bellissimo, lo sto studiando dato che è fatto in Java... cmq non mi da problemi, tutto ok.
Hm, allora dopo installo la nuova JVM e riprovo.
Pesantuccio comunque il programmino... sul portatile mentre ero via non si muoveva, con l'XP 1800 e 512Mb di ram inizia ad andare bene...
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Hm, allora dopo installo la nuova JVM e riprovo.
Pesantuccio comunque il programmino... sul portatile mentre ero via non si muoveva, con l'XP 1800 e 512Mb di ram inizia ad andare bene...
beh, per forza, deve essere interpretato dalla JVM...
porca miseria mi si chiude tutto anche con l'ultima versione di java...
Gio, che posso provare? Hai presente quando scegli "spirit landsite", poi scegli la prima missione, quella dell'arrivo del rover, che dopo averti fatto vedere le tre immagini dell'atterraggio ti fa vedere la panoramica presa dall'alto, quella circolare? Ecco, appena premo il tasto avanti per passare alla visualizzazione successiva, si chiude tutto, senza nessun errore nè nulla. Ma perchè? :muro:
Noooooooo mi si chiudono da sole anche le altre missioniiiii!! Noooooooo!! :muro: :muro:
Gio mi puoi dire che cosa capita dopo quel passaggio che ti ho descritto che magari mi dà un indizio su dove possa essere il problema?
Forse i driver della scheda video?? :wtf:
cosè Maestro?
Se mi linkate il programmino ringrazio :asd:
Originariamente inviato da thotgor
cosè Maestro?
Se mi linkate il programmino ringrazio :asd:
Maestro è la versione "lite" del software usato alla Nasa per gestire i rover, e lo puoi usare con i dati inviati dai due rover per ripercorrere le missioni fatte.
Lo trovi qui: http://mars.telascience.org/home
Forse il problema è con i driver della scheda video, pare che sia un problema che hanno in molti con le ATI... :rolleyes:
gp, può essere... anche se è non dovrebbe chiuderti il programma così... leggi il log e vedi che ti dice, postalo qui.
al limite installa i cata 4.3!
Adesso sto aggiornando i driver della scheda video, spero che siano quelli.
Il log nel caso come lo ottengo? Tieni presente che mi si chiude tutto all'istante...
Crasha anche coi Catalyst 4.3 e con l'ultima versione di Java :grrr:
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Adesso sto aggiornando i driver della scheda video, spero che siano quelli.
Il log nel caso come lo ottengo? Tieni presente che mi si chiude tutto all'istante...
ci deve essere un modo di salvare il verbose del prompt su txt, aggiungendo un flag all'eseguibile (WITS.bat).
Io dubito che il problema fosse Java, cmq mi raccomando se upgradi la virtual machine (JRE), devi metterla dentro la cartella jre di Maestro.
Prova a leggere le FAQ sul sito.
Hai letto che lo vogliono far arrivare alle colline, con una viaggio di 60 giorni?? :eek:
Ma ci dura secondo te così tanto!? Mi pare incredibile... quant'era il tempo previsto per la durata della missione?
PS: non sono mica riuscito a far andare Maestro... ma non ho nemmeno capito quale possa essere il problema. Ho aggiornato tutto, e se installo Java anche dentro alla directory jre di Maestro questo non parte più... ho provato ad installarlo da un'altra parte e copiarci dentro i file di java sovrascrivendo quelli uguali ma si chiude come prima... ho provato anche ad aggiornare la parte per il 3D di java ma niente... :muro:
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Hai letto che lo vogliono far arrivare alle colline, con una viaggio di 60 giorni?? :eek:
Ma ci dura secondo te così tanto!? Mi pare incredibile... quant'era il tempo previsto per la durata della missione?
La durata della missione prevista era un minimo di 90 giorni marziani garantiti, ma sono stati stretti... sicuramente durerà molti giorni in più, forse diversi mesi.
PS: non sono mica riuscito a far andare Maestro... ma non ho nemmeno capito quale possa essere il problema. Ho aggiornato tutto, e se installo Java anche dentro alla directory jre di Maestro questo non parte più... ho provato ad installarlo da un'altra parte e copiarci dentro i file di java sovrascrivendo quelli uguali ma si chiude come prima... ho provato anche ad aggiornare la parte per il 3D di java ma niente... :muro:
Direi a occhio che è un problema di driver video...
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
La durata della missione prevista era un minimo di 90 giorni marziani garantiti, ma sono stati stretti... sicuramente durerà molti giorni in più, forse diversi mesi.
fico, fico... speriamo che arrivino sulle colline, sarebbe la prima volta che si vede un paesaggio non più piatto della pianura padana :D
Direi a occhio che è un problema di driver video...
E' quello che ho pensato anche io, ma ho messo gli ultimi disponibili... :muro:
90 Days and Counting: Mars Spirit Rover Ends Primary Mission
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press
posted: 07:00 am ET
06 April 2004
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA's Spirit rover has finished its primary mission to Mars yet continues to roll along, moving toward a cluster of hills that could yield evidence of the planet's wet past.
By Monday, Spirit's 90th full day on Mars, the unmanned robot and its twin, Opportunity, had accomplished nearly all of the tasks before NASA would consider their joint mission a full success.
"Spirit has completed its part of the bargain and Opportunity doesn't have much left to do,'' said Mark Adler, manager of the $820 million double mission.
The tasks included a requirement that one of the rovers travel at least 1,980 feet -- a mark Spirit surpassed on Saturday.
Between the two of them, the rovers also had to take stereo and color panoramas of their surroundings, drive to at least eight different locations and operate simultaneously for a minimum of 30 days.
NASA assumed technical and other problems would ground the rovers fully one-third of the time they operated on Mars.
Despite computer memory problems that left Spirit sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks, it's still spent more days at work than expected, Adler said.
For Opportunity, it still must function for another 20 martian days -- which are nearly 40 minutes longer than Earth days -- before it meets all of its targets, Adler said.
"It's better than we could have possibly imagined," he said.
Spirit landed Jan. 3 in Gusev Crater, a 90-mile-diameter depression scientists believed once contained a lake. Spirit has found traces of limited past water activity in rocks it has examined, but none of the lake deposits scientists hoped it would uncover.
Spirit is now several days into a trek toward a cluster of hills that may contain geologic evidence of a more substantially wet environment, including perhaps layered rocks formed in standing water.
Opportunity has found such rocks at its landing site, halfway around the now frozen and dry planet, since it landed Jan. 24. Scientists believe a salty sea or swamp once covered that site, called Meridiani Planum.
NASA has extended the joint mission through September. If the rovers continue to function, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will apply for money to further extend the project, Adler said.
E' da un po' che non pubblicano foto nuove... uffa... :(
NASA's Mars Rovers Get Green Light for Longer Mission
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 04:15 pm ET
08 April 2004
NASA has cleared the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity for an extended mission that stretches well into September now that one of the hardy robots has completed its primary goals.
This week, the Spirit rover surpassed not only its primary 90-day Mars mission, but has driven farther and visited more locations than mission planners had planned to see in its Gusev Crater landing site. Meanwhile, Opportunity is closing in on Spirit's mission success and set a new drive-distance record Monday, roving 328 feet (100 meters) in a single jaunt.
Both rovers are currently going through a four-day software upload that will enhance their autonomous driving abilities, help conserve energy and allow some on-site computer problem-solving should Spirit suffer a similar glitch to one that stalled it for more than two weeks earlier in its mission.
"The extended mission has been approved for another five months into mid-September, taking it to about sol 250 relative to Spirit's landing," said Firouz Naderi, Mars program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), during a mission briefing Thursday. "It's approximately tripling the mission lifetime."
The mission timelines of Spirit and Opportunity are measured in Martian days, or sols.
Naderi said the equipment aboard both Spirit and Opportunity has been tested to withstand the day-night temperature variations on mars for at least 270 sols. The drop in power production due to dust accumulation and the oncoming Martian winter is expected to level off as well, he added.
Spirit of success
Jennifer Trosper, Spirit's mission manager, said the rover holds the bulk of mission success milestones set for the two-robot Mars Exploration Rover (MER) program.
JPL scientists hoped that at least one rover would drive1,968 feet (600 meters) on Mars. Spirit has reached 2,004 feet (611 meters) and is preparing for a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) trek to the Columbia Hills, a month's journey at least.
Mission planners also hoped their two rovers would visit a total of eight locations combined. Spirit alone has stopped at 11, with more expected to follow.
"So the warranty is kind of up, and we'll see what happens next," Trosper said.
The increased autonomous navigation abilities included in Spirit's software upgrade should afford the rover an easier time traversing the rock-strewn terrain on the path to Columbia Hills. When complete, the robot should be able to boost its single-drive distance up to 246 feet (75 meters) a day, a step up from its longest drive to date of 164 feet (50 meters).
Researchers are also interested in using Spirit to peer at a number of light-colored rocks sitting on the road to the Columbia Hills.
"Light-toned rocks, many of us feel, speaks to water because of the coating process," said Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator for the rover missions.
Arvidson said there is some speculation that the coating could be residual salt or iron oxide possibly leftover from ice or snow that deposited on the rocks, then melted as seasons changed.
Opportunity's record
Currently in the 74th day on Mars, Opportunity is the red planet's reigning champion of robot day-trip driving.
It's 100-meter drive this week took the rover away from "Bounce Rock," one of the few geological interruptions in the sandy desolation of its Meridiani Planum landing site. Awaiting the completion of its own software upgrade, part of which is designed to shut down a faulty heater at night to save power, Opportunity has reached a rock outcropping very similar to the one that dominated its attention in Eagle Crater.
"We hope to spend a few sols here…and we're poised for this extended mission," Arvidson said.
Opportunity's extended mission will hopefully carry it another 2,427 feet (740 meters) toward a crater dubbed "Endurance" where mission scientists hope to find more science targets that will put the wealth data collected at Eagle Crater, and more recently on the surrounding plains, into perspective.
Arvidson said the plains of Meridiani Planum are sparse with rock targets because the region sits atop 984 feet (300 meters) of fine grain material deposited over long periods of time. Unlike the impacts in of Spirit's Gusev Crater, which showered the area with rocky ejecta, Meridiani Planum craters don't appear to be deep enough to have punctured through the fine grain layer, he added.
In addition to setting individual extended mission goals for both Spirit and Opportunity, MER planners hope the rovers' combined atmospheric studies will lead to a better picture of seasonal changes on Mars.
In addition to the scheduled end of the extended mission in mid-September, Mars will be in solar conjunction around September 13, a period when the sun lies between Earth and the red planet. That positioning will block communications with both rovers for at least a week to 10 days, mission scientists said.
NASA's Mars Rovers Free Up Memory During Software Upload
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer
posted: 05:40 pm ET
14 April 2004
The researchers and robots entrenched in NASA's current Mars exploration mission snatched a few days rest this week during a multi-day software upload to the red planet rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
The three-day lull in science investigations allowed researchers time to catch up on the avalanche of data sent home by the robotic geologists, and gave the rovers themselves a chance to conduct a bit of data spring cleaning.
"During the sols that we used for the software upload, we did pretty well stand down on the science data gathering," said Jan Chodas, flight software manager for the rover mission, during a briefing Wednesday at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "We had allocated four sols to the process and the rovers completed the upload in three."
Martian days are measured in sols, which at 24 hours and 37 minutes are slightly longer than Earth days.
The new software is designed to upgrade the autonomous driving abilities of Spirit and Opportunity, and contain instructions to put both rovers into a deep sleep each night to conserve power. Some files were also intended to prevent new computer glitches like that which plagued Spirit early on in its mission.
A short reprieve
While the rovers received their new computer files, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) researchers were able to comb through data collected by Opportunity on "Bounce Rock," one of the few rocks found on the plains of its Meridiani Planum landing site.
"It's very different from anything we see from orbit," said Deanne Rogers, a science team collaborator for the rover mission, of "Bounce Rock."
Based on the ratio of magnesium and iron detected in "Bounce Rock," the object appears to have more in common with Earth rocks, specifically meteorites thought to originate from Mars, than the local geology around Meridiani.
MER science team member Benton Clark said "Bounce Rock" is very similar to a meteorite called 79001-B, which was pulled out of the ground in Antarctica in 1979. The rock also has similarities to another meteorite, named Shergotty, found in India in 1865.
"We did believe for some time that [79001-B] originated on Mars," Clark said. "And there's roughly 20 meteorites here thought to come from Mars."
MER researchers said that it's possible that "Bounce Rock" is ejecta material from an impact crater about 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of Opportunity's location. Whether that distant crater could also be the source of Martian meteorites found on Earth, however, is uncertain, they added.
Cleaning house
During the flight software upload, both Spirit and Opportunity remained motionless with their robot arms positioned to point Moessbauer spectrometers down into the soil and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers up at the sky. Those instruments were able to make some observations during the three-day software upload as power supplies permitted.
Chodas said that during the upload, scientists were able to download some 700 megabits of data stored in the flash memory. That's about two-thirds of the available flash memory storage space or both Spirit and Opportunity, a clean sweep for researchers hoping to conduct science studies will into September.
Among that massive data download was the final bits of the Lion King panorama, a huge composite of images taken by Opportunity as it left Eagle Crater. The mosaic is made up of 600 images stitched together to include the crater's outcrop, Opportunity's lander and the tracks left as it rolled out onto the plains.
Chodas said the new flight software is working flawlessly, and researchers hope to put it to the test in Spirit's next autonomous drive toward the Columbia Hills.
Mi è capitato sotto mano un numero di 4 ruote dove c'era una paginetta dedicata a Spirit e Opportunity e dicevano che l'elettronica è riscaldata da otto riscaldatori a radioisotopi.
Non lo sapevo mica... :wtf:
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Mi è capitato sotto mano un numero di 4 ruote dove c'era una paginetta dedicata a Spirit e Opportunity e dicevano che l'elettronica è riscaldata da otto riscaldatori a radioisotopi.
Non lo sapevo mica... :wtf:
si, sono gli RHU (Radioisotope Heater Units), che forniscono una potenza elettrica costante di 1W, generando energia con il decadimento del radioisotopo di plutonio, in modo analogo a quanto viene fatto agli RTG.
Cmq ci sono anche riscaldatori elettrici, come quelli utilizzati al di fuori del WEB (Warm Electronics Box), ad esempio nel braccio meccanico.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
si, sono gli RHU (Radioisotope Heater Units), che forniscono una potenza elettrica costante di 1W, generando energia con il decadimento del radioisotopo di plutonio, in modo analogo a quanto viene fatto agli RTG.
Cmq ci sono anche riscaldatori elettrici, come quelli utilizzati al di fuori del WEB (Warm Electronics Box), ad esempio nel braccio meccanico.
Ah dai, non lo sapevo proprio... non l'avevo letto da nessuna parte, e io che pensavo che su Quattro Ruote avessero fumato pesante
:D
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Ah dai, non lo sapevo proprio... non l'avevo letto da nessuna parte, e io che pensavo che su Quattro Ruote avessero fumato pesante
:D
:huh:
veramente ne avevo parlato a suo tempo... :mbe: :O
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
:huh:
veramente ne avevo parlato a suo tempo... :mbe: :O
E' che parli troppo, poi uno deve filtrare... :O
Originariamente inviato da gpc
E' che parli troppo, poi uno deve filtrare... :O
:( :(
:O
Mars rover Spirit nears hills as Opportunity probes crater
NASA/JPL STATUS REPORT
Posted: June 2, 2004
More than a month into bonus time after a successful primary mission on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover has sighted possibly layered rock in hills just ahead, while twin Opportunity has extended its arm to pockmarked stones on a crater rim to gather clues of a watery past.
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/images/040602hills.jpg
This image from the panoramic camera on Spirit shows a hillside portion of the "Columbia Hills." Scientists are interested in investigating the large boulders and rock outcrop seen on the hillside, as they may reveal clues about how these hills formed. This image was taken approximately 0.4 kilometers (0.25 miles) away from the base of the hills on sol 146 (May 31). Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
Both robotic geologists of the Mars Exploration Rover Project remain healthy. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., quickly restored Spirit from two unexpected computer reboots in May triggered by low-probability software glitches. "We had bad luck to hit two very unlikely scenarios just eight days apart, but in both cases the software team was able to figure out the problem within a day," said Joe Snyder, a Lockheed Martin software engineer on JPL's rover team.
Spirit has driven more than 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles) since arriving at Mars five months ago, more than three-fourths of that since completing its three-month primary mission. It now has only about 400 meters (440 yards) to go -- possibly less than a week of driving -- before reaching the base of a range of hills informally named "Columbia Hills," which scientists identified in January as a desirable but potentially unreachable destination for the rover.
"This is the first time we've ever had a close look at hills on Mars," said Dr. James Rice of Arizona State University, Tempe, a member of the rovers' science team. In 1997, hills called "Twin Peaks" tantalized scientists from only about one kilometer (1,100 yards) away from the Mars Pathfinder landing site. "We could only observe Twin Peaks from a distance and wonder about them, but now with a more capable rover we can get to Columbia Hills," Rice said. He spoke at a press briefing today at JPL.
Rocks in Columbia Hills may provide insight both into both how hills form on Mars and whether the ancient environment at this part of Mars was wet. Images Spirit has taken as it nears the hills already show boulders and potential rock outcrops. "These rocks are much older than what we've been driving across," Rice said. "We could find a lot of geological history locked in them. They may be some of the oldest material ever seen on Mars."
On the rim of stadium-sized "Endurance Crater," halfway around Mars from Spirit, Opportunity has been using its microscopic imager to examine the texture of rocks, adding information about a past lake or sea environment that also left its mark in the smaller crater, "Eagle," where Opportunity landed.
http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/images/040602enurance.jpg
This map of "Endurance" Crater was made by combining images from the camera on NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor with images from the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity descent image motion estimation system, panoramic and navigation cameras. The overhead view shows the rover's surroundings as of sol 148 (June 2). The yellow line to the left denotes the rover's path to this location, with "Panoramic Position 1" being its premier stop. The rover then traveled counter-clockwise around the crater's rim, stopping at locations nicknamed "Karatepe" and "Burns Cliffs" before heading to "Panoramic Position 2." Future targets around the rim include the areas nicknamed "Kalahari" and "Namib." The rover is traversing these locations in order to find the best entry point to the crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU (or MSSS)
"We're looking at rocks that have very interesting surface textures," said science-team member Dr. Wendy Calvin of the University of Nevada, Reno. "These rocks appear to be from the same geological layer as the outcrop at Eagle Crater, but they have some differences from what we saw there." One rock called "Pyrrho" on the Endurance rim has a braided ripple pattern. Another, "Diogenes," compared with rocks seen earlier, has more of the disc-shaped cavities that scientists interpret as sites where crystals formed in the rocks, then disappeared as the chemistry of water in the rocks varied.
From an overlook point on the southeastern edge of Endurance, Opportunity used its panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer to study the inside of the crater, supplementing a similar survey made earlier from the western edge. Both instruments can be used to assess mineral composition from a distance. "We see a strong basaltic character in the sand at the bottom and in some of the rocks in the wall of the crater," Calvin said. That is a contrast to the sulfate-rich composition of the overlying layer, which resembles the Eagle Crater outcrop. "We expect the basaltic material to tell us about environmental conditions from an earlier time," she said.
Scientists and engineers are evaluating the potential science benefits of sending Opportunity into Endurance Crater and assessing whether the rover would be able to climb back out. A decision about whether to enter the crater will be based on those factors.
Mission controllers have begun frequent use of a "deep sleep" mode for Opportunity, reported JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. It is a more complete overnight shutdown that conserves energy but at a calculated tradeoff of risking damage to the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. The strategy has approximately tripled the amount of time the solar-powered rover can work during the day. So far, the spectrometer has survived, but as the martian winter advances, scientists expect to lose the use of that instrument.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
A quanto pare le limitazioni nella durata della missione non risiedono nelle batterie, Gio.
Stanno pensando di fermare i rover per tutto l'inverno per farli ripartire poi una volta iniziata la primavera marziana...
Originariamente inviato da gpc
A quanto pare le limitazioni nella durata della missione non risiedono nelle batterie, Gio.
Stanno pensando di fermare i rover per tutto l'inverno per farli ripartire poi una volta iniziata la primavera marziana...
Appunto. La limitata giornata marziana, assieme alla sempre minore capacità di carica delle batterie, può far propendere per questa soluzione... ma dubito che l'adotteranno cmq, troppo alti i rischi, anche perchè cmq devono rimanere in funzione i termoriscaldatori del WEB e dei giunti meccanici...
Spirit Mars Rover Reaches Hills, Opportunity Goes Deep
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 06:05 pm ET
13 June 2004
The Spirit and Opportunity rovers have each entered a new stage of exploration on Mars.
For Spirit, the robot has pulled up at the base of the Columbia Hills, following a record-setting trek across the landscape of Gusev Crater. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet at Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover is studying science-rich targets within the sloping walls of the large impact crater dubbed Endurance.
Both Spirit and Opportunity are in good health. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California -- home base for rover mission control -- are now plotting strategies to have the machines "winter over" on Mars in a few months, picking up rover duties later in the year.
The hills are alive
"We have arrived," said Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at JPL, as the robot reached its destination. Spirit has wheeled across Gusev Crater some two miles distance from its original landing zone in January.
"We’re there. We’re at the hills now and already see new things there that we haven’t seen before," Adler told SPACE.com. At what is called West Spur, the rover is being steered slightly up the hill to inspect various targets, he said, including one rock labeled "Pot of Gold".
Scientists are eager to scour the area for evidence of possible ancient water activity.
The long-term plan for Spirit is to drive south, along the base of the Columbia Hills to a spot labeled "Lookout Point" -- about 50 feet (15 meters) up the feature. At that location, Spirit will have a tourist-like panoramic view, even grabbing camera shots of what’s behind the hills for signs of layering.
Drive-in viewing
At the Endurance Crater at Meridiani Planum -- a stadium-sized hole in the martian surface -- Opportunity is purring along, carefully making its way down the steep crater wall.
While some wheel slippage is being seen as expected, Adler added: "We’ll be able to dive in and drive out of the crater…no problem."
After wheeling over the crater’s rim, Opportunity drove about 20 feet (6 meters) before stopping at a rock. That feature is being studied to contrast its geological makeup with data accumulated at Eagle Crater, acquired by the robot where it first landed.
At Eagle Crater the rover found small-scale rock textures and evaporite mineral compositions, showing that a body of salty water covered the site long ago.
Rock layers deep within Endurance are thicker and older than those inspected at the shallow Eagle Crater - the main scientific temptation for dispatching Opportunity to wheel inside the feature. By scrutinizing deeper rock layers, the environment of an earlier Mars could be revealed.
Step at a time
From its current position, Opportunity is to continue its drive about 10 feet (3 meters) deeper into Endurance Crater, arriving at a pre-selected primary science target by Tuesday.
"Of course, the scientists are already looking past that," Adler said. "If they want us to keep going, we’ll evaluate if it’s safe and the slopes are good, and the rocks are still providing the kind of traction that we need," he stated.
Adler said that Opportunity’s robotic arm, tipped with science sensors and a Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), is evaluating the terrain the robot is about to drive upon. "We take it a step at a time…feeling out in front of us with the arm as we go down deeper into the crater."
Depending on what the roving Mars machine finds and observes within Endurance Crater, "we’ll stay there as long as it takes to get the science we want…if we can do it safely," Adler said.
Starting over again
Adler said the Mars robots are performing well.
"Just in the past couple of days, both Opportunity and Spirit arrived at new places with new things to do. It’s like their missions are starting over again," Adler said.
JPL robot experts are keeping an eye on a wheel motor on Spirit. Higher currents in that motor suggest friction is at work. "We’re starting to take some actions and see what we can do about that," Adler said.
Around mid-September, the rovers will face minimum energy from a Sun low on the martian horizon. Sunlight is needed to power the robots through solar cell-laden wings mounted on each mobile spacecraft.
Robot handlers are scripting a plan for the rovers to "winter over" on Mars. "Somewhere around late August or so…we may want to get the rovers into a position where we’ll maximize their solar energy," Adler said. "That means rolling them onto slopes, rocks, or hills such that the solar panels are tilted towards the north, where the Sun is at that time."
By angling rover solar panels toward the north through September and October, the robots are expected to be up and operating by late October or November, Adler said.
Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Donald Savage (202) 358-1727
NASA Headquarters,Washington, D.C
News Release: 2004-204 August 18, 2004
Bedrock in Mars' Gusev Crater Hints at Watery Past
Now that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the "Columbia Hills," it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater.
Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed successful three-month primary missions on Mars in April and are returning bonus results during extended missions. They remain in good health though beginning to show signs of wear.
On Opportunity, a tool for exposing the insides of rocks stopped working Sunday, but engineers are optimistic that the most likely diagnosis is a problem that can be fixed soon. "It looks like there's a pebble trapped between the cutting heads of the rock abrasion tool," said Chris Salvo, rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We think we can treat it by turning the heads in reverse, but we are still evaluating the best approach to remedy the situation. There are several options available to us."
Opportunity originally landed right beside exposed bedrock and promptly found evidence there for an ancient body of saltwater. On the other hand, it took Spirit half a year of driving across a martian plain to reach bedrock in Gusev Crater. Now, Spirit's initial inspection of an outcrop called "Clovis" on a hill about 9 meters (30 feet) above the plain suggests that water may once have been active at Gusev.
"We have evidence that interaction with liquid water changed the composition of this rock," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on both rovers. "This is different from the rocks out on the plain, where we saw coatings and veins apparently due to effects of a small amount of water. Here, we have a more thorough, deeper alteration, suggesting much more water."
Squyres said, "To really understand the conditions that altered Clovis, we'd like to know what it was like before the alteration. We have the 'after.' Now we want the 'before.' If we're lucky, there may be rocks nearby that will give us that."
Dr. Doug Ming, a rover science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, said indications of water affecting Clovis come from analyzing the rock's surface and interior with Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and finding relatively high levels of bromine, sulfur and chlorine inside the rock. He said, "This is also a very soft rock, not like the basaltic rocks seen back on the plains of Gusev Crater. It appears to be highly altered."
Rover team members described the golf-cart-sized robots' status and recent findings in a briefing at JPL today.
Opportunity has completed a transect through layers of rock exposed in the southern inner slope of stadium-sized "Endurance Crater." The rocks examined range from outcrops near the rim down through progressively older and older layers to the lowest accessible outcrop, called "Axel Heiberg" after a Canadian Arctic island. "We found different compositions in different layers," said Dr. Ralf Gellert, of Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, Mainz, Germany. Chlorine concentration increased up to threefold in middle layers. Magnesium and sulfur declined nearly in parallel with each other in older layers, suggesting those two elements may have been dissolved and removed by water.
Small, gray stone spheres nicknamed "blueberries" are plentiful in Endurance just as they were at Opportunity's smaller landing-site crater, "Eagle." Pictures from the rover's microscopic imager show a new variation on the blueberries throughout a reddish-tan slab called "Bylot" in the Axel Heiberg outcrop. "They're rougher textured, they vary more in size, and they're the color of the rock, instead of gray," said Zoe Learner, a science team collaborator from Cornell. "We've noticed that in some cases where these are eroding, you can see a regular blueberry or a berry fragment inside." One possibility is that a water-related process has added a coarser outer layer to the blueberries, she said, adding, "It's still really a mystery."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University at http://athena.cornell.edu .
-end-
mooolto interessante come topic :D
Originariamente inviato da fritzen
mooolto interessante come topic :D
Detta così pare 'na presa per i fondelli... :what:
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Detta così pare 'na presa per i fondelli... :what:
no no mi piacciono molto ste cose.
Una cosa, la cassini che fina ha fatto?
Originariamente inviato da fritzen
no no mi piacciono molto ste cose.
Una cosa, la cassini che fina ha fatto?
Sta percorrendo la prima orbita e sta funzionando ottimamente.
C'è il suo thread qui in giro...
Willyyyy
21-08-2004, 10:02
Ma che fine ha fatto Spirit?Non se ne parla più!ci sono molte novità a riguardo immagino!
Originariamente inviato da Willyyyy
Ma che fine ha fatto Spirit?Non se ne parla più!ci sono molte novità a riguardo immagino!
:mbe:
Willyyyy, ma hai letto il post a inizio pagina?!
NASA Approves Another Six Months Of Mars Rover Ops
By Marc Selinger
The twin rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity," have spent the past eight months searching Mars' Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum regions for clues about the history of martian water. Their baseline mission was for three months of operation, although NASA scientists always hoped they would last longer.
NASA Headquarters in Washington is providing $16.4 million to fund the six-month extension, which will begin Oct. 1, according to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) spokesman Guy Webster.
NASA this week resumed daily communications with both rovers, following an expected radio blackout caused by the position of the sun. Spirit is on the west spur of the "Columbia Hills," having driven more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) from its landing site. Opportunity remains inside the stadium-sized "Endurance Crater."
"Although Spirit and Opportunity are well past warranty, they are showing few signs of wearing out," JPL Rover Project Manager Jim Erickson said in a statement. "We really don't know how long they will keep working, whether days or months."
E meno male che dovevano funzionare solo poche settimane...
Originariamente inviato da Teox82
E meno male che dovevano funzionare solo poche settimane...
Ma io non so cosa darei a ritrovare il post di quel tizio che, dopo i problemi con Spirit, aveva scritto "ecco, alla fine resterà solo qualche bella foto ma niente di più... :nono: " per farglielo mangiare, anche solo virtualmente :D :D
Mars orbiter sees rover, lander and even wheel tracks
NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE
Posted: September 27, 2004
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, starting its third mission extension this week after seven years of orbiting Mars, is using an innovative technique to capture pictures even sharper than most of the more than 170,000 it has already produced.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0409/27mgs/rovertracks.jpg
Wheel tracks left by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, and even the rover itself, are visible in this image from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
One dramatic example from the spacecraft's Mars Orbiter Camera shows wheel tracks of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and the rover itself. Another tells scientists that no boulders bigger than about 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) are exposed in giant ripples created by a catastrophic flood.
In addition, about 24,000 newly catalogued images that Mars Global Surveyor took between October 2003 and March 2004 have been added to the Mars Orbiter Camera Image Gallery at http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/. These include additional pictures of the Mars Exploration Rover sites seen from orbit.
"Over the past year and a half, the camera and spacecraft teams for Mars Global Surveyor have worked together to develop a technique that allows us to roll the entire spacecraft so that the camera can be scanned in a way that sees details at three times higher resolution than we normally get," said Dr. Ken Edgett, staff scientist for Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., which built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. The technique adjusts the rotation rate of the spacecraft to match the ground speed under the camera.
"The image motion compensation is tricky and the spacecraft does not always hit its target. However, when it does, the results can be spectacular," Edgett said.
The Mars Orbiter Camera acquires the highest resolution images ever obtained from a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. During normal operating conditions, the smallest objects that can be resolved on the martian surface in these images are about 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) across. With the adjusted-rotation technique, called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation," objects as small as 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) can be seen in images from the same camera. Resolution capability of 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) per pixel is improved to one-half meter (1.6 feet) per pixel. Because the maneuvers are complex and the amount of data that can be acquired is limited, most images from the camera are still taken without using that technique.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0409/27mgs/megaripples.jpg
Researchers' goal in taking this image was to look for boulders in the large ripples formed by an ancient catastrophic flood in Mars' Athabasca Vallis. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. After gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit, it began systematically mapping the planet in March 1999. The Mars Orbiter Camera's narrow-angle camera has now examined nearly 4.5 percent of Mars' surface, including extensive imaging of candidate and selected landing sites for surface missions. The Mars Orbiter Camera also includes a wide-angle camera that observes the entire planet daily.
"Mars Global Surveyor has been productive longer than any other spacecraft ever sent to Mars, since it surpassed Viking Lander 1's longevity earlier this year and has returned more images than all past Mars missions combined," said Tom Thorpe, project manager for Mars Global Surveyor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The mission will complete its 25,000th mapping orbit on Oct. 11.
Principal goals for the orbiter's latest mission extension, beginning Oct. 1, include continued weather monitoring to form a continuous set of observations with NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to reach the red planet in 2006; imaging of possible landing sites for the Phoenix 2007 Mars Scout lander and 2009 Mars Science Laboratory rover; continued mapping and analysis of key sedimentary-rock outcrop sites; and continued monitoring of changes on the surface due to wind and ice. Because the narrow-angle camera has imaged only a small fraction of the surface, new discoveries about surface features are likely to come at any time. The extension runs two years, through September 2006, with a budget of $7.5 million per year.
Dr. James Garvin, NASA's chief scientist for Mars and the Moon, said, "Mars Global Surveyor continues to catalyze new science as it explores Mars at scales compatible with those that our Mars Exploration Rovers negotiate every day, and its extended mission will continue to set the stage for upcoming observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Global Surveyor mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, which built and operates the spacecraft.
jumpermax
10-10-2004, 02:14
diamine... davvero impressionante... funzionano ancora? :eek: Ma non dovevano durare 3 mesi in tutto?
Originariamente inviato da jumpermax
diamine... davvero impressionante... funzionano ancora? :eek: Ma non dovevano durare 3 mesi in tutto?
Già... Spirit ha un po' d'artrite ma per il resto non se la cava male. Anche Opportunity ha solo qualche acciacchino...
Comunque dovevano durare *almeno* tre mesi, ovviamente non potendo fare figuracce li costruiscono in maniera che durino almeno il triplo per andare sul sicuro...
3 mesi sono il "lifetime" garantito, ma i rover (come era facile immaginare) sono stati costruiti per durare mooolto più a lungo, almeno il triplo... se non capitano problemi particolari, durano sicuramente almeno fino a fine anno.
Originariamente inviato da GioFX
3 mesi sono il "lifetime" garantito, ma i rover (come era facile immaginare) sono stati costruiti per durare mooolto più a lungo, almeno il triplo... se non capitano problemi particolari, durano sicuramente almeno fino a fine anno.
Se non si rompe qualcosa anche di più, contando che ora si va verso la fine dell'inverno e quindi verso l'aumento dell'energia erogata dai pannelli...
Mars Exploration Rovers' adventures continue
MISSION CONTROL NEWS RELEASE
Posted: January 3, 2005
NASA lit a birthday candle today for its twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The Spirit rover begins its second year on Mars investigating puzzling rocks unlike any found earlier.
The rovers successfully completed their three-month primary missions in April. They astound even their designers with how well they continue operating. The unanticipated longevity is allowing both rovers to reach additional destinations and to keep making discoveries. Spirit landed on Jan. 3 and Opportunity Jan. 24, 2004, respectively.
"You could have cut the tension here with a knife the night Spirit landed," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "Just remembering the uncertainty involved with the landing emphasizes how exciting it is for all of us, since the rovers are still actively exploring. The rovers created an amazing amount of public interest and have certainly helped advance the Vision for Space Exploration," he said. The twin Mars explorers have drawn the most hits to NASA Web sites -- more than 9 billion in 2004.
Dr. Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "Little did we know a year ago that we'd be celebrating a year of roving on Mars. The success of both rovers is tribute to hundreds of talented men and women who have put their knowledge and labor into this team effort."
"The rovers are both in amazingly good shape for their age," said JPL's Jim Erickson, rover project manager. "The twins sailed through the worst of the martian winter with flying colors, and spring is coming. Both rovers are in strong positions to continue exploring, but we can't give you any guarantees."
Opportunity is driving toward the heat shield that protected it during descent through the martian atmosphere. Rover team members hope to determine how deeply the atmospheric friction charred the protective layer. "With luck, our observations may help to improve our ability to deliver future vehicles to the surface of other planets," Erickson said.
Spirit is exploring the Columbia Hills within the Gusev Crater. "In December, we discovered a completely new type of rock in Columbia Hills, unlike anything seen before on Mars," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers' science payloads.
Jumbled textures of specimens dubbed "Wishstone" and "Wishing Well" look like the product of an explosion, perhaps from a volcano or a meteor impact. These rocks are much richer in phosphorus than any other known Mars rocks. "Some ways of making phosphates involve water; others do not," Squyres said. "We want to look at more of these rocks to see if we can distinguish between those possible histories."
NASA's next Mars mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is due to launch in August. "As great as the past year has been, Mars launch opportunities come along like clockwork every 26 months," said Dr. Firouz Naderi of JPL, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "At every one of them in the foreseeable future, we intend to go to Mars, building upon the findings by the rovers."
NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Jim Garvin said, "Mars lures us to explore its mysteries. It is the most Earth-like of our sister planets, and many believe it may hold clues to whether life ever existed or even originated beyond Earth. The rovers have shown us Mars had persistently wet, possibly life-sustaining environments. Beyond their own profound discoveries, the rovers have advanced our step-by-step program for examining Mars. We will continue to explore Mars robotically, and eventually with human explorers."
JPL has managed the Mars Exploration Rover project since it began in 2000. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Spirit ha incontrato un lavavetri marziano :D e adesso la quantità di energia erogata dai pannelli solari è tornata ad essere pari a quella dell'inizio della missione...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050323a/Sol416A_426A_cal_targets-A433R1.jpg
(prima e dopo la lavata)
Before and After a Cleaning Event on Spirit
These two images from 10 days apart show that dust was removed from the panoramic camera's calibration target on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Spirit's panoramic camera took the picture on the left on the rover's 416th martian day, or sol, (March 5, 2005) and took the picture on the right on sol 426 (March 15, 2005). During the time in-between, other evidence of dust-lifting winds were a jump in power output by Spirit's solar arrays on sol 420 from removal of some accumulated dust, and sighting of two dust devils in sol 421 images from Spirit. The size of the base plate on the calibration target shown in both of these images is 8 centimeters (3.15 inches) on each side.
These are the panoramic camera team's best current attempt at generating "true color" views of what these scenes would look like if viewed by a human on Mars. They were generated from mathematical combinations of six calibrated, left-eye Pancam images for each sequence, using filters ranging from 430-nanometer to 750-nanometer wavelengths.
Pare praticamente che una piccola tempesta di sabbia (quelli che si chiamano Dust Devil) abbia colpito il rover, passandoci sopra e facendo da aspirapolvere eliminando tutto quello che si era accumulato in questi mesi.
Spirit ne ha anche fotografati due:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050314a/Spirit_Dust_Devils_navcam-A425R1.jpg
morpheus85
25-03-2005, 19:23
Originariamente inviato da gpc
Spirit ha incontrato un lavavetri marziano :D e adesso la quantità di energia erogata dai pannelli solari è tornata ad essere pari a quella dell'inizio della missione...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050323a/Sol416A_426A_cal_targets-A433R1.jpg
(prima e dopo la lavata)
Before and After a Cleaning Event on Spirit
These two images from 10 days apart show that dust was removed from the panoramic camera's calibration target on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Spirit's panoramic camera took the picture on the left on the rover's 416th martian day, or sol, (March 5, 2005) and took the picture on the right on sol 426 (March 15, 2005). During the time in-between, other evidence of dust-lifting winds were a jump in power output by Spirit's solar arrays on sol 420 from removal of some accumulated dust, and sighting of two dust devils in sol 421 images from Spirit. The size of the base plate on the calibration target shown in both of these images is 8 centimeters (3.15 inches) on each side.
These are the panoramic camera team's best current attempt at generating "true color" views of what these scenes would look like if viewed by a human on Mars. They were generated from mathematical combinations of six calibrated, left-eye Pancam images for each sequence, using filters ranging from 430-nanometer to 750-nanometer wavelengths.
Pare praticamente che una piccola tempesta di sabbia (quelli che si chiamano Dust Devil) abbia colpito il rover, passandoci sopra e facendo da aspirapolvere eliminando tutto quello che si era accumulato in questi mesi.
Spirit ne ha anche fotografati due:
Ho sentito che girano delle talpe su marte, puoi darmi conferma? :stordita:
Ma i robottini funzionano ancora ? :eek:
morpheus85
25-03-2005, 19:36
Originariamente inviato da maxsona
Ma i robottini funzionano ancora ? :eek:
Contro ogni aspettativa :O
Originariamente inviato da morpheus85
Contro ogni aspettativa :O
Ma scorrazzano ancora per il pianeta ? :asd: :D
Da Spaceflightnow.com (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/17marsrovers/):
New manager for Mars rovers in challenging time
NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE
Posted: March 17, 2006
NASA's long-lived Mars rovers demand lots of care as they age and the Martian winter approaches.
Dr. John Callas, newly named project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, is coordinating the work to meet these challenges. He is a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He was named project manager after earlier roles as science manager and deputy project manager for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
"It continues to be an exciting adventure with each day like a whole new mission," Callas said. "Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars. The JPL operations team and the remote science team working on the project are the best in the solar system at what they do. It is a pleasure and a privilege to lead such an outstanding team and great mission."
One of Spirit's six wheels has stopped working. Dragging that wheel, the solar-powered rover must reach a slope where it can catch enough sunshine to continue operating during the Martian winter. The period of minimum sunshine is more than 100 days away, but Spirit gets only enough power for about one hour per day of driving on flat ground. And the supply is dropping fast.
Spirit's right-front wheel became a concern once before, when it began drawing unusually high current five months after the January 2004 landing on Mars. Driving Spirit backwards redistributed lubricant and returned the wheel to normal operation. This week, during the 779th Martian day of what was originally planned as a 90-Martian-day mission, the motor that rotates that wheel stopped working.
"It is not drawing any current at all," said JPL's Jacob Matijevic, rover engineering team chief. One possibility engineers are considering is that the motor's brushes, contacts that deliver power to the rotating part of the motor, have lost contact. The motors that rotate Spirit's wheels have revolved more than 13 million times, far more than called for in the rovers¹ design.
Spirit's solar panels have been generating about 350 watt-hours of electricity daily for the past week. That is down about 15 percent since February and less than one-half of their output during the Martian summer.
The best spot for Spirit is the north-facing side of "McCool Hill," where it could spend the southern-hemisphere winter tilted toward the sun. Spirit finished studying a bright feature called "Home Plate" last week and is driving from there toward the hill. It has approximately 120 meters (about 390 feet) to go. Driving backwards with the right-front wheel dragging, the rover needs to stop and check frequently that the problem wheel has not snagged on anything and caused other wheels to slip excessively. Expected progress is around 12 meters (40 feet) per day under current conditions.
Opportunity is closer to the equator, so does not need to winter on a slope like Spirit. Opportunity spent most of the past four months at "Erebus Crater." It examined layered outcrops, while the rover team determined and tested a strategy for dealing with degraded performance by a motor in the shoulder of its robotic arm. Opportunity left Erebus this week and is on a 2 kilometer (1.2 mile) journey to a giant crater called "Victoria."
Callas has worked on the Mars rovers' mission since 2000 and five other Mars missions since joining JPL in 1987. He succeeds Jim Erickson, who switched to a leadership role with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Callas grew up near Boston and graduated from Tufts University, Medford, Mass. He earned his doctorate in physics from Brown University, Providence, R.I.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
Ieri al TG hanno detto cose... indicibili... :nono:
Tipo che si sono rotti gli ingranaggi del motore e che deve "ricaricare i pannelli" e che ha "esaurito le scorte di energia"... :cry:
non si è rotta una ruota e forse nn riesce ad arrivare in punto dove si puo ricaricare?
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/f/782/2F195787507EFFAQ67P1209R0M1-BR.JPG
Right Front Hazard Camera Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 782 of Spirit's mission to Gusev Crater at approximately 12:25:32 Mars local solar time. NASA/JPL
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/f/782/2F195785132ESFAQ25P1242R0M1-BR.JPG
Right Front Hazard Camera Non-linearized Sub-frame EDR acquired on Sol 782 of Spirit's mission to Gusev Crater at approximately 11:47:00 Mars local solar time. NASA/JPL
non si è rotta una ruota e forse nn riesce ad arrivare in punto dove si puo ricaricare?
Diciamo che ci sono dei problemi con uno dei sei motori delle sei ruote, che prima assorbeva troppa corrente, poi sono riusciti a farlo ripartire e ora, dopo qualche mese da questi primi problemi, ha invece smesso di assorbirla del tutto e probabilmente s'è rotto.
In ogni caso il rover può funzionare tranquillamente anche con solo cinque ruote funzionanti, chiaramente è più limitato.
Per il discorso carica, non è che il rover "si debba ricaricare". Semplicemente la zona in cui si trova sta entrando nella stagione invernale e quindi c'è meno luce disponibile: per sfruttarla tutta si deve fermare il rover in posizione tale che i pannelli solari siano orientati nella posizione più favorevole.
In ogni caso, parliamo di aggeggini che hanno funzionato qualcosa come sei volte la loro vita prevista, se non erro... Spirit ha raggiunto quasi i sette chilometri di strada percorsa.
se nn sbaglio dovevano durare 90 giorni e poi so durati 2 anni
dantes76
27-10-2006, 16:03
Spirit: Panaorama 'McMurdo' a 360° ( richiede shockwave)
http://www.fotoausflug.de/mars.html
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA01907_modest.jpg
Spirit è ancora in funzione? Quali sono le sue ultime scoperte? Quali i suoi prossimi obiettivi? :)
dovrebbe essere a riposo per l'inverno
Quasi pienamente funzionante, ha solo una ruota bloccata.
Opportunity sta per entrare in un nuovo cratere.
Con questa cosa delle pulizie dei pannelli solari ogni primavera ritornano quasi ai livelli energetici di inizio missione, è una cosa incredibile.
Marilson
30-06-2007, 20:34
queste informazioni confermano ancora una volta se ce ne fosse bisogno della bontà assoluta del programma rovers della Nasa.. penso che giù all'ESA non possono far altro che mangiarsi le mani sempre di più dopo aver perso il lander Beagle. Non hanno assolutamente l'esperienza necessaria per affrontare questo tipo di esplorazioni, alla Nasa invece hanno creato due rovers gioiello figli diretti del predecessore Pathfinder e hanno aperto la strada ad una esplorazione robotizzata del pianeta rosso ancora più massiccia, e propedeutica alle missioni umane.
per il beagle non è stata colpa dell esa
se non ricordo male beagle è stata gestita e progettata da un univerita inglese e doveva anche essere interamente finanziata da questa...
in effetti doveva essere solo un passeggero della mars express...
poi probemi di bilancio e costi sottostimati costrinsero l esa a finanziare in parte il lander e si resero conto anche che quasi sicuramente avrebbe fallito ma ormai era integrato indissolubilmente con la mars express e decisero di continuare (sperando in qualche miracolo)
sempre se non ricordo male....
Marilson
02-07-2007, 10:09
cmq il beagle faceva inequivocabilmente cagare :asd:
su quello non ci sono dubbi:sofico:
Marilson
03-06-2008, 21:38
approfittiamo dell'interesse delle ultime settimane per il lander Phoenix e la missione in corso STS-124 per tirare fuori qualche vecchia, ma non troppo, gloria del programma spaziale NASA. Che fine ha fatto Spirit? :asd:
Viva e vegeta, anche se la capacità di produrre e storare energia elettrica cala vistosamente al passare del tempo, sopratutto a causa della polvere depositata sui pannelli e dalla situazione climatica non ideale, leggasi tempeste di sabbia.
SPIRIT UPDATE: Energy Levels Reach Record Low - sol 1559-1566, May 22-29, 2008:
Energy production reached a record low for Spirit this past week. On Sol 1560 (May 23, 2008), solar array input was 220 watt-hours (enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for two hours and 12 minutes). On sol 1563, Spirit expended the highest amount of energy yet on running heaters to maintain minimum temperatures for batteries (30.6 watt-hours) and the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (54.0 watt-hours). Activity levels on Spirit have been kept low this week to compensate for the reduced energy production.
As was the case last week, Spirit had insufficient energy to transmit data to Earth each day. As a result, the operations team selected which Martian days, or sols, would be used for data downlinks to Earth.
Uplinks of communications from Earth have also been curtailed. Spirit typically has a daily communications window when the rover wakes up and points its High-Gain Antenna toward Earth and listens for new commands. By passing up on some of these uplink opportunities, the rover is able to stay awake for shorter periods of time each sol. Rover operators still have the ability to send new commands if necessary.
Despite low energy levels, Spirit continues to be in good health. The rover continues to conduct atmospheric observations, especially measurements of atmospheric opacity. As explained in last week's report, these Tau measurements of the amount of dust in the atmosphere provide valuable data for science and operations planning because they affect the amount of solar energy that reaches the rover's solar panels.
All subsystems are performing as expected.
Sol-by-sol summary:
In addition to receiving direct-from-Earth instructions over the rover's high-gain antenna, Spirit completed the following activities:
Sol 1559 (May 22, 2008): Spirit received new commands from Earth, measured atmospheric opacity caused by dust (Tau) with the panoramic camera and sent data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter to be relayed to Earth.
Sol 1560: Spirit again measured atmospheric dust with the panoramic camera and recharged the batteries.
Sol 1561: Spirit received new commands from Earth. The rover measured atmospheric darkness caused by dust with the panoramic camera.
Sol 1562: Spirit recharged the batteries.
Sol 1563: Spirit measured atmospheric dust with the panoramic camera and transmitted data to Odyssey.
Sol 1564: Spirit received new commands from Earth.
Sol 1565: Spirit recharged the batteries.
Sol 1566 (May 29, 2008): Spirit measured atmospheric opacity caused by dust with the panoramic camera and sent data to Odyssey to be relayed to Earth.
Odometry:
As of sol 1566 (May 29, 2008), Spirit's total odometry remained at 7,528.0 meters (4.7 miles).
Marilson
03-06-2008, 21:40
l'ultima immagine raw scattata dalla front camera SOL 1558
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/f/1558/2F264676463EFFAY00P1214L0M1-BR.JPG
Cico the SSJ
04-06-2008, 11:18
se si scorrono le immagini dei due rover di mese in mese si vede sempre piu polvere ricoprirli, poveri :(
però ogni tanto si vede una sorta di miglioramento, forse grazie a qualche raffica di vento particolarmente forte, puo essere?
al momento però sembrano veramente spacciati entro poco tempo da quanto sono sporchi
A questi due rover bisognerebbe farci un monumento assieme ai progettisti, dovevano durare un paio di mesi e invece dopo 4 anni sono ancora li.
cavoli, bastava un tergicristallo :D
Codename47
04-06-2008, 14:21
A questi due rover bisognerebbe farci un monumento assieme ai progettisti, dovevano durare un paio di mesi e invece dopo 4 anni sono ancora li.
:ave: :ave:
Una delle missioni più riuscite di sempre, sinceri complimenti alla Nasa ;)
Fides Brasier
04-06-2008, 15:56
cavoli, bastava un tergicristallo :Dmai un marocchino quando ti serve :D
(non ho proprio resistito.... :stordita: )
Marilson
04-06-2008, 17:47
gpc mi ha passato questa foto in pvt, guardate che roba..
http://www.planetary.org/image/spirit_dust_comparison.jpg
"Rubata" da forumastronautico (http://www.forumastronautico.it/index.php?topic=7000.msg68199#new) arriva la notizia che Spirit ha (quasi certamente) superato l'inverno :cincin:
Il rover Spirit (a Gusev Crater) e' sopravvissuto al solstizio d'inverno (sol1591, 25 Giugno 2008) riuscendo ad accumulare ben 230Wh. Otto mesi fa quando iniziammo ad analizzare la situazione di Spirit per questo solstizio il modello che calcola l'energia prodotta dai pannelli lari il risultato era chiaro, Spirit non sarebbe sopravvissuto a meno di non spostarlo in una zona favorevole all'assorbimento dell'energia solare. Dopo diversi mesi di lavoro per spostare Spirit su una rampa con una pendenza di 30 gradi (circa 60%), e alcune settimane lavorando seguendo l'orario marziano siamo riusciti a parcheggiare il rover in quello che viene chiamato WH3 (Winter Haven 3). Il numero tre indica che questo e' il terzo solstizio d'inverno che Spirit (ma anche Opportunity) passano su Marte. Anche se ci sono ancora alcune incognite (tipo temperatura e polvere sospesa nell'atmosfera e sui pannelli solari) credo avreo a nostra disposizione ancora un altro anno marziano di duro lavoro davanti a noi.
Paolo
Il problema vero per me diventa la polvere, a questo punto.
I pannelli sono diventati buoni per farci dei castelli di sabbia, dalle ultime foto. O arriva la ripulita col vento, o mi sa che comunque potranno muoversi poco anche se passano l'inverno...
Il problema vero per me diventa la polvere, a questo punto.
I pannelli sono diventati buoni per farci dei castelli di sabbia, dalle ultime foto. O arriva la ripulita col vento, o mi sa che comunque potranno muoversi poco anche se passano l'inverno...
Ne parla anche il preparatissimo RoverDriver (sarà perchè il nick è indicativo sul suo lavoro :D) nel link e in varie discussioni. Sembra però/comunque che con un po' di fortuna sia in grado di lavorare un altro anno.. Hanno comunque in programma una tecnica "poco ortodossa" per provare a togliere un po' di polvere:
Una delle cose che forse tenteremo e' quella di scrollare i pannelli solari dalla sabbia depositata. L'idea e' di far girare solo le ruote di mezzo in modo da farle scivolare sulla roccia sottostante. Questo dovrebbe creare scossono notevoli e forse questo ripulira' un po' i pannelli.
Spirit soffre (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20081110a.html) a causa dei pannelli molto impolverati e di una tempesta di sabbia che diminuisce ulteriormente la luce solare disponibile:
November 10, 2008
Dust Storm Cuts Energy Supply of NASA Mars Rover Spirit
Dusty Solar Panels on Spirit
The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
Full Image and Caption
PASADENA, Calif. -- A dust storm on Mars has cut into the amount of sunlight reaching the solar array on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, leaving the rover in a vulnerable state.
Spirit's solar array produced only 89 watt hours of energy during the rover's 1,725th Martian day, which ended on Nov. 9. This is the lowest output by either Spirit or its twin, Opportunity, in their nearly five years on Mars, and much less energy than Spirit needs each day. The charge level of Spirit's batteries is dropping so low, it risks triggering an automated response of the rover trying to protect itself.
"The best chance for survival for Spirit is for us to maintain sequence control of the rover, as opposed to it going into automated fault protection," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
Mission controllers are commanding Spirit to turn off some heaters, including one that protects a science instrument, the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and take other measures to reduce energy consumption. The commands will tell Spirit not to try communicating again until Thursday. While pursuing that strategy the team also plans to listen to Spirit frequently during the next few days to detect signals the rover might send if it does go into a low-energy fault protection mode.
Mars weather forecasts suggest the dust storm may be clearing now or in the next few days. However, the dust falling from the sky onto Spirit's solar array panels also could leave a lingering reduction in the amount of electricity the rover can produce.
###
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov
89 Watt/ora è il record negativo dall'atterraggio dei rover ed è meno di un terzo del limite di progetto relativo all'energia minima (300 Watt/ora). La situazione è quindi abbastanza critica..
Aggiornamento (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20081112a.html) sulla situazione di Spirit:
Mars Rover Spirit Remains Quiet as Dust Storm Weakens
Dusty Solar Panels on Spirit
The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornel
Full Image and Caption
PASADENA, Calif. -- A dust storm that has reduced power to NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is clearing, but the Spirit's status remains unknown on Wednesday.
Mission controllers sent a set of commands to the rover early Tuesday, Nov. 11, telling it to follow several energy-saving steps, including not trying to communicate before Thursday. The team's immediate goal was to keep Spirit out of a pre-programmed protective mode that is triggered when battery charge is depleted below a safety level. The new commands, if received, would allow the team to keep more active control of Spirit than is possible when the rover is in the low-power protective mode.
"Like concerned parents, if we can stay in communication with the rover, we are in a better position to help," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.
Controllers listened overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in case Spirit had entered the protective mode and attempted to communicate. It could be a favorable sign that Spirit was not heard from, because that could mean that the rover has received and is following the commands sent Tuesday. However, another possibility is that Spirit has not only entered the low-power protective mode, but that its battery power is so low it would not wake up to communicate.
"We likely won't know anything definitive until Thursday," Callas said. "The good news is that we have indications from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that the dust storm on Mars is clearing over Gusev." (Spirit is working in a range of hills inside Gusev Crater, which is about the size of Connecticut.)
Meanwhile, controllers will continue to listen for communication from Spirit at the times the rover would be expected to communicate if it has entered the low-power protective mode but still has enough power to transmit a signal.
Spirit has been operating on Mars for nearly five years in an exploration mission originally planned to last three months. A coating of dust on its solar panels is reducing its ability to generate electricity even when the sky is clear.
I pannelli sono (http://www.forumastronautico.it/index.php?topic=8879.msg83501#msg83501) comunque molto sporchi:
MER-A al momento non sta comunicando con la Terra ma questo e' previsto. Purtroppo al momento non sppiamo se la cosa e' dovuta al fatto che siamo il Low Power Fault o perche' il rover ha ricevuto i comandi che abbiamo mandato durante il fine settimana che prevedono una attivita' minima che permette al rover di sopravvivere consumando molta meno energia di Low Power Fault. Se tutto va bene il rover dovrebbe chiamarci Giovedi' (domani). La tempesta di sabbia dovrebbe essere in via di dissipazione ma non sappiamo se questa lascera' un ulteriore strato di polvere sui pannelli ormai oscurati al 70%.
Paolo
Doveva durare tre mesi, sta durando da oltre cinque anni. Se le due sonde dovessero "morire", ci sarebbe solo da festeggiare col Dom Perignon per l'esito di una delle missioni di maggior successo della NASA. :ave:
In base alle informazioni disponibili Spirit è stato contattato con successo e i livelli di potenza, pur rimanendo bassi, sono risaliti (140 Watt/ora) col diradarsi della tempesta di sabbia:
What I've heard is approx 140whrs, and has not tripped a low power fault.
The Doug analysis - in the ICU, but not on the critical list.
Sembra sia riuscito il piano per non far scattare il "low power fault" e usare al suo posto una procedura speciale che consuma meno energia.
NOTA. La fonte (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5282&st=135&p=130880&#entry130880) non è ufficiale, ma trattandosi dell'admin di unmannedspaceflight.com direi che è affidabile.
Ufficiale (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-212):
Controllers Cheer as Data Arrive from NASA's Spirit Rover
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit communicated via the Mars Odyssey orbiter today right at the time when ground controllers had told it to, prompting shouts of "She's talking!" among the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"This means Spirit has not gone into a fault condition and is still being controlled by sequences we send from the ground," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.
The solar-powered rover still has low energy, a condition worsened by a dust storm in recent days. Today's communication confirmed that Spirit had received commands sent on Tuesday and that the battery charge had not fallen low enough to trigger a pre-programmed fault mode.
Callas said, "The baby is crying, which means it is healthy enough to communicate normally. Now we are analyzing the data we've received to determine what the next commands should be, but this is all good news."
Spirit has been operating on Mars for nearly five years in an exploration mission originally planned to last three months. The recent dust storm is clearing, but a coating of dust on Spirit's solar panels is reducing the rover's ability to generate electricity even when the sky is clear.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Panorama di Bonestell (http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/bonestell-78)
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/A1477_1696_Bonestell/A1477_1696_Bonestell_78_eighth.jpg
Pulitina ai pannelli solari di Spirit (non si sa ancora quanta energia abbia fatto guadagnare):
http://astro0.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/spirit_1435-1772.gif
Spirit era quello messo peggio vero?!
Spirit era quello messo peggio vero?!
Si, ha decisamente meno energia (http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showpost.php?p=25556886&postcount=403) di Opportunity (e una ruota bloccata).
Scott Maxwell (uno dei rover driver) ha creato un blog (http://marsandme.blogspot.com/) nel quale posta le note che ha scritto giorno per giorno riguardo alle sue attività mentre si occupa di Spirit:
Hello, World!
Five years ago today, two thousand pounds of metal sent from Earth traced a curving line of fire through a butterscotch sky. Six minutes later, after throwing away its protective shell and sprouting airbags and a parachute, the metal slammed into a rock-strewn landscape, bounced several stories in the air, and gradually rolled to a stop. The airbags deflated, and their carefully sheltered cargo, a rough pyramid, unfolded like an enormous flower, greeting a sun that was both familiar and alien -- the same sun it had once known, but now smaller, more distant.
The blooming flower revealed a seed it had carried for seven months, a robotic geologist that a little Earthling girl had named Spirit. Wasting little time, the seed itself stood up, unfolded, and began to explore her new home.
The invasion of Mars had begun.
For three weeks, Spirit was the only thing moving purposefully on the surface of that long-dead world. She would soon be joined by her twin sister, Opportunity, who would land on the far side of their shared planet -- the two would never meet -- and together they would work to uncover the secrets of that fabled place.
It was not the land we had once dreamed of. No ancient cities, no crystal spires, no wine-filled canals greeted our robotic ambassadors. But by then, we knew it wouldn't be that. In a way, it was something better. It was a real place: a world whose past we could read, a world we could know, if we were brave enough, careful enough, disciplined enough.
I was there from the beginning. Listen, and I'll tell you how it happened.
Of all the hazards we faced in our exploration of Mars, one of the most dangerous was one that was almost laughably simple: sleep. Or, rather, the lack thereof -- fatigue. Mars was an unforgiving place; we had designed the rovers to be robust, but it was still possible for a single mistake by a single team member to kill them. And fatigue leads to mistakes.
That problem's worrisome enough if you live on Earth time. We didn't. To use our solar-powered rovers most efficiently -- and efficiency was everything then -- we set our work day by the sun's course through the Martian sky, never mind when it was up in the Earth sky. And because the Martian day isn't quite the same length as the Earth day -- a difference of about 40 minutes -- our work schedules, though always the same when told by a Martian clock, marched inexorably around the face of an Earth clock.
Say you come into work at 8:00 AM Monday. Tuesday, you come in at 8:40; Wednesday, 9:20; Thursday, 10:00; and so on. Pretty soon, you're starting your day at midnight, at 2 AM, at 4 AM. It's been called "Martian jet lag" -- it's tough on bodies, on brains, on relationships.
To help the team combat this dangerous enemy, JPL hosted a fatigue workshop. They told us warning signs to watch for (irritability, slap-happiness, and so on), and counseled us to keep an eye out for one another, to see each other through it. They set up break rooms where we could take naps if we just couldn't keep our eyes open. They made food available at odd hours, to soothe our puzzled stomachs. They installed blackout shades to keep the sun from resetting our internal clocks. They told us ways to mitigate fatigue's effects -- keeping to the Martian schedule even on our days off, modulating our caffeine intake.
Personally, I loved Mars time. Loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. It emphasized the uniqueness of what we were doing -- nobody else in the world lived on such a schedule. Plus, I got 40 extra minutes of sleep every night -- what's not to love? But then, I'm a night person, and night people do better on Mars time. All the damned morning people on the project were miserable on Mars time -- as miserable as I had been at their stupid 7:30 AM meetings during MER development -- and that was a source of wicked pleasure for me. (Petty? Maybe. But I lived on their schedule for years; they lived on mine for just a few months before they caved. You can't blame me for enjoying a little revenge.)
But there was one effect of living on Mars time that being a night person couldn't mitigate. My wife lived on Earth time; I went long periods without seeing her. So I took a tip from our fatigue workshop and, every day, wrote down what had happened that day, as a way of keeping in touch. I'd work a full Martian day, go home and write it all down, and leave the notes on the coffee table before I went to sleep.
These are those notes. The diary of a Mars rover driver, I suppose you could say. I've decided to make them public now, as a thank-you to everyone who's followed the mission for so long, everyone who's dreamed of being part of it. This is what it was like for one person who was, and still is, part of that mission. This is what it was like to be one person living a small part of a grand, historic adventure.
I haven't edited them much. They're occasionally chaotic and wrong. That was part of the adventure; it's what happens when you're drinking from half a dozen firehoses at once. So I've left 'em like that.
I'll try to post them more or less in real time -- that is, I'll post each sol's (Martian day's) notes just about when I was starting my work day, five years earlier. We started planning each sol in the late afternoon of the previous sol, when Spirit was winding down for bedtime. (Note that I was strictly on Spirit for the first part of the mission, and the rovers were on opposite schedules -- Spirit slept while Opportunity worked, and vice versa.) I don't have a complete five years' worth of notes; about three years in, I simply became overwhelmed by other things and stopped writing. But I'll post the first hundred sols or so, at least, and we'll see what I do after that.
(Oh, and need I say that this is not a JPL-sponsored activity? I did all of the writing on my own time, and with my own equipment, and you'll notice I'm not hosting it at a JPL site. For better and worse, this is mine, not theirs.)
Meanwhile, enough introduction! It's time to come along for the ride. My notes from sol 1 will be posted about 18:30 Pacific time tonight (Jan 3), with further updates coming roughly a day apart after that. Enjoy 'em!
Attualmente è al sol 21, nel mezzo di un periodo decisamente teso: al sol 20 Spirit aveva smesso di comunicare (http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showthread.php?t=600998&page=2) correttamente per cause (allora) ignote.
In corrispondenza con il suo 1800 sol Spirit ha avuto qualche problema:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
January 28, 2009
MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION STATUS REPORT
Mars Rover Team Diagnosing Unexpected Behavior
PASADENA, Calif. - The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive.
On Sunday, during the 1,800th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars, information radioed from Spirit indicated the rover had received its driving commands for the day but had not moved. That can happen for many reasons, including the rover properly sensing that it is not ready to drive. However, other behavior on Sol 1800 was even more unusual: Spirit apparently did not record the day's main activities into the non-volatile memory, the part of its memory that persists even when power is off.
On Monday, Spirit's controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation. Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday,Spirit reported that it had tried to follow the commands, but had not located the sun.
"We don't have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the team that writes and checks commands for the rovers. "Our next steps will be diagnostic activities."
Among other possible causes, the team is considering a hypothesis of transitory effects from cosmic rays hitting electronics. On Tuesday, Spirit apparently used its non-volatile memory properly.
Despite the rover's unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers' Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, "Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground."
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, landed on Mars in January 2004 and have operated 20 times longer than their original prime missions.
non si sa ancora se sia stata una cosa temporanea dovuta a raggi cosmici o provocata da qualche malfunzionamento nell'elettronica del rover.
ninja750
30-01-2009, 16:19
e scommetto che sono passati davanti ai suoi obbiettivi molti omini in quei due giorni di blackout :O
Non è stata ancora individuata la causa del malfunzionamento:
UPDATED on Jan. 29: Spirit Working Well While Diagnostics Continue
Diagnostic activities performed by Spirit on Thursday, Jan. 29 narrowed the range of factors that may have contributed to its unexpected behavior earlier in the week. No clear explanation has been established yet. Spirit is healthy and responding to commands. It recorded and returned images of nearby scientific targets. The rover team plans further diagnostics on Friday of Spirit's inertial measurement unit -- a combined gyroscope-and-accelerometer device that measures rover movements and attitude. Spirit may resume driving over the weekend.
e scommetto che sono passati davanti ai suoi obbiettivi molti omini in quei due giorni di blackout :O
Gli omini fanno cosi (http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYzM1M1X790)' :O
Comunque poco male, sono state sviluppate tecniche (http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=x_iPvUWyzhE) innovative per scovarli :D
Le immagini ravvicinate che si trovano (http://marsandme.blogspot.com/) sul blog di Scott Maxwell a mio parere sono notevoli:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/m/057/2M131420722EFF1155P2959M2M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/m/050/2M130796027EFF09BVP2953M2M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040309a/x_pubeng_approved_030804_Humphrey_PostRAT-A065R1_br2.jpg
Ogni volta che qualcuno posta qui mi viene sempre l'ansia!!! :cry:
La quantità di energia disponibile è salita a livelli leggermente migliori, ma i pannelli rimangono decisamente sporchi:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2009-03-06/2N289448926EFFB0AXP0675R0M3.JPG
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/3334123438_52472dbe50_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/3334123438/sizes/l/)
Ogni volta che qualcuno posta qui mi viene sempre l'ansia!!! :cry:
Se ritrovo l'elenco degli acciacchi dei due rover te lo posto, cosi ti tranquillizzi :sofico:
http://www.planetary.org/image/2F291140955EFFB0KGP1214R0M1.jpg
Aggiornamento del percorso di Spirit al sol 1856:
http://www.planetary.org/image/Route_Map_Sol1856_lg.jpg (http://www.planetary.org/image/Route_Map_Sol1856.jpg)
(Click per ingrandire)
Da notare (http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001885/) che Spirit ha ripreso la marcia e ha stabilito il record di percorrenza da quando la sua ruota anteriore-destra si è bloccata:
Way to go, Spirit! The last two drives for the five-wheeled rover have taken it a total of about 40 meters west, traveling around the north edge of Home Plate. If I'm not mistaken, that's more than Spirit has driven in the last 400 sols combined. Allegedly, the sol 1,856 drive of nearly 23 meters is a record for Spirit since the right front wheel seized up.
A leggere Mars and Me il team dei MER ha una certa passione per i gelati :D:
As we watch, the Mechanisms guys are discussing what Rob Manning's job will be after Opportunity's EDL succeeds.[2] That'll make it three for three, a stunning achievement. Joel [Krajewski] says that after three successful EDLs, you just walk around and they pay you forever. They make you a fellow, give you a robe, and you never have to work again. Well, he's earned it. If this works. We also compare working on MER to working in Vegas: the place is blacked out, we get lots of comps (rooms, ice cream[3], water), and we're spending $4 million a day.
[3] Oh, yeah, the free ice cream. At a MER All-Hands meeting a while before landing, Elachi asked us if there was anything the Lab could do for us, and someone yelled out "free ice cream!" We got it -- and it was good stuff, too. I'm already thinking about what I'm going to yell out next time Elachi asks that question.
The headline at the SOWG is a rumor that the free ice cream will be terminated at the end of February. It's not clear whether money is the reason (much less that the rumor is true in the first place), but they're apparently spending $3000 per week on the ice cream.
That's a lot of ice cream.
The free ice cream is now gone. Andy seems to think this is a bad idea, pointing out that the ice cream was meant as a recognition that we were doing something a little extra -- by which he means living on Mars time. When the topic has come up in meetings, he habitually declares that "if the ice cream goes, we no longer have to work Mars time." I don't care about the ice cream and I love working on Mars time, so I don't say anything, but I'm sympathetic: working on Mars time does disrupt your life. Mark Adler seems to be on Andy's side: he's filed an ISA (roughly a system bug report) on the lack of ice cream in the freezer.
The mesh shows up just in time for me to verify (with Frank's help) before the SOWG meeting starts that the sequencing is likely to work with the desired target: we can reach it with all of our instruments, and that's all we really need. Despite the focus on the eventual RATting of this rock, the short term is another matter; tomorrow is dedicated to a pre-RAT APXS and MB. I spend most of the SOWG meeting roughing out the arm motions to make sure I haven't missed anything, but it seems to be OK.
My stress level is slowly dropping, and the sequencing is going well. I brought in cookies as a snack, and now I put them out on the table for everyone; Scott Doudrick does the same with some kind of yummy fudge snack. The consensus is that this is vitally necessary, in order to make up for the sudden recent lack of free ice cream, and both snacks start to disappear.
I spend some time catching up on my email, the backlog of which has grown to scandalous proportions. Andy sees me and asks the usual question: "So are there any days you don't come in?" I explain that I originally came in on my off days to catch up on the pictures, but I don't have much time for that any more; now I use my off days to catch up on all the work that piles up when I'm on shift. He tells me his strategy for dealing with it: "I just let things fall behind."
My email contains one more piece of good news: the free ice cream is back! Through the end of the nominal mission, anyway, which means until April-ish. Someone will have to go out each week and buy about $1000 worth of ice cream with his own money, then get reimbursed by the project. Mike Adler has already done it for this week. I seriously want to do this just once, for one simple reason: I want to see the look on the cashier's face when I show up at the checkout line with $1000 worth of ice cream.
The only thing funnier would be to throw in one box of tampons.
At the SOWG meeting, Art has some bad news: the rover appears to have lost one of its PRTs (a temperature sensor). But he compensates with good news. No, it's not that he just saved a bunch of money by switching his auto insurance to GEICO. It's that the ICFA is at 90% capacity. The ICFA, he explains, is the Ice Cream Freezer Assembly.
Mission managers for both spacecraft sum up their progress so far, and the state of each rover. When Matt Wallace says that Opportunity just had their best data pass so far, 104.3 Mbits, Mark Adler jokes, "Spirit's done 108 -- not that we're competing or anything."
Matt also reels off a list of spacecraft subsystems; each one is green, green, green -- until he gets to the Ice Cream subsystem. That one's yellow -- the freezer is starting to get a little low.
Sempre dal blog una vecchia immagine di una roccia "RAT-tata":
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/082/2P133638813EFF2232P2590L5M1.JPG
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2009-03-31/2N291756808EFFB0OAP1951L0M1.JPG
http://www.planetary.org/image/spirit_1869_pancam_pan_vonbraun.jpg
In vista il prossimo obbiettivo di Spirit "Von Braun" (la montagnola in alto a sinistra).
Qualche problema per Spirit:
Another of those dreaded "status reports" from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory arrived in my mailbox just now. Apparently, over the Easter weekend, Spirit's computer mysteriously reset twice. One of the reboots happened while it was using its high-gain antenna to talk to Earth, which apparently affected its communications. Other than these mysterious resets, the rover's in good health: they quote John Callas as saying "We do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges. We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly....The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we diagnose the problem."
Stay tuned.
Paganetor
15-04-2009, 08:06
Qualche problema per Spirit:
in italiano da Corriere.it :D (PS: mitico Caprara! :D )
Marte: il computer di Spirit si comporta in modo strano. I tecnici: «È vecchio»
Si spegne e poi si riaccende: tutto sembra in ordine, ma gli scienziati non riescono a capire il motivo
Il «cervello» di Spirit, il robot della Nasa al lavoro su Marte assieme a Opportunity, da ancora segni di squilibrio. Nel gennaio scorso non rispondeva ai comandi inviati da Terra e sono occorsi numerosi tentativi per riportare la situazione sotto controllo e consentire al robot di proseguire la sua marcia nell’area chiamata Home Plate. Ma ora le cose sono tornate a preoccupare i controllori del centro di Pasadena.
Adesso è l’intero computer che governa il robot a comportarsi in modo strano: si spegne e poi si riaccende. È accaduto almeno un paio di volte tra l’11 e 12 aprile e da allora gli ingegneri cercano di diagnosticare la causa senza venirne a capo. Il risultato è che Spirit è bloccato, paralizzato nella grande pianura in attesa di scovare la causa e trovare una terapia. Eppure, dicono i tecnici, tutto sembra essere in ordine: le batterie sono cariche, i pannelli solari producono energia, le temperature del luogo sono nella norma. Perché, allora, il cervello si blocca?
«Siamo consapevoli della realtà», dice John Callas, responsabile della missione al Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Jpl) della Nasa. «Abbiamo a che fare con un vecchio robot e quindi dobbiamo tener conto di tutti gli effetti provocati dall’invecchiamento». Già da tre anni, ad esempio, ha la ruota anteriore destra paralizzata e quando si muove è costretto a trascinarla. Si è espressa l’ipotesi che il guaio derivasse dal nuovo software trasmesso un mese fa, ma lo stesso inviato anche su Opportunity, distante 11 mila chilometri sulla superficie marziana, funziona perfettamente. Così dal Jpl, con tutta la cautela immaginabile, stanno «dialogando» con Spirit attraverso la sua antenna Uhf che trasmette alle sonde della Nasa in orbita marziana, le quali fanno da ripetitori. Spirit è dotato di un’antenna per trasmissioni dirette, ma questa via è ritenuta più rischiosa.
Consola, quindi, vedere intanto Opportunity dall’altra parte del pianeta rosso proseguire imperterrito verso il cratere Endeavour ancora distante 12 chilometri. Entrambi erano stati fatti sbarcare su Marte nel gennaio 2004 e dovevano sopravvivere per tre mesi. Invece sono lassù da oltre cinque anni e continuano a lavorare nonostante i cambi di stagione che provocano sbalzi enormi di temperatura e qualche acciacco. Tutti sperano ovviamente che questi strani segnali di Spirit non si aggravino. Ma ormai al Jpl, pur essendo ottimisti, vivono alla giornata.
comunque, a parte il dispiacere per gli acciacchi, siamo giunti a risultati eccezionali: con una vita passata dai 3 mesi preventivati ai 5 anni effettivi, direi che i progettisti di Spirit hanno fatto un lavoro egregio!
in italiano da Corriere.it :D (PS: mitico Caprara! :D )
Ottima idea.. un po' di italiano ogni tanto non fa male :)
comunque, a parte il dispiacere per gli acciacchi, siamo giunti a risultati eccezionali: con una vita passata dai 3 mesi preventivati ai 5 anni effettivi, direi che i progettisti di Spirit hanno fatto un lavoro egregio!
Se capisci un po' di inglese consiglio di guardarsi questa (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures.cfm?year=2009&month=1) conferenza di Steve Squyres che racconta la vita dei due MER ( è anche piuttosto divertente grazie alle sue battute :D).
Qualche informazione in più sui recenti problemi di Spirit:
sol 1872-1878, April 09-15, 2009: Memory Gaps and Unexplained Resets
Spirit experienced a series of anomalous events beginning on Sol 1872 (April 9, 2009).
Spirit failed to wake up for three planned events. The rover eventually woke up from an expiring alarm clock timer 27 hours later. Then, an unexpected reset of the rover occurred on Sol 1874 (April 11, 2009). A second reset occurred on Sol 1875 (April 12, 2009). It was also discovered that the rover did not record any data in flash memory on sols 1874 and 1876 (April 11 and April 13, 2009).
Sols 1877 and 1878 (April 14 and April 15, 2009) have been normal without any errors or anomalies. At this time, there is no explanation for these anomalies. The rover is power positive with the batteries fully charging each day. All temperatures are well within allowable limits. The project is systematically resetting sub-systems to bring the rover back to normal operations while continuing to investigate this anomalous behavior. Normal, but cautious, operations are expected by the middle of next week.
As of Sol 1878 (April 15, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 241 watt-hours, with atmospheric opacity (tau) around 0.964. The dust factor is around 0.316, meaning that about 31.6 percent of sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. Spirit's total odometry is 7,726.78 meters (4.80 miles).
La causa potrebbe essere una eruzione solare arrivata fino a Marte?!
Ancora nessuna novità.. anche su unmannedspaceflight non ci sono maggiori dettagli (e il fatto che RoverDriver sia in vacanza non aiuta :D)
La causa potrebbe essere una eruzione solare arrivata fino a Marte?!
Non è stato segnalato (http://spaceweather.com/) niente di particolare dall'8 al 13 Aprile.
Team Continues Analyzing Spirit Computer Reboots and Amnesia Events (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-071)
April 20, 2009
After three days of completing Earth-commanded activities without incident last week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had a bout of temporary amnesia Friday, April 17, and rebooted its computer Saturday, April 18, behavior similar to events about a week earlier.
Engineers operating Spirit are investigating the reboots and the possibly unrelated amnesia events, in which Spirit unexpectedly fails to record data into the type of memory, called flash, where information is preserved even when power is off. Spirit has had three of these amnesia events in the past 10 days, plus one on Jan. 25. No causal link has been determined between the amnesia events and the reboots.
The most recent reboot put Spirit back into an autonomous operations mode in which the rover keeps itself healthy. Spirit experienced no problems in this autonomous mode on Sunday. The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., revised plans today for regaining Earth control of Spirit's operations and resuming diagnostic and recovery activities by the rover.
"We are proceeding cautiously, but we are encouraged by knowing that Spirit is stable in terms of power and thermal conditions and has been responding to all communication sessions for more than a week now," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.
During the past week of diagnostic activities, the rover has successfully moved its high-gain dish antenna and its camera mast, part of checking whether any mechanical issues with those components may be related to the reboots, the amnesia events, or the failure to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions two weeks ago.
Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides of the planet through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope with various symptoms of aging on both rovers. The current diagnostic efforts with Spirit are aimed at either recovering undiminished use of the rover or, if some capabilities have been diminished, to determine the best way to keep using the rover.
Laubach said, "For example, if we do determine that we can no longer use the flash memory reliably, we could design operations around using the random-access memory." Spirit has 128 megabytes of random-access memory, or RAM, which can store data as long as the rover is kept awake before its next downlink communications session.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
4chr
Non è stata ancora individuata la causa dei reset:
sol 1879-1885, April 16-22, 2009: Another Reset and a Cleaning Event
Spirit experienced another reset event over the weekend, but otherwise has been well-behaved.
The investigation into Spirit's recent anomalous behavior continues, but there is still no explanation. A team of experts involved in the original design and construction of the rover has been consulted. Although the anomalous behavior is frustrating, the rover continues to be healthy in terms of power, temperature and communication.
The plan going forward is to implement some enhanced data-collecting techniques in order to gather more information from any future anomalous events, and to resume near-normal operations. A short drive for Spirit has been sequenced on Sol 1886 (April 23, 2009).
Spirit also had a small dust cleaning event on her solar arrays on Sol 1881 (April 18, 2009). Solar array energy improved by more than 10 percent
As of Sol 1885 (April 22, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 306 watt-hours, about as much as is used in lighting a 100-watt bulb for three hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) is estimated around 0.964. The dust factor has improved to about 0.377, meaning that about 37.7 percent of sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. Spirit's total odometry remains at 7,726.78 meters (4.80 miles).
una buona notizia è che i pannelli solari di Spirit si sono leggermente ripuliti: l'energia disponibile è salita a 306 watt-ora.
Un po' di foto da Spirit:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2009-04-28/2P293798357EFFB188P2369L2M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2009-04-28/2P293798799EFFB188P2369L5M2.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2009-04-28/2P293976892EFFB1AUP2372L5M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2009-04-28/2P293978293EFFB1AUP2559L5M1.JPG
Qui (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/3484457520_8f298dc5d0_o.jpg) si può vedere un panorama assemblato da un appassionato (mhoward di unmannedspaceflight.com). Attenzione immagine 9237 × 3606.
Spirit ha incontrato del terreno cedevole e ora sta cercando di disinsabbiarsi:
2009-04-28 - Rear Hazcam
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/rear_hazcam/2009-04-28/2R294075825EFFB1BUP1354R0M1.JPG
2009-04-29 - Rear Hazcam
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/rear_hazcam/2009-04-29/2R294253680EFFB1C6P1312R0M1.JPG
2009-04-28 - Front Hazcam
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/forward_hazcam/2009-04-28/2F294075759EFFB1BUP1254R0M1.JPG
2009-04-29 - Front Hazcam
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/forward_hazcam/2009-04-29/2F294253614EFFB1C6P1212R0M1.JPG
Azz pericolosa la situazione, incrocio dita delle mani e dei piedi!!! :sperem:
Altro boost all'energia disponibile, che è salita a 371 W/ora, il livello più alto degli ultimi 550 sol!
Spirit's solar panels are the cleanest they've been in 550 sols.
One piece of good news from Spirit: energy's up to 371 W-hr/sol! This is up from less than 250 in January. She's less starved, at least.
Fonte (http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver) (Scott Maxwell (http://zipcodemars.jpl.nasa.gov/bio-contribution.cfm?bid=272&cid=250&pid=248&page=&country_id=&state_id=))
il Caccia
29-04-2009, 21:10
che spettacolo queste foto, impressionanti!!
ma le foto dei marziani dove sono? :fagiano:
Altro incremento di energia:
Word on the street is that Spirit's energy level is up again -- 392 W-hr today. Is 400+ in her future? That would be a sight for sore eyes!
Altro articolo (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/5255394/Alien-skull-spotted-on-Mars.html) sulle rocce.. questa volta "è" un teschio :cry:
At first glance it looks like a rocky desert - but this image of the Mars landscape has got space-gazers talking.
An oddly shaped space boulder appears to show eye sockets and a nose leading to speculation it might be a Martian skull.
Internet forums are full of chatter about the picture, taken by a panoramic NASA camera known as Spirit.
One alien-spotter speculated: "The skull is 15 cm with binocular eyes 5 cm apart. The cranial capacity is approximately 1400 cc.
"There appears to be a narrow pointed small mouth, so this creature most likely is a carnivore."
Another joked: "The coronal ridge shows ample structure to support the musculature of antennae, although none are visible in this view.
"The nose area is broad and blunted as you would expect to see in a cold and windy landscape. Is he decapitated or is he buried up to his neck?"
Previous images of a skull spotted on Mars in 2006 were believed to have been the result of tampering.
The famous Face on Mars, snapped by the Viking 1 spacecraft in 1976, which showed the shadowy likeness of a human face was late, was found to be a trick of the light when the area was re-photographed in 1998.
- "a panoramic NASA camera known as Spirit" :muro:
- Aldilà del contenuto dell'articolo due righe sulla missione non erano male..
- Qualcuno gli mandi questa (http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8735/indextaa.jpg) :D
Ancora insabbiato:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/forward_hazcam/2009-05-06/2F294872506EFFB1DJP1214R0M1.JPG
Altro aumento (http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver) di energia :eek:
Holy smoke! Spirit has over 470 W-hr thisol! Don't quote me on this, but tomorrow's downlink might show more energy than on Opportunity!
Sti robot sono eterni :sofico: Anzi, hanno un limite strutturale, dopo il quale vanno a pezzi?! Perché all'inizio dovevano durare solo qualche mese e invece stanno li da 5 anni.
1900 sol:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/uploads/post-253-1241761261.jpg
Sti robot sono eterni :sofico: Anzi, hanno un limite strutturale, dopo il quale vanno a pezzi?! Perché all'inizio dovevano durare solo qualche mese e invece stanno li da 5 anni.
I componenti sono certificati in base alla durata prevista di 90 giorni, quindi non c'è più niente "in garanzia".. si potrebbe rompere un componente critico in qualsiasi momento.
Per quanto riguarda quello che ci si aspetta la batteria tra 2 anni dovrebbe arrivare "a fine vita".
il Caccia
08-05-2009, 15:07
1900 sol:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/uploads/post-253-1241761261.jpg
I componenti sono certificati in base alla durata prevista di 90 giorni, quindi non c'è più niente "in garanzia".. si potrebbe rompere un componente critico in qualsiasi momento.
Per quanto riguarda quello che ci si aspetta la batteria tra 2 anni dovrebbe arrivare "a fine vita".
peccato, niente rma purtroppo quindi :D
cmq, io non seguo moltissimo, ma dai dati recuperati da questo mitico robot che cosa è emerso? qualche novità sul pianeta rosso?
656 Watt/ora :D
Oh, my goodness. We just got Spirit's latest power actuals: 652 Watt-hours. Six. Five. Two. That's about 2/3 of what we had at LANDING!
cmq, io non seguo moltissimo, ma dai dati recuperati da questo mitico robot che cosa è emerso? qualche novità sul pianeta rosso?
- Risposta brevissima
I due MER (ognuno in modo diverso) hanno trovato le prove che in passato c'era acqua liquida sulla superficie di Marte.
- Risposta breve
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2009-03-31/2N291756808EFFB0OAP1951L0M1.JPG
As it was traveling, pulling the dead wheel behind, the wheel scraped off the upper layer of the martian soil, uncovering a patch of ground that scientists say shows evidence of a past environment that would have been perfect for microbial life. It is similar to areas on Earth where water or steam from hot springs came into contact with volcanic rocks. On Earth, these are locations that tend to teem with bacteria, said rover chief scientist Steve Squyres. "We're really excited about this," he told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The area is extremely rich in silica - the main ingredient of window glass. The researchers have now concluded that the bright material must have been produced in one of two ways. One: hot-spring deposits produced when water dissolved silica at one location and then carried it to another (i.e. a geyser). Two: acidic steam rising through cracks in rocks stripped them of their mineral components, leaving silica behind. "The important thing is that whether it is one hypothesis or the other, the implications for the former habitability of Mars are pretty much the same," Squyres explained to BBC News. Hot water provides an environment in which microbes can thrive and the precipitation of that silica entombs and preserves them. Squyres added, "You can go to hot springs and you can go to fumaroles and at either place on Earth it is teeming with life - microbial life
In sostanza Spirit ha trovato del terreno ricchissimo di silice. Le analisi indicano che le condizioni ambientali che in passato ne hanno permesso la formazione (sorgenti di acqua calda o vapore acido che esce da crepe nel terreno) sono favorevoli alla vita.
- Risposta lunga: In questa (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5636) pagina ci sono un buon numero di link che puntano a presentazioni e/o paper per approfondire e leggere delle altre scoperte "minori".
il Caccia
08-05-2009, 20:37
molto interessante grazie, approfondirò senz'altro!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2009-05-10/2N295212673EFFB1DNP1943R0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2009-05-10/2N295212599EFFB1DNP1943R0M1.JPG
Waaaoooo ripuliti? :eek:
Questo robottino ha ancora voglia di sorprendere!
The Hydralisk
12-05-2009, 17:00
è finita ragazzi.
http://www.ansa.it/webimages/mida/medium/23/c56f8d1e82e02a5dddfdb6d0296a875e.jpg
2009-05-12 16:57
MARTE, IL ROVER SPIRIT SI E' IMPANTANATO
WASHINGTON - Il veicolo spaziale Spirit, atterrato su Marte nel 2004, si è impantanato, in una zona del Pianeta Rosso che gli scienziati hanno denominato von Braun e Goddard. Dalle osservazioni fatte gli scienziati ritengono che in quel punto la sabbia di Marte sia sofficissima, praticamente impalpabile. E sarebbe questo il motivo per cui il veicolo non riesce più a procedere. I tentativi fatti sono riusciti solo a peggiorare la situazione, perché il rover, che è dotato di sei ruote, è ulteriormente affondato in quella sorta di borotalco marziano e rischia che quella sabbia diventi la sua tomba. Per questo hanno interrotto per ora ogni tentativo di rimuoverlo.
Lo hanno reso noto gli scienziati del Jet Propulsion Laboratory di Pasadena, in California, da dove controllano la missione del rover: o riusciranno durante l'inverno di Marte nel tentativo di disincagliarlo, sperando in un 'indurimento' di quella sabbia finissima, oppure Spirit è destinato a giacere per sempre il quel punto del Pianeta Rosso. Il veicolo spaziale era atterrato su Marte nel 2004 per una missione che avrebbe dovuto durare tre mesi e che è invece durata cinque anni. "Ora però siamo in una situazione davvero molto seria" ha riferito il responsabile del progetto, John Callas. Qualora Spirit non dovesse più riuscire a muoversi, continuerebbe comunque con le sue osservazioni finché le batterie glielo consentiranno.
ansa.it
è finita ragazzi.
La situazione è pericolosa, ma il team che si occupa dei MER è abile e ha anni di esperienza quindi non darei già Spirit per perso. A capo della "task-force" che si occuperà di cercare una soluzione c'è l'italiano Paolo Bellutta :):
No. We are trying to gather mechanical properties of the soil under the wheels. Actually where the wheels are buried. We have observe from the RHAZ that although the wheels have churned up the soil pretty badly, the left side soil is bright in color while the RR wheel has churned up dark material. We believe the dark toned material could provide more traction than the light tone material. We will try to replicate the soil properties in the testbed, evaluate which strategies might work better and go from there. The situation is compound by the issue of high-centering. We are not sure we are high centered, but if we are not, we are cose to it. There is a single frame NAVCAM taken on sol 1870 which shows the terrain the rover is currently sitting. By comparing that NAVCAM frame with the NAVCAMS taken from the current location we are trying to figure out exactly where the rover is and determine if we are high-centered. The last fly in the ointment is that during the last executed drive (sol 1899) the LM wheel stalled. We do not have a cause yet, could be a rock stuck in the wheel well, could be bedrock underneath the wheel, could be an actuator problem.
This is a pretty big mess: embedding event + high-centered vehicle + stalled wheel. Since I have been asked to lead this investigation, you know why I won't be posting much during the next few weeks.
Paolo
Edit: Dalla notizia dell'ansa non si capisce bene, ma hanno interrotto i tentativi per analizzare nel dettaglio la situazione e modellizarla sulla Terra per capire il modo migliore di procedere (nel 2005 sono state necessarie 5 settimane per sviluppare e implementare una tecnica per far uscire Opportunity dalla duna in cui si era insabbiato).
il Caccia
12-05-2009, 19:52
nooo povero, ormai è un mito quel robot, spero vivamente riescano a tirarlo fuori da li, merita una fine più digitosa dopo il servizio svolto!!
maulattu
14-05-2009, 14:01
beh, farebbe girare un po' il :ciapet: perdere un robot perché si è impantanato...
azzo, sta girovagando da una svaccata di mesi e non è che lo perdi perché qualcosa è TFU, ma perché si impalta... :muro:
speriamo che qui riescano a capire come farlo uscire... :help:
maulattu
14-05-2009, 14:05
656 Watt/ora :D
avanti... alzi la mano chi ha mollato! :sofico:
Mars and Earth Activities Aim to Get Spirit Rolling Again (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20090518a.html)
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's rover project team is using the Spirit rover and other spacecraft at Mars to begin developing the best maneuvers for extracting Spirit from the soft Martian ground where it has become embedded.
A diagnostic test on May 16 provided favorable indications about Spirit's left middle wheel. The possibility of the wheel being jammed was one factor in the rover team's May 7 decision to temporarily suspend driving Spirit after that wheel stalled and other wheels had dug themselves about hub-deep into the soil. The test over the weekend showed electrical resistance in the left middle wheel is within the expected range for a motor that has not failed.
"This is not a full exoneration of the wheel, but it is encouraging," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We're taking incremental steps. Next, we'll command that wheel to rotate a degree or two. The other wheels will be kept motionless, so this is not expected to alter the position of the vehicle."
Another reason to suspend driving is the possibility that the wheels' digging into the soil may have lowered the body of the rover enough for its belly pan to be in contact with a small mound of rocks. The rover team is using Opportunity to test a procedure for possible use by Spirit: looking underneath the rover with the microscopic imager camera that is mounted on the end of the rover's arm. This might be a way to see whether Spirit is, in fact, touching the rocks beneath it.
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is also aiding in the Spirit recovery plan. As a result of winds blowing dust off Spirit's solar panel four times in the past month, Spirit now has enough power to add an extra communication session each day. The Odyssey project has made the orbiter available for receiving extra transmissions from Spirit. The transmissions include imaging data from Spirit's examinations of soil properties and ground geometry.
Rover team members are using that data and other information to construct a simulation of Spirit's situation in a rover testing facility at JPL. The team is testing different materials to use as soil that will mimic the physical properties of the Martian soil where Spirit is embedded. Later, the team will test maneuvers to get the rover free. Weeks of testing are anticipated before any attempt to move Spirit.
Al JPL stanno preparando un modello del terreno in cui si è "insabbiato" Spirit:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20090518a/IMG_1623_br2.jpg
Aggiornamento sullo stato di Spirit:
sols 1907-1912, May 15-20, 2009: Spirit Works on Exit Strategy
Rover team members continue their recovery strategy to extricate Spirit from the loose, soft terrain on the west side of "Home Plate." The rover continues to conduct extensive remote sensing observations of the local terrain.
With the extra energy Spirit has gained from recent solar array dust cleaning events, morning UHF relay passes have been added. A low-voltage continuity test of the motor on the left middle wheel was performed on Sol 1908 (May 16, 2009). The results showed normal resistance for a healthy motor. Even though very small voltages were used in that test, a tiny amount of motion (less than a degree) was observed. This is not unexpected, as the motion was opposite of the apparent jam from Sol 1899 (May 6, 2009) and is likely due to the unwinding (relaxation) of the strain in the 1500:1 gearbox. The small motion means it is now less likely there is a jam in the gearbox. A small 4-degree backward wheel motion test is planned for Sol 1913 (May 21, 2009) to investigate the wheel further.
On the ground, work continues on the preparation of the sandbox at JPL to recreate the terrain and conditions of the rover on Mars. A "shoebox" test of a soil simulant, called Bag House dust (a ground basaltic cinder), will be performed under one wheel of the surface system testbed (SSTB) rover to see if the simulant exhibits the characteristics of the soil on Mars. However, testing with the SSTB rover at JPL is held up due to a computer server disk crash. That server loss is being remedied, but will take some time.
As of Sol 1912 (May 20, 2009), solar-array energy production was 716 watt-hours, with atmospheric opacity (tau) around 0.628 and the dust factor improved to 0.680. Spirit has been responsive and communicative, with no reoccurrence of the anomalies from 30 sols ago.
As of Sol 1912 (May 20, 2009), Spirit's total odometry remains 7,729.93 meters (4.8 miles).
il Caccia
23-05-2009, 10:11
c'è vento su marte? c'è la possibilità che sposti un po' di sabbia?
jumpjack
23-05-2009, 10:40
chissà se si puo' usare il braccio robotico come... cric?!? :eek: Se puo' muoversi anche a destra e a sinistra, oltre che in alto e in basso, si potrebbe puntarlo per terra e spostare spirit di quel poco che basta per de-sabbiare almeno un paio di ruote... e insabbiare tutti gli strumenti sul braccio, pero'. :stordita:
chissà se si puo' usare il braccio robotico come... cric?!? :eek: Se puo' muoversi anche a destra e a sinistra, oltre che in alto e in basso, si potrebbe puntarlo per terra e spostare spirit di quel poco che basta per de-sabbiare almeno un paio di ruote...
Gli attuatori del braccio possono spingere/sollevare circa 1/10 del peso del rover.
Usarli per aiutare le ruote "a fare grip" o comunque per facilitare il disinsabbiamento del rover è possibile, ma visto il rischio di danneggiarli un operazione simile verrebbe effettuata solo se altri metodi più "classici" e meno rischiosi non si rivelassero sufficienti.
e insabbiare tutti gli strumenti sul braccio, pero'. :stordita:
Usandolo dal lato del RAT gli altri strumenti dovrebbero essere abbastanza protetti.
c'è vento su marte? c'è la possibilità che sposti un po' di sabbia?
Il vento c'è (ci sono anche i "diavoli di sabbia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Marsdustdevil2.gif)" :D), ma non ha forza sufficiente a spostare abbastanza sabbia da liberare Spirit.
800 W*ora (http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/1941788866) :)
Life: messy. Rover: clean! While we prep for extrication testing on Earth, Spirit's solar-array energy has climbed above *800* Watt-hours.
+Benito+
28-05-2009, 19:40
W*h ;)
sols 1913-1919, May 21-27, 2009: Recovery Efforts Continue
Spirit remains stationary, pending development of a recovery strategy to free her from the loose, soft terrain on the west side of Home Plate.
The rover continues to conduct extensive remote sensing observations of its local terrain. A 360-degree color panorama, called the Calypso panorama, is being collected, and includes the rover's deck. Additional mini-thermal emission spectrometer (TES) observations have been sequenced. Thanks to the extra energy made possible by recent solar array dust cleaning events, Spirit has been collecting measurements of atmospheric argon almost every day using its alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS).
The project continues to investigate the left middle wheel stall that occurred back on Sol 1899 (May 6, 2009). A small (4-degree) backward wheel motion test was sequenced on Sol 1913 (May 21, 2009). The wheel and motor performed satisfactorily. A second, larger test (16 degrees) was performed on Sol 1916 (May 24, 2009), and again, the wheel performed satisfactorily, showing no signs of a jam in the backward direction.
Pending the recertification of the robotic arm (the instrument deployment device, or IDD), a microscopic imager (MI) mosaic of Spirit's underbelly is planned for this coming weekend to assess the rover's embedded condition.
On the ground, testing with the surface system testbed (SSTB) rover at JPL is held up due to a computer server disk crash. That server is being restored from a huge backup tape, which is taking considerable time. In parallel, the SSTB-Lite rover (an alternate, lower-fidelity testbed rover) is being set up to conduct early tests of candidate soil simulants.
Spirit is very active, with abundant energy. Once again, Spirit has received a beneficial solar array dust cleaning. Dust factor (a measure of array cleanliness) improved about 10 percent on Sol 1918 (May 26, 2009). As of Sol 1919 (May 27, 2009), solar array energy production was 843 watt-hours, enough to run a 100-watt bulb for more than eight hours, with atmospheric opacity (tau) around 0.606. The dust factor increased to 0.774, meaning that about 77.4 percent of the sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates through the dust on the array.
Spirit's total odometry as of Sol 1919 (May 27, 2009) is 7,729.93 meters (4.8 miles).
4chr
Usando il Microscopic Imager Spirit ha fotografato (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17251-stuck-mars-rover-peeks-beneath-its-belly.html) la sua "pancia" (l'immagine è fuori fuoco a causa delle caratteristiche dello strumento):
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn17251/dn17251-3_900.jpg
Spirit took its first set of images of the ground beneath it on Saturday. It kept its arm a conservative distance away from the ground to avoid hitting the surface, but the resulting pictures were too out-of-focus to show much.
On Tuesday, Spirit's arm moved in to take a closer look and did not see any obvious sign that rocks were pushing up on the rover's belly. "It certainly doesn't look like the rover is bearing its weight on a mound of rocks, which was one of our early concerns," Callas told New Scientist.
The images did reveal one possible obstruction – a rock or mound of dirt near the middle of the rover. But it is not clear whether the object is actually touching the rover's belly. "We can't tell if it's underneath the lowest part of the belly pan or in front of it," Callas says. The team plans to take pictures at different angles to get a better sense of the shape and location of the obstruction.
In the meantime, the team is preparing a test-bed at JPL to simulate conditions on the Red Planet. Team members are currently looking for a substance that can simulate the Martian soil beneath Spirit (see How to make a Martian mud pie).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/1911/2P296019557EFFB1DOP2284L7M1.JPG
Shoot! Someone tripped on the camera cable in Sound Stage 25 again! I told them to put some duct tape on it. Thanks for point me to it. I will make some phone calls.
Paolo
:ops: :sofico:
+Benito+
10-06-2009, 12:55
Ma quindi? Sta andando in vacca?
Paolo Bellutta, Scott Maxwell (il guidatore di rover che scrive Mars and Me) e Kim Lichtenberg sono partiti in macchina e si sono procurati una ventina di Kg di farina fossile ad uso alimentare che gli serve per simulare il terreno dove è insabbiato Spirit:
During the investigation of this anomaly there are intense moments but also amusing ones. I want to share one with you. As soil simulant we are settling on a mix of diatomaceous earth and clay. Apparently there is a "food grade" DE used to deworm animals and as insecticide (among other things). Scott Maxwell, kim Lichtenberg and I hopped on a car and drove down to Lake Elsinore where there is a facility that sells food grade DE in bulk to get a small sample for testing.
Unfortunately I do not have pictures: the transaction of purchasing a 50lb bag of fine white powder happened at a gas station near a freeway exit.
Paolo
Queste persone che si scambiavano sacchetti di roba bianca in un area di servizio non devono aver fatto un ottima impressione :D
http://www.tusciaweb.it/foto/forzeordine/carabinierivt/coronasanton.jpg
Ma quindi? Sta andando in vacca?
Visto che ci scherzano sopra direi che sono solo dati arrivati parzialmente corrotti per un qualche motivo "normale".
il Caccia
17-06-2009, 19:33
qualche novità? ci sono speranze?
qualche novità? ci sono speranze?
Stanno facendo delle prove (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/15/1963818.aspx) nella "sandbox" (in parole povere è dove dove simulano il terreno di Marte e possono fare dei test per vedere come si comporta il rover) del JPL per determinare l'approccio migliore. Comunque ci vorrà ancora del tempo (a occhio almeno 2 o 3 settimane, forse di più) visto che vogliono essere ragionevolmente sicuri di non peggiorare la situazione invece di risolverla..
In attesa che si finisca di sviluppare e testare una tecnica per disinsabbiare Spirit si farà uso dell'energia sovrabbondante per effettuare (http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver) osservazioni notturne del cielo:
Amazingly, we're planning *overnight* observations on Spirit. We've got *that* kind of energy. Stay tuned for PANCAMs of the night sky
jumpjack
19-06-2009, 20:16
In attesa che si finisca di sviluppare e testare una tecnica per disinsabbiare Spirit si farà uso dell'energia sovrabbondante per effettuare (http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver) osservazioni notturne del cielo:
Da non credere, ora abbiamo un robot IN VACANZA su marte che passa il tempo... sdraiato sulla sabbia a guardare le stelle!!! :sofico:
E intanto a casa che chi si fa un mazzo tanto per riuscire a tirarlo fuori dalle... sabbiature!!! :sofico:
Qualche buona notizia:
NASA readies 'sandbox' to plot Mars rover's escape (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17351-nasa-readies-sandbox-to-plot-mars-rovers-escape.html)
NASA plans to fill a 'sandbox' with simulated Martian soil this week to test escape manoeuvres for the Mars rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a sand trap called "Troy" since early May.
When the rover first became stuck, its wheels slipped so much in the fine, flour-like soil that Spirit moved just centimetres despite the fact that its wheels had rotated enough to move it about 10 metres away. Mission managers then stopped trying to drive the rover, whose wheels had already become buried halfway into the loose soil.
NASA now hopes to begin testing possible escape strategies this week, using a mock-up of the sand trap.
To simulate the conditions at Spirit's site, the rover team will use a cement mixer to combine several tonnes of clay and diatomaceous earth, a type of chalk-like rock made of the fossilised remains of diatoms, algae with cell walls made of silica. The team may also add sand to the mix.
A similar cocktail was used to test escape strategies for Spirit's twin, Opportunity, which was trapped for about five weeks in 2005 on a 30-centimetre-high ripple of soil, nicknamed "Purgatory Dune".
Once the simulated Martian soil is ready, the mixture will be shovelled into a test bed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. It will then be landscaped to match the tilted terrain at Spirit's site, which is largely responsible for the fact that the rover is currently tilted by about 14 ° to the left.
Driving techniques
Engineers will then embed a model rover in the simulated Martian soil and used it to test escape manoeuvres. "What we want to do is run through the whole spectrum of possibilities in the test bed to see which one would work," says John Callas, the rover project manager at JPL.
The driving will likely consist of variations on two basic techniques: driving Spirit straight out of the sand pit and turning its wheels so that the rover moves sideways downslope, Callas says. If all goes well, NASA may begin commanding Spirit to move by mid-July.
Some of the team's worst fears seem to have abated since May, when mission members worried the rover might be so deeply embedded that its belly might actually be resting on rocks it had spotted earlier from a distance.
That could have meant there was not enough weight pressing down on the wheels to give them the traction needed for an escape.
Barely touching
But images taken using the microscopic imager on the end of Spirit's robotic arm in early June revealed a single, pointy object on the ground beneath the rover's belly. Further analysis suggests the rock-like object is just barely touching the underside of the rover but is not bearing any weight.
The rock also appears to be resting on top of the Martian soil, suggesting Spirit might be able to press it further into the ground if it does come into contact with the rock. "When we do start to move [Spirit], it's likely that rock won't be a hazard or obstruction. Right now it's a concern, but it's not considered a serious concern," Callas told New Scientist.
Another worry was Spirit's left-middle wheel, which seemed to have been jammed by another rock. But the wheel now seems to be rotating freely, suggesting the obstruction is gone. Callas says the team will proceed cautiously in case further churning of the soil causes the suspected rock to fall back in.
+Benito+
23-06-2009, 19:44
Fossi in loro studierei bene la possibilità di sollevare le gambe sotterrate appoggiando il robot sulla roccia sotto la pancia.
Se si appoggia la pancia, il peso del rover non è più sulle ruote. E' una situazione che vogliono evitare perché se succede c'è il serio rischio che le ruote non facciano più grip.
+Benito+
23-06-2009, 22:39
Se si appoggia la pancia, il peso del rover non è più sulle ruote. E' una situazione che vogliono evitare perché se succede c'è il serio rischio che le ruote non facciano più grip.
Chiaro che non è più sulle ruote, ma se hai mai tolto una macchina impantanata più le ruote girano più la macchina va giù se c'è su peso.
Indipendentemente dalla correttezza dell'approccio che suggerisci in base alle analisi svolte la roccia non dovrebbe essere in grado di reggere il peso del rover (affonderebbe nel terreno), quindi non è una strada praticabile.
Riguardo alla correttezza a quanto ho capito il tipo di movimento dei rover (lento) non si presta bene ad analogie "automobilistiche". In questa (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5999) lunga discussione si parla in diffusamente dei vari aspetti dell'insabbiamento.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/images/fs_logo_th200.jpg
Sezione (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/free-spirit.html) dedicata sul sito dei MER.
http://jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-06-25/mer20090625-640.jpg
Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil (http://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-102)
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.
In April, Spirit entered an area composed of three or more layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket. Scientists dubbed the site "Troy." Spirit's rotating wheels dug themselves more than hub deep at the site. The rover team has spent weeks studying Spirit's situation and preparing a simulation of this Martian driving dilemma to test escape maneuvers using an engineering test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
A rock seen beneath Spirit in images from the camera on the end of the rover's arm may be touching Spirit's belly. Scientists believe it appears to be a loose rock not bearing the rover's weight. While Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate, approximately 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) southeast of where Spirit landed in January 2004.
"By serendipity, Troy is one of the most interesting places Spirit has been," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We are able here to study each layer, each different color of the interesting soils exposed by the wheels."
One of the rover's wheels tore into the site, exposing colored sandy materials and a miniature cliff of cemented sands. Some disturbed material cascaded down, evidence of the looseness that will be a challenge for getting Spirit out. But at the edge of the disturbed patch, the soil is cohesive enough to hold its shape as a steep cross-section.
Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to examine tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil at Troy. Stretched-color images from the panoramic camera show the tints best.
"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and cemented by the action of thin films of water. We're still at a stage of multiple working hypotheses," said Arvidson. "This may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of Home Plate...or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the wind got to it?"
Team members from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston feel initial readings suggest that iron is mostly present in an oxidized form as ferric sulfate and that some of the differences in tints at Troy observed by the panoramic camera may come from differences in the hydration states of iron sulfates.
While extraction plans for the rover are developed and tested during the coming weeks, the team plans to have Spirit further analyze the soil from different depths. This research benefits from having time and power. In April and May, winds blew away most of the dust that had accumulated on Spirit's solar panels.
"The exceptional amount of power available from cleaning of Spirit's solar arrays by the wind enables full use of all of the rover's science instruments," said Richard Moddis of the Johnson team. "If your rover is going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so scientifically interesting."
The rover team has developed a soil mix for testing purposes that has physical properties similar to those of the soil under Spirit at Troy. This soil recipe combines diatomaceous earth, powdered clay and play sand. A crew is shaping a few tons of that mix this week into contours matching Troy's. The test rover will be commanded through various combinations of maneuvers during the next few weeks to validate the safest way to proceed on Mars.
Spirit's right-front wheel has been immobile for more than three years, magnifying the challenge. While acknowledging a possibility that Spirit might not be able to leave Troy, the rover team remains optimistic. Diagnostic tests on Spirit in early June provided encouragement that the left-middle wheel remains useable despite an earlier stall.
"With the improved power situation, we have the time to explore all the possibilities to get Spirit out," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We are optimistic. The last time Spirit spun its wheels, it was still making progress. The ground testing will help us avoid doing things that could make Spirit's situation worse."
Images and further information about Spirit and Opportunity are available at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .
jumpjack
26-06-2009, 09:52
Guardiamo il lato positivo della cosa: questo macello arebbe potuto succedere dopo 3 giorni dall'arrivo su Marte, e' successo dopo 5 anni. :)
jumpjack
26-06-2009, 09:57
[doppio post]
non ho capito cosa è successo :confused:
Si è incastrato da circa un mese su una roccia, e per evitare danni gli scienziati stanno riproducendo il posto per trovare una soluzione, nel frattempo aprofittando dell'enome quantità di energia stanno usando al massimo gli strumenti che ha a bordo. ;)
magari fosse una roccia! si è letteralmente "insabbiato".
E' finito un una conca piena di residui vulcanici (dalla consistenza polverosa, più fine della sabbia). Il team di controllo non si è accorto della conca in quanto ricoperta dalla più comune sabbia marziana.
Adesso stanno cercando di ri-creare il più possibile le condizioni in laboratorio (usando farina fossile) per approntare una sequenza di comandi che porti il rover fuori dalle sabbie.
Sezione "Free Spirit (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/)" anche nel sito del JPL.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-06-26/mer20090626-browse.jpg
Rover team members mix materials. Pictured (left to right) are Kim Lichtenberg (from Wash U.), Matt Van Kirk (in back in grey t-shirt), Paolo Bellutta (in front) and Mike Seibert (in back in dark t-shirt).
C'è anche un primo video (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=847) a tema.
PS. Bella questa... alla prossima roccia che ha una forma strana la uso :D
http://vossinakis.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/untitled001-001.jpg
Non ho ancora trovato conferma, ma sembra che il livello di energia sia salito ancora. 945 Watt-ora :sofico:
Non ho ancora trovato conferma, ma sembra che il livello di energia sia salito ancora. 945 Watt-ora :sofico:
:eek:
Qual'e' la carica massima? 1200 Wh? Praticamente in 5 anni le batterie hanno perso solo il 10-15% della loro capacita'!
certo che stando fermo non brucia, quindi accumula energia e.... ingrassa :D
+Benito+
28-06-2009, 12:05
:eek:
Qual'e' la carica massima? 1200 Wh? Praticamente in 5 anni le batterie hanno perso solo il 10-15% della loro capacita'!
il livello di carica? mica è un videogioco....
Quella riportata più volte è l'energia prodotta dai pannelli fotovoltaici.
:eek:
Qual'e' la carica massima? 1200 Wh? Praticamente in 5 anni le batterie hanno perso solo il 10-15% della loro capacita'!
E' l'energia acquisita dai pannelli solari, non la carica delle batterie (che non ho idea di quanto sia). Il massimo raggiunto dovrebbe essere intorno ai 1000 Watt-ora nel periodo in cui Spirit era in cima alla "Husband Hill".
Edit: Non avevo visto il post di +Benito+.
Cico the SSJ
28-06-2009, 20:43
ma come si comportano x compensare la differenza di gravità nei test per disimpantanarlo ?
+Benito+
28-06-2009, 21:17
ma come si comportano x compensare la differenza di gravità nei test per disimpantanarlo ?
Alla nasa hanno una sala anti-G in scala 1:1 non lo sai?
Alla nasa hanno una sala anti-G in scala 1:1 non lo sai?
E tengono un paio di nuovissimi Shuttle in un hangar :O (nel caso arrivi un asteroide)
ma come si comportano x compensare la differenza di gravità nei test per disimpantanarlo ?
Usano un modello privo dei sistemi che non servono per un "uso di prova" (sulla terra una "presa elettrica" si trova facilmente :D) e che di conseguenza pesa sulla Terra all'incirca quello che pesano i rover veri su Marte.
non ho capito il senso dell' immagine :confused:
Dici quella con i quattro del team dei MER con le mascherine?
Stanno mischiando i vari componenti che compongono il "terreno" che verrà usato nella sandbox (dove fanno le prove pratiche coi rover) per simulare quello del luogo dove si è insabbiato Spirit.
Se invece ti riferisci a quella con il MER stilizzato è una risposta scherzosa agli avvistamenti di alieni/statuette/ecc. da parte di "complottisti" e/o individui con una buona immaginazione nelle foto di Spirit. L'ho postata perché mi sembrava simpatica :D
I also wanted to let you know that today at around 4:40pm we mixed and leid down the last batch of clay/diatomaceous earth mix for a grand total of 5400lbs. Tomorrow morning, while media will be watching, we will roll down the rover in the sandbox. Hopefully this is the right mix and the rover will not simply be swallowed by the sandbox ;-)
Paolo
4chr
Well, I don't know how to tell you guys, but we have one more rover stuck in sand. This morning we rolled the testbed rover in the sandbox and partly embedded it in the soil simulant. We attempted some small motions to verify that the rover s not moving when operated with 5 wheels. Tomorrow we will be setting the rover for extrication testing.
Paolo
(Si riferisce a quello di test nella sandbox. In sostanza hanno verificato che nella situazione simulata il rover si insabbi come successo effettivamente su Marte)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20090630/spirit3-20090630-640.jpg (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20090630/Colette_Kim_Paolo_rolling_in_090630.jpg)
While a test rover rolls off a plywood surface into a prepared bed of soft soil, rover team members Colette Lohr (left) and Kim Lichtenberg (center) eye the wheels digging into the soil and Paolo Bellutta enters the next driving command. The test rover became embedded in the soil during this June 30, 2009, activity, as intended. The test setup simulates the situation that NASA's Mars Rover Spirit faces in a soil patch called "Troy" on Mars.
The team planned a few adjustments to more closely match Spirit's situation, such as placing a rock beneath the test rover, and then intended to begin assessing possible maneuvers for Spirit to use getting free from Troy. The test facility is in the In Situ Instrument Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
jumpjack
01-07-2009, 13:31
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20090630/spirit3-20090630-640.jpg (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/20090630/Colette_Kim_Paolo_rolling_in_090630.jpg)
che lavoro maledettamente frustrante, stare a 1 metro da un clone del rover, insabbiato e incastrato, e non poter allungare una mano per dargli una spintina! :muro: :muro:
io prenderei tutto a randellate dopo 5 minuti. :muro: :muro:
Lo devono anche insabbiare apposta :D
(All'inizio della missione quando seguivano l'orario marziano per gestire lo stress avevano il gelato gratis :O )
+Benito+
01-07-2009, 18:39
ma a voi sembra avere la stessa consistenza della polvere marziana? :confused: :mbe:
Usano un modello privo dei sistemi che non servono per un "uso di prova" (sulla terra una "presa elettrica" si trova facilmente :D) e che di conseguenza pesa sulla Terra all'incirca quello che pesano i rover veri su Marte.
Piccola correzione: quello che ho detto prima è vero però a quanto pare per i test usano il modello pesante e non quello leggero. Il perché lo spiega bene roverdriver:
This is an excellent question! We have two vehicles we can use for testing: SSTB1 a full size replica of the MER vehicles, minor some minor differences (no solar panels, some temperature probes are missing...) which of course has the same mass as MER and higher weight on Earth than MER has on Mars; and SSTB Lite, a stripped down vehicle with same wheel size, actuators and suspension system, same WEB size but major components like the IDD and others are missing. This vehicle has a weight on Earth that is similar to the weight of MER on Mars. For Purgatory and for this event we are going to use the SSTB1, not the SSTB Lite.
We are still in the process of soil simulant selection and we are following the same principle we followed during Purgatory: we try to replicate the vehicle performance during the embedding event. In Purgatory no matter what we tried, we could not get the SSTB Lite to embed in the soil. The soil we used was too heavy. Fortunately we were able to replicate the embedding event with the SSTB1, not perfectly, but close.
We really can't try to replicate the exact soil characteristics we measure with spectrometers and MIs but try to replicate how the vehicle behaves during the embedding event and hope it will be representative enough for testing the extrication maneuvers. We use some of the information we get on particle size, but ultimately the vehicle is the best instrument we have to select the soil simulant.
Paolo
(Nota. l'intervento è vecchio quindi ignorate quello che dice su "cosa stanno facendo")
Attenzione che in quella foto devono ancora finire di insabbiarlo, quindi non valutate il comportamento del rover:
That image was taken with the rover just being installed in the sandbox, all 6 wheels running. Today we will position and sink the rover as it is on Mars. Any other suggestion? ;-)
Bello vedere come il JPL gestisce bene la cosa dal punto di vista pubbliche relazioni (vedi sezione dedicata con foto, video di aggiornamento). Non per niente sono i migliori nel campo :D
ma a voi sembra avere la stessa consistenza della polvere marziana? :confused: :mbe:
Il terreno è ripreso da quello di Marte, ma deve comportarsi come quello di Marte sulla Terra. In più l'illuminazione, la fotocamera utilizzata e il punto di vista sono diversi. Viste tutte queste cose imho è normale che appaia diverso
+Benito+
01-07-2009, 21:10
parlo di consistenza, quello di marte mi sembra MOLTO più farinoso e con meno adesione di quello simulato.
parlo di consistenza, quello di marte mi sembra MOLTO più farinoso e con meno adesione di quello simulato.
Probabilmente hai ragione tu riguardo alla consistenza (mi da la stessa impressione).
(volevo far notare che a quanto ho capito è una cosa normale: lo scopo è trovare una composizione "simile" a quella marziana, ma che permetta di riprodurre l'insabbiamento con (ragionevole) accuratezza sulla terra. Una volta verificato che il rover si insabbia consistentemente a quanto successo su Marte testeranno varie tecniche promettenti e selezioneranno quella che riesce "sempre" a liberare il rover nel corso di diversi tentativi.)
parlo di consistenza, quello di marte mi sembra MOLTO più farinoso e con meno adesione di quello simulato.
Avverti la NASA che si stanno sbagliando...
ci vorrebbe un cingolato :D
ci vorrebbe un cingolato :D
" Aspetta un po' .. il CATERPILLAR! " :D
FAQ da unmannedspaceflight.com (http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6085):
BUT FIRST - AN IMPORTANT POINT THAT YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE ASKING ANYTHING:
"They will test what they can see, either from imaging and telemetry. They cannot simulate what they cannot see." wink.gif
HOW DO THEY COMPENSATE IN THE TEST BED AT JPL FOR THE .38 GRAVITY ON MARS?
There are two vehicles they can use for testing:
SSTB1 (Tee-Bee) a full size replica of the MER vehicles, minor some minor differences (no solar panels, some temperature probes are missing...) which of course has the same mass as MER and higher weight on Earth than MER has on Mars;
and SSTB Lite, a stripped down vehicle with same wheel size, actuators and suspension system, same WEB size but major components like the IDD and others are missing. This vehicle has a weight on Earth that is similar to the weight of MER on Mars. For Purgatory and for this event they are going to use the SSTB1, not the SSTB Lite. During Purgatory testing it was found that the SSTB1 behaved more similarly to the MER vehicles, possibly because both the SSTB1 and the soil were subject to the same gravity vector.
HOW DO SIMULATE THE SOIL THAT SPIRIT IS STUCK IN?
As soil simulant they have settled on is 1 part of Perma-Guard food grade diatomaceous earth and 2 parts of Lincoln 60 Fire Clay (by weight).
The reason they chose DE is because it is a fine powder, it does not ignite and is readily available. The feel from the pool grade DE is different from the food grade. The first is more abrasive, the second one is more chalky. There is absolutely no evidence that the material on Mars is DE of course.
They really can't try to replicate the exact soil characteristics that have been measured with spectrometers and MIs but try to replicate how the vehicle behaves during the embedding event and hope it will be representative enough for testing the extrication maneuvers.
They have used some of the information recevied on particle size, but ultimately the vehicle is the best instrument they have to select the soil simulant.
DOES THE CONSISTENCY OF THE SOIL CHANGE WITH TEMPERATURE?
COULD THEY DRIVE AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS COLD AND THE SOIL FROZEN - the temperatures on Mars are cold anyway - certainly colder at night. More data needs to be collected, but driving at night has been considered.
HOW CAN THEY BE SURE THAT THE SIMULATIONS IN THE TEST BED WILL ACCURATE?
They try to reduce the variables as much as I can. Although the soil under the right side is different from the soil under the left side of the rover, they have a soil compound that can reproduce the two soil mechanical behaviors depending on how the simulant is tamped down, and this can be reproduced consistently. Since the soil is all the same there is no need to keep two different soil simulants separated. The sandbox is in an air-conditioned area and the rover will be placed in the same configuration each time in the 8'x12'x2' box set at about 12 deg roll. They don't know how accurate the testbed simulation will be. One thing that can be done is to issue the same commands that were executed on Mars and compare the testbed results with the data from Mars. Moreover, what the testbed will be used for is a differential study. They just need to compare the different extrication strategies that have been through of and find out the best one. They do not need 100% accuracy, just enough fidelity to find the most efficient maneuvers and the one to avoid.
WHAT POSITION IS THE ROVER CURRENTLY IN?
Brief description of the rover attitude:
1) the rover is aligned more or less north-south (front of the rover north)
2) the rover is on a slope about 10-12 degrees, left side of the rover is lower than the right side
3) pitch is almost zero
The soil under the left side is cohesionless, the soil under the right side seems to provide more traction.
The two middle wheels are only partly embedded, the RF is on top of the surface, LF, and rear wheels are fully embedded.
I HEARD THAT THE ROVER IS SITTING ON A POINTY ROCK. WHAT WILL THAT DO?
There was some concern that the rover was "high-centered" which usually means that the vehicle's center of gravity is being supported on something other than the drive surfaces, so there's little or no traction.
There is a rock underneath the rover which is just touching the underside of the main body. It is thought though that this rock is not fixed on solid ground and will probably move as the rover shifts.
COULD THE ROCK PUNCTURE THE ROVER AND CAUSE DAMAGE?
If the body of the rover was punctured, there is about 1-inch between the shell and any internal electronics/mechanisms.
CAN THE ROBOT ARM (IDD - Instrument Deployment Device) BE USED TO RESCUE THE ROVER BY...
PUSHING - The IDD is about 2-3 Kg and about 1m long, the rover is about 185Kg. You do the math. The wrist/turret are much much weaker - but the Elbow can manage 20 Nm force, it can handle 40 Nm static, the Shoulder's two motors about 45 Nm.
If you could brace the IDD into the ground, you could apply, say, 30 Nm at the shoulder without getting near the static limit of the elbow. You would have only about 60 N of force at the IDD attachment point though - as each part of the arm is about half a meter long. The rover, at 185kg, has a total force from gravity of about 697N. So the arm would only ever be able to take about a tenth of the weight of the rover.
PULLING - Same as above.
TIPPING - Changing the Centre of Gravity of the rover by extending the arm thereby shifting the weight on the wheels. See above. They are going to try the idea in the test bed though and see what happens.
USING THE IDD FOR TRACTION - The rover cannot drive while the IDD is in motion at the same time. Consider this also, if the IDD was lodged against the ground, driving over it, the wheels could get a good grip - BUT, then the IDD (the main science instrument) would be useless.
USING IT TO MOVE ROCKS UNDER THE WHEELS TO GAIN TRACTION?
Not impossible, but again the IDD isn't that strong. Lots of little rocks maybe, that unfortunately are not readily stacked about anywhere.
DRIVING TECHNIQUES TO RESCUE THE ROVERS?
PUTTING THE ROVER IN REVERSE AND DRIVING 'OUT' OF THE SAND TRAP - This has worked before at other locations when both rovers have been 'bogged', but the soil here is very different and needs further analysis. It will be tried at some point.
TURNING THE WHEELS - The wheels are capable of turning, but the maximum is 60deg. They did turn them 30deg and drove forward and made some slowly diminishing progress. Turning in place was tried (clockwise) but was unsuccessful. They might try to revisit this technique.
DRIVING THE ROVER FORWARD (FAST) - A car or truck is not really representative of the type of motion they have on the rover. It is mostly a sequence of quasi-static moments rather than a dynamic event.
TURNING THE WHEELS SLOWLY ' the wheels already turn slowly. During each command they ramp up quickly to the steady speed that is required for the motion and just prior to the end they ramp down. Just like any servo motor. But during an arc, say to the left, the left side wheels move slower than the right side, simulating a mechanical differential if you want.
They typically "lock the differential" so to speak since there is one motor per wheel. They can control each wheel independently but that has to be preprogrammed. They cannot control the wheel torque dynamically though. For that they would need to sequence one command, downlink the telemetry, see the wheel current (proportional to torque) and change the parameters accordingly. That would be slow, but possible.
ROCKING THE ROVER - Unfortunately, the interval between commands is one second. That limits the response time. In addition, sensors are queried every 1/8 sec. Way too slow for any real-time control of the vehicle. Some serious coding would be needed, tested on the ground, uploaded on the vehicle and verified on Mars before they would even attempt to use it.
TRYING THE STUCK RIGHT-FRONT WHEEL TO SEE IF IT WILL SUDDENLY WORK - Believe it or not, that is actually already on the list of things to try, but not at the top. Since the motor controllers are shared between various devices, trying to send power down a line which might be shorted could cause damage to other components of the vehicle.
In addition, and this might be stating the obvious, one advantage of not turning the RF wheel is that it won't sink! And in the current predicament it is quite helpful.
COULD THEY FOLD AND UNFOLD THE WHEELS LIKE THEY DID AT THE START OF THE MISSION?
No. The wheels are locked in place. Their only movement comes from the steering actuators and rotation motors in each wheel and the movement of its rocker-bogie suspension system.
+Benito+
02-07-2009, 18:20
Avverti la NASA che si stanno sbagliando...
Può essere benissimo che usino il migliore dei modi possibili, questo non li mette al riparo da obiezioni ;)
Intendo, un ingegnere del jpl ti potrà anche fare un rover di titanio alleggerito che viaggia su marte, ma tirarlo fuori dalla sabbia magari è un lavoro che riesce meglio a un ruspista ;)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-01/fs20090701-640.jpg
With a slope of about 10 degrees and a pointy rock under the test rover's belly, this sandbox setup at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is ready for engineers to use the test rover to assess possible moves for getting Mars rover Spirit out of a patch of loose Martian soil. The rock beneath the test rover was put in place on July 1, 2009, to resemble a rock underneath Spirit on Mars.
C'è anche un nuovo video (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=851).
Può essere benissimo che usino il migliore dei modi possibili, questo non li mette al riparo da obiezioni ;)
D'accordo che non sono infallibili. I suggerimenti tra l'altro sono solitamente ben accetti.. (basta evitare di darli con supponenza)
(Per evitare fraintendimenti: non sto parlando di questo topic o dei presenti, è solo un atteggiamento che noto in certe discussioni dove vengono criticati gli esperti senza basi concrete)
Intendo, un ingegnere del jpl ti potrà anche fare un rover di titanio alleggerito che viaggia su marte, ma tirarlo fuori dalla sabbia magari è un lavoro che riesce meglio a un ruspista ;)
Tieni comunque conto che i "rover driver" hanno 5 anni di esperienza nella guida dei rover e che questi ultimi hanno caratteristiche non comuni (i movimenti molto lenti e il particolare sistema di sospensioni delle ruote).
jumpjack
03-07-2009, 07:38
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-01/fs20090701-640.jpg
C'è anche un nuovo video (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=851).
cosi' la vedo ancora piu' tragica che non dall' "autoritratto" di Spirit... :cry:
+Benito+
03-07-2009, 12:38
comunque è carino come moscone :asd:
ma sono insabbiate tutte e 4? :eek: io credevo solo 1 .. o al massimo un paio ..
ma sono insabbiate tutte e 4? :eek: io credevo solo 1 .. o al massimo un paio ..
Sono sei :D
Hanno impantanato per bene anche Tee-Bee:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20090706a/DSC_0630_th544.jpg
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20090706a.html
se anche Spirit è impantanato in quel modo .. la vedo molto dura :(
Hanno impantanato per bene anche Tee-Bee:
Vedo che sono l'unico ad informarsi su unmannedspaceflight.com :D
se anche Spirit è impantanato in quel modo .. la vedo molto dura :(
E' una situazione difficile, ma ci stanno lavorando :)
Vedo che sono l'unico ad informarsi su unmannedspaceflight.com :D
purtroppo cerco di tenermi aggiornato nei ritagli di tempo, e non ce la faccio mai a fare tutto il giro dei bookmarks! :D
In ogni caso ho scritto qualcosa di sbagliato riguardo Tee-Bee?
In ogni caso ho scritto qualcosa di sbagliato riguardo Tee-Bee?
No, l'ho evidenziato perché era il nome/diminutivo che mi aveva fatto capire che leggi unmannedspaceflight.
non potrebbero trainarlo fuori con il fratello? :O
ci vorrebbe qualche lustro prima che Opportunity possa raggiungere Spirit:
;)
http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=5.615985&lon=-93.867187&zoom=2&q=rover
sempre che non si impantani pure lui :D
se riescono a sbloccarlo sono dei geni:eek:
jumpjack
09-07-2009, 13:50
certo, se la piantassero di continuare a mandare in giro per lo spazio primitivi robot a rotelle... Ormai la tecnologia delle zampe (2, 4 o 6 che siano) c'e' e funziona alla grande!
robot a 2 gambe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tncg8FICnwA&feature=PlayList&p=45E5327E10502F08&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=69)
robot a 4 zampe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM)
E invece anche la prossima missione sarà a rotelle... anzi, a ruoTONE!
Ma quando lo lanceranno questo??? Nel 3000??? :rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju2HwE31_cw
certo, se la piantassero di continuare a mandare in giro per lo spazio primitivi robot a rotelle... Ormai la tecnologia delle zampe (2, 4 o 6 che siano) c'e' e funziona alla grande!
robot a 2 gambe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tncg8FICnwA&feature=PlayList&p=45E5327E10502F08&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=69)
robot a 4 zampe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM)
E invece anche la prossima missione sarà a rotelle... anzi, a ruoTONE!
Gli ingegneri del JPL sono decisamente competenti e chi prende le decisioni sa che una missione "sexy" ha i suoi vantaggi. Se non l'hanno ancora fatto ci sono diversi motivi.. ad occhio:
- Si riesce a farli funzionare bene con le potenze disponibili ai rover marziani?
L'energia a disposizione è molto poca. Sistemi di quel genere mi sembrano meno efficienti di delle banali ruote.
- Hanno bisogno di molta potenza di calcolo?
I processori per uso spaziale sono generalmente molto più lenti di quelli per applicazioni classiche. Mi sembra difficile riuscire ad implementare a breve (rimanendo nei limiti del budget) un sistema in grado di gestire l'equilibrio in tempo reale.
- Quanto sono affidabili gli algoritmi di controllo del movimento?
Prima di rischiare una missioni da 500+ milioni di dollari ci deve essere la ragionevole certezza che il tutto non si ribalti una volta su Marte.
- Quanto incidono sull'affidabilità tutti gli attuatori in più necessari per gestire i movimenti complessi?
Un sistema di mobilità più complesso, se non strettamente necessario va contro al principio KISS. Tutta roba in più che si può rompere..
- Peso?
Valgono le stesse considerazioni fatte per l'energia.
- C'è un reale bisogno?
Rispetto ad un sistema tipo Athlete che vantaggi darebbero?
Ma quando lo lanceranno questo??? Nel 3000??? :rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju2HwE31_cw
Per supportare le missioni manned sulla Luna. E' comunque un sistema più complesso e pesante di quello attualmente utilizzato quindi non penso lo useranno su Marte finché non c'è una reale necessità
jumpjack
09-07-2009, 20:54
Gli ingegneri del JPL sono decisamente competenti e chi prende le decisioni sa che una missione "sexy" ha i suoi vantaggi. Se non l'hanno ancora fatto ci sono diversi motivi.. ad occhio:
- Si riesce a farli funzionare bene con le potenze disponibili ai rover marziani?
L'energia a disposizione è molto poca. Sistemi di quel genere mi sembrano meno efficienti di delle banali ruote.
- Hanno bisogno di molta potenza di calcolo?
I processori per uso spaziale sono generalmente molto più lenti di quelli per applicazioni classiche. Mi sembra difficile riuscire ad implementare a breve (rimanendo nei limiti del budget) un sistema in grado di gestire l'equilibrio in tempo reale.
- Quanto sono affidabili gli algoritmi di controllo del movimento?
Prima di rischiare una missioni da 500+ milioni di dollari ci deve essere la ragionevole certezza che il tutto non si ribalti una volta su Marte.
Se QRIO si ribalta... si rialza da solo! Ed è alto un metro, quanto vuoi che pesi & consumi?
Quanto a Big Dog... non casca neanche se gli dai UN CALCIO mentre cammina SUL GHIACCIO!!! :eek:
Se QRIO si ribalta... si rialza da solo! Ed è alto un metro, quanto vuoi che pesi & consumi?
MSL per portare il set di strumenti scientifici richiesti pesa circa 900 Kg con un sistema di mobilità semplice: 6 ruote con relativi attuatori (dimensionati per un movimento lento) e un sistema di sospensioni passivo. In uno con "le zampe" gli attuatori devono essere in grado di sollevare il "rover" nel corso di movimenti rapidi.
Visto il peso non so quanto possa far bene alla struttura e agli strumenti un eventuale ribaltamento (cosa aggravata dal fatto che molti devono essere per loro natura esposti).
Quanto a Big Dog... non casca neanche se gli dai UN CALCIO mentre cammina SUL GHIACCIO!!! :eek:
Se lo fai andare a lungo c'è il caso che il sistema di guida si confonda in qualche modo? Prima di usare un sistema nuovo che se fallisce può rovinare la missione deve essere molto ben testato.
Inoltre se si vogliono evitare gli insabbiamenti ci sono metodi più semplici che introdurre un nuovo tipo di mobilità complesso (che introduce tutta una serie di criticità). Più capacità di calcolo a disposizione della "visual odometry" in modo da identificare subito se il rover sta slittando troppo sono già un grosso passo avanti.
Io un sistema del genere lo vedrei bene come accompagnamento per una missione umana su Marte (magari alimentato da una cella a combustibile o con qualche "superbatteria"). Con i budget attuali e le forti limitazioni in massa/energia mi sembra prematuro e non troppo utile in relazione allo sforzo che richiederebbe svilupparlo.
Jumpjack, più è semplice, più è affidabile, punto. È un principio base dell'ingegneria, non c'è nemmeno da discuterci. Non è che debbono fare dei film fighi di fantascienza, devono fare delle cose che funzionino e che siano a prova di bomba. Questo per cominciare.
Poi devono essere compatibili con il posto dove vanno: il Big Dog ha un generatore a benzina per funzionare perchè consuma un porcaio, e il consumo è caratteristico del tipo di movimentazione che sfrutta, per cui è escluso a priori.
Poi, le ruote sono la cosa più pratica che ci sia, non per niente qualunque mezzo sulla terra usa ruote o derivati per muoversi: devono mandare qualcosa di più costoso, caro, inaffidabile, complicato solo per farti piacere?
jumpjack
10-07-2009, 13:27
Poi, le ruote sono la cosa più pratica che ci sia, non per niente qualunque mezzo sulla terra usa ruote o derivati per muoversi: devono mandare qualcosa di più costoso, caro, inaffidabile, complicato solo per farti piacere?
le ruote non sono AFFATTO la cosa piu' pratica che ci sia, tant'e' che subito dopo aver inventato la ruota è stato necessario inventare... le STRADE, altrimenti non si va da nessuna parte!
Percio', o portano un paio di bulldozer su marte e iniziano a costruire strade, oppure, se vogliono esplorarlo seriamente (invec che un chilometro all'anno) dovranno iniziare a CAMMINARE invece che "rotolare"...
Qui sulla Terra, per esempio, qualunque veicolo debba circolare FUORI da una strada, o ha ruote di mezzo metro di circonferenza, 5 centimetri di battistrada e un motore da parecchi cavalli, oppure ha i cingoli!
Secondo me siamo stati fortunatissimi a non "impantanarci" su Marte per piu' di 4 anni! I robot non si sono "schiantati" su qualche sasso o incastrati in qualche anfratto solo perche' si muovono a pochi cm/secondo, mentre se il fondo "stradale" è cedevole, 1 cm/secondo o 50 km/h è uguale, sempre ti insabbi!
Lo spazio percorso dai rover è limitato dall'energia disponibile. Semplicemente con le fonti attuali (pannelli solari o RTG) in un giorno non si riesce a muoversi per più di cosi'.
le ruote non sono AFFATTO la cosa piu' pratica che ci sia, tant'e' che subito dopo aver inventato la ruota è stato necessario inventare... le STRADE, altrimenti non si va da nessuna parte!
Percio', o portano un paio di bulldozer su marte e iniziano a costruire strade, oppure, se vogliono esplorarlo seriamente (invec che un chilometro all'anno) dovranno iniziare a CAMMINARE invece che "rotolare"...
Qui sulla Terra, per esempio, qualunque veicolo debba circolare FUORI da una strada, o ha ruote di mezzo metro di circonferenza, 5 centimetri di battistrada e un motore da parecchi cavalli, oppure ha i cingoli!
Secondo me siamo stati fortunatissimi a non "impantanarci" su Marte per piu' di 4 anni! I robot non si sono "schiantati" su qualche sasso o incastrati in qualche anfratto solo perche' si muovono a pochi cm/secondo, mentre se il fondo "stradale" è cedevole, 1 cm/secondo o 50 km/h è uguale, sempre ti insabbi!
Guarda, credo che sarebbe meglio se tu parlassi di cose che sai e non ti lanciassi a fare proclami su argomenti che evidentemente non conosci :D
I km, come giustamente dice Rand, sono limitati da
a) l'energia disponibile
b) non stanno facendo una corsa, si fermano per analizzare le cose da vedere
c) il software di navigazione autonoma, ogni tot si fermano per verificare posizione, ostacoli, elaborare vie alternative, etc
Sulla luna usarono un rover con ruote, molto meno complesso dei rover marziani, e facevano km al giorno. Perchè? Primo, era guidato da persone sul posto, secondo aveva energia per farlo.
Quindi, ribadisco: sì alle ruote perchè efficaci, semplici, funzionali, pratiche, economiche in termini di energia. Punto. Non è un film di fantascienza che deve essere figo, deve funzionare.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-08/mer-20090708-640.jpg
Engineers used straight-backward driving of a test rover on Earth on Wednesday, July 8, as they evaluate maneuvers that might be useful for getting Spirit out of a sandtrap on Mars. They had tested straight-forward driving first, then refreshed the sandbox setup simulating Spirit's situation before beginning the backward tests. Weeks of further testing and analysis are expected before engineers identify the best moves to command Spirit to perform. Meanwhile, Spirit is using its science instruments to examine the environment surrounding the rover on Mars.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-10/mer-20090710-640.jpg
On firm ground, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers can make crablike moves by turning all four steerable wheels to the same side angle, then rotating the wheels either forward or backward. The rover team is experimenting with variations of those maneuvers in a test sandbox at JPL as part of its work to identify the best way to get Spirit out of the loose soil where the rover has become embedded on Mars.
By Friday morning, July 10, the team had tested crabwalk patterns driving forward in the test sandbox with the wheels turned at 60 degrees to the right and 20 degrees to the right. The angle of motion was upslope in the testing setup that simulates Spirit's predicament on Mars. Together with earlier experiments evaluating straight-forward and straight-backward driving, the latest actions completed four out of 11 maneuvers that the team has on its current testing list. Next, engineers plan to test backward (downslope) crabbing with wheels turned 60 degrees to the right.
maulattu
12-07-2009, 22:21
ma soprattutto... ad uno dei rover è andata a donnine una ruota e lo fanno procedere in retro.
a un robot a 4 zampe se va a donnine una zampa che fanno? gli danno una stampella? :mbe:
ma soprattutto... ad uno dei rover è andata a donnine una ruota e lo fanno procedere in retro.
a un robot a 4 zampe se va a donnine una zampa che fanno? gli danno una stampella? :mbe:
i robot a zampe non sono adatti all'esplorazione marziana : richiedono troppa energia , anche solo per rimanere in piedi in equilibrio .
+Benito+
13-07-2009, 12:57
i robot a zampe non sono adatti all'esplorazione marziana : richiedono troppa energia , anche solo per rimanere in piedi in equilibrio .
Su questo si può discutere. I prototipi che si vedono su youtube sono mezzi che contano sulla labilità per mantenere l'equilibrio, non hanno una posizione stabile. Non è impossibile costruire un mezzo con le zampe (probabilmente 5, non 4) che possa stare fermo e spento, e che si possa muovere lentamente.
Il problema, giustamente, è che un messo su ruote deve fornire energia per l'accelerazione lungo la traiettoria di avanzamento, mentre un mezzo a zampe ha energia extra per movimentare l'arto e per accelerare e decelerare la sonda anche lungo l'asse Z.
Fino a che si sonderanno zone non impervie la reputo una scelta insensata, o meglio inutile.
jumpjack
13-07-2009, 13:48
Su questo si può discutere. I prototipi che si vedono su youtube sono mezzi che contano sulla labilità per mantenere l'equilibrio, non hanno una posizione stabile. Non è impossibile costruire un mezzo con le zampe (probabilmente 5, non 4) che possa stare fermo e spento, e che si possa muovere lentamente.
a dirla tutta, hanno "inventato" gli esapodi (in realtà "scopiazzando" madre natura), che possono restare perfettamente in equilibrio su TRE zampe mentre le altre 3 avanzano. :read:
a dirla tutta, hanno "inventato" gli esapodi (in realtà "scopiazzando" madre natura), che possono restare perfettamente in equilibrio su TRE zampe mentre le altre 3 avanzano. :read:
ragni?
I vecchi progetti erano più innovativi. Adesso i russi non propongono più di studiare la composizione interna dei pianeti facendogli scoppiare un atomica sulla superficie per studiare la risposta dei sismografi :cry: :D
I vecchi progetti erano più innovativi. Adesso i russi non propongono più di studiare la composizione interna dei pianeti facendogli scoppiare un atomica sulla superficie per studiare la risposta dei sismografi :cry: :D
o non mettono più uomini dentro i rover tipo i lunokhod...
:sofico:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/aurorafile/Kosmonavt/belokonyov.htm :muro:
I vecchi progetti erano più innovativi. Adesso i russi non propongono più di studiare la composizione interna dei pianeti facendogli scoppiare un atomica sulla superficie per studiare la risposta dei sismografi :cry: :D
Bellissima idea... perché non si fa? Immagino sempre per le solite seghe mentali sulle radiazioni ecc... :fagiano:
Bellissima idea... perché non si fa? Immagino sempre per le solite seghe mentali sulle radiazioni ecc... :fagiano:
- Trattati internazionali che vietano l'uso di atomiche nello spazio.
- Pubbliche relazioni.
- Probabile necessità di sviluppare un ordigno apposito.
- Inadatto ai pianeti dove c'è la possibilità che esistano forma di vita.
o non mettono più uomini dentro i rover tipo i lunokhod...
:sofico:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/aurorafile/Kosmonavt/belokonyov.htm :muro:
Il famoso nano del KGB :D
- Trattati internazionali che vietano l'uso di atomiche nello spazio.
- Pubbliche relazioni.
- Probabile necessità di sviluppare un ordigno apposito.
- Inadatto ai pianeti dove c'è la possibilità che esistano forma di vita.
Difatti, tutte cose superabili, a parte le forme di vita. Capire però come è fatto l'interno di un pianeta penso sia davvero importante...
+Benito+
13-07-2009, 19:37
a dirla tutta, hanno "inventato" gli esapodi (in realtà "scopiazzando" madre natura), che possono restare perfettamente in equilibrio su TRE zampe mentre le altre 3 avanzano. :read:
a dirla tutta, secondo me se una sonda deve essere fatta così, di piedi ne bastano 5. Quattro sono pericolosi, si ha poca libertà sul posizionamento delle tre zampe di sostegno mentre la quarta si muove. Sei sono l'eccesso opposto. Cinque mi sembra un compromesso da considerare, con quattro fisse l'asse neutro è facile che si trovi abbastanza "avanzato" da permettere una velocità decente (non dover fare passettini di pochi centimetri). Il problema è che più aumenti le zampe, più aumenti il peso, gli attuatori con quel che ne consegue.
Non vorrei sboroneggiare, ma dato che l'esapode me lo sono costruito e cammina, qualche esperienza ce l'ho...
Primo, è vero che con tre zampe sollevate sta in piedi, ma è anche vero che nel lato con una zampa sola il peso poggia tutto sull'unica che resta per terra, e il consumo di energia è estremamente alto.
Secondo, anche se fermo, un rover su zampe consuma un sacco, a meno di non farlo sedere. Ma poi consumi un sacco per farlo alzare. Ossia, girala come ti pare, ma consumi un sacco e punto.
Terzo, strutturalmente è molto più complicato di un aggeggio con le ruote, per si si aggiungono parti in movimento e complicazioni costruttive che portano necessariamente ad una minore affidabilità.
Quarto, il controllo è estremamente più complicato. Le sospensioni dei rover marziani sono di tipo passivo (consumo=0) ed estremamente efficaci. Ci sono tutti una serie di studi sul rapporto massima altezza superabile - dimensioni del rover e questo tipo di sospensioni sono quelle che danno i migliori rapporti. Se non ricordo male dallo studio che feci a suo tempo, danno anche il miglior attrito su superfici inclinate, migliore di quello che può dare un'auto 4x4, tanto per intenderci, con un angolo massimo di inclinazione del terreno decisamente più alto.
Per cui, i sistemi su ruote sono a tutt'oggi estremamente preferibili a sistemi su zampe. Discorso un po' diverso sono i sistemi su cingoli, che avevano vantaggi diversi ma anche altri svantaggi che ora non ricordo, soprattutto in termini di robustezza meccanica.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7099/fotoroversusfondobianco.th.jpg (http://img32.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fotoroversusfondobianco.jpg)
Discorso un po' diverso sono i sistemi su cingoli, che avevano vantaggi diversi ma anche altri svantaggi che ora non ricordo, soprattutto in termini di robustezza meccanica.
Bello il ragnetto! :D
da profano in termini di progettazione potrei dire che un sistema su cingoli avrebbe
Pro:
attrito al suolo (meno slittamento)
superficie di contatto (meno probabilità di sprofondare)
Contro:
elevato attrito in movimento in particolare nelle sterzate (consumo molto alto)
complessità progettuale delle sospensioni (baricentro alto=possibilità di ribaltamento; baricentro basso=impossibilità a viaggiare su terreni accidentati)
Speriamo che in Curiosity abbiano tenuto ben conto dei problemi incontrati in 4 anni di operazioni dei MER.
Non solo: il vero problema dei cingoli è la rottura del cingolo stesso per oggetti estranei che finiscano tra le ruote e i cingoli... in un ambiente pieno di polvere e sassi, sai quanto si raccoglierebbe nella parte bassa del cingolo?
I vecchi design russi di rover per Marte avevano i cingoli. Idem per la (proposta e mai approvata) versione mobile (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VRIPUQofXu8/RvNeSa_p3AI/AAAAAAAAAxY/UDBQgF2fEos/s1600-h/RX09i1.jpg) della sonda Viking.
Il motivo della scelta non lo so. Forse con la lunghezza (o meglio cortezza :D) prevista degli spostamenti e la scelta di luoghi di atterraggio "stile Meridiani" non era considerato un problema..
Le sospensioni dei rover marziani sono di tipo passivo (consumo=0) ed estremamente efficaci. Ci sono tutti una serie di studi sul rapporto massima altezza superabile - dimensioni del rover e questo tipo di sospensioni sono quelle che danno i migliori rapporti. Se non ricordo male dallo studio che feci a suo tempo, danno anche il miglior attrito su superfici inclinate, migliore di quello che può dare un'auto 4x4, tanto per intenderci, con un angolo massimo di inclinazione del terreno decisamente più alto.
So che il team è rimasto piacevolmente sorpreso delle capacità "su superficie inclinate" dei MER quando le hanno testate prima di entrare nel cratere Endurance (non erano state considerate in fase di design).
jumpjack
14-07-2009, 17:51
Speriamo che in Curiosity abbiano tenuto ben conto dei problemi incontrati in 4 anni di operazioni dei MER.
non sarà mica questo il nome ufficiale di MSL??? :eek: :doh:
non sarà mica questo il nome ufficiale di MSL??? :eek: :doh:
Si. Non che Spirit e Opportunity siano questi gran nomi, probabilmente è solo questione di farci l'abitudine :D
E' stato scelto tra le proposte mandate dai bambini. Imho una buona iniziativa: tra l'interessare/coinvolgere i bambini nelle missioni spaziali e il nome figo vince la prima.
Proseguono i test:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-13/mer-20090713-640.jpg
Engineers checking possible rover movements to get Spirit out of the "Troy" sand trap on Mars are evaluating how a comparable rover at JPL fares in a crablike backward drive, with all four corner wheels turned 60 degrees toward the right.
This is the fifth of 11 maneuvers on the current testing list. Others ahead are crabbing backward with wheels turned 20 degrees to the right, a tight forward right arc, a clockwise turn in place, a counterclockwise turn in place, crabbing forward with wheels turned to the left, and driving while steering. Some of the maneuvers might be repeated.
The team is learning how the test rover reacts to various motions in a test sandbox built to simulate Spirit's situation at Troy. The steps eventually sent as driving commands to Spirit may be a combination of some of the 11 maneuvers being tested.
Edit: Visto solo adesso.. bello "l'abbigliamento" a tema :D
Proseguono i test:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-13/mer-20090713-640.jpg
Edit: Visto solo adesso.. bello "l'abbigliamento" a tema :D
si :) e anche quello che sembra essere un braccialetto con cavetto collegato a Tee-Bee per evitare scariche statiche che potrebbero danneggiarlo.
Abbigliamento a tema?! Che hanno di diverso dal solito?!
Abbigliamento a tema?! Che hanno di diverso dal solito?!
Il logo Free Spirit stampato sul camice :O
e io che mi immaginavo tutti dei tecnici pazzi stile DOC
http://www.bttfmovie.com/modules/images/1955/large/1955_doc_d.jpg
invece sono quasi tutte delle donzelle :)
mmm se hanno il controllo ruota per ruota per me qualcosa posso fare...
mi sa che non ce la fanno :(
Stanno ancora provando le vari alternative e prima di averle testate tutte e scelto la manovra più promettente non muovono Spirit. E' presto per deprimersi o rallegrarsi...
Ziosilvio
15-07-2009, 11:33
Micheal Jackson non è morto... lavora per la nasa sotto falsa copertura :asd:
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009-07-08/mer-20090708-640.jpg
Possiamo senz'altro evitare di scherzare sulle persone morte.
Vale come ammonizione.
mmm se hanno il controllo ruota per ruota per me qualcosa posso fare...
Ce l'hanno :)
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