Mars Rover Encounters Dune

JPL Rover website ^ | 29 April 2005 | NASA photo

[Fitzcarraldo]

Mars Rover Opportunity Raw Image site.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Where's a shovel and a strip of carpet when you need them?

[Dead Corpse]

Ruh-roh...

Is they stuck?

[d-informed-1]

that thing is STILL working?!

[cabojoe]

Opportunity Mars Rover Stuck in Sand
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050428_rover_update.html

[nuconvert]

Neat. Doesn't look real. lol

[Steely Tom]

Floor it.

(steely)

[MineralMan]

I don't think it's stuck. I wanna see the picture of it doing a wheelie off the top of the dune!

[demlosers]

The Mars Dune buggy.

[A CA Guy]

Well, look at the bright side here, at least there wasn't a welcome to the United States of Mexico sign in the picture!

That landscape looks as vacant as the direction of the Democrat party.

[Bacon Man]

Oh I was hoping for a picture of a giant worm.

[StevieB]

that thing is STILL working?!

Both of them are still working ... and a couple of weeks ago NASA extended their operational mission into mid-2006. Not bad for a couple of pieces of equipment that were designed to last for 90 days!

[d-informed-1]

no, don't floor it. rock it back and forth!

[dead]

I think I see the crushed nest of sea bird in the tracks. There'll be some hefty fines for that one.

[Bacon Man]

That thing is the Energizer Bunny of space probes.

[siunevada]

I was expecting one of these:

[mhking]

Worm-sign?

!Quick! Start the thumper!

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[REDWOOD99]

Drive that thing faster! I want to see it get some air!

[billybudd]

Shoulda sent this:

[dts32041]

With a spice girl who has blue eyes?

[DoughtyOne]

I sure hope they submitted an environmental impact study on this before the fact...

[tet68]

Where's a shovel and a strip of carpet when you need them?

Maybe a nine iron?

[Zuben Elgenubi]

This does not look good. There's no tread on the tires.

[Right Wing Assault]

Looks like that soil has a crust. Icy layer on top?

Here's a question. Go to the link cabojoe gave, click on the image that shows the small crater. What is it about the human brain that makes that crater look like a bump, but if you turn the picture upside down, it looks like a crater? Where did we get the inability to see craters correctly if they are lit "wrong"? And why?

[Bacon Man]

You got it. I've always wondered if they can see in the dark with those things.

[STD]

They will have to defeat House Atraides, Leto, Ma'adib and Susan Sarandon ick!

[nuconvert]

pong

[expatguy]

LOL

Thought you might get a kick out of this.

He Who Controls the Cheese Controls the Universe

[Fitzcarraldo]

There's no tread on the tires.

Sand has packed on over the cleats. Seems like they started losing traction after going over that last ridge.

[ImProudToBeAnAmerican]

Boys, we'll set up camp......here!

famous last words...

[js1138]

My thoughts exactly.

[Dog]

The little Rover that could..

[Fitzcarraldo]

Prelude to getting stuck...

[Zuben Elgenubi]

" Sand has packed on over the cleats. Seems like they started losing traction after going over that last ridge."

Not good at all. Can the wheels be cantilevered to ride more on the rims?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Where the soil starts sticking to the wheel?

[Fester Chugabrew]

Time to call the other rover over from the other side of that thar beach ball.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Can the wheels be cantilevered to ride more on the rims?

Checking...

[Bones75]

"Here's a question. Go to the link cabojoe gave, click on the image that shows the small crater. What is it about the human brain that makes that crater look like a bump, but if you turn the picture upside down, it looks like a crater? Where did we get the inability to see craters correctly if they are lit "wrong"? And why?"

Funny, I noticed that too.. I am an avid viewer or space pictures.. I always notice that a depression can look like a raised area, and vice versa, if it is lit a certain way..

It is very strange, interesting you brought it up. I thought I was the only one...

I remember thinking.. "Olympus Mons is that big hole in the ground?"

LOL

Bones

[ClaudiusI]

Maybe the aliens living in the pyramid in the eye of the face on Mars (you know, the ones that got Bush elected and caused the Iraq war?) can go and dig the rover out.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

They should have used a real Jeep, it wouldn't be stuck!

[Professional Engineer]

bttt

[LibWhacker]

It's like an M.C. Escher sketch: You can force your brain to see it in either of two different ways. Or you can not interfere with the way your brain interprets the image and run a 50% chance of getting it wrong. Once I convince myself the scene is being lit from the right, then I see a crater, otherwise a bump.

[Redcloak]

Call AAA...

[ZGuy]

This picture proves that Mars is only about 4 feet in diameter too.

[Dashing Dasher]

Actually, it's a picture taken in the New Mexico desert....

LOL!

[Soliton]

Finally, a Dune allusion

[Fitzcarraldo]

"...The MER provides a separate RB (Rocker-Bogie)system for the left and right wheels. Each RB consists of a forward and aft bogie, to which are attached corresponding forward and aft bogie wheel struts. The end of each wheel strut provides an attachment point for a drive motor and wheel assembly. The aft bogie structure slides into the forward bogie's structural cavity, and is secured to the FB by way of a square bolt, which can be inserted into one of four available positioning holes. The aft rocker arm is affixed to the forward bogie, near the AB/FB attach point through a hinge and actuator assembly. A U shaped adapter bracket fits onto the other end of the AR. The bracket holds a structural member that provides a mount for the Rocker Deployment Actuator, which permits the forward bogie that it's attached to to be rotated around the longitudinal axis of the rover. The end of the forward bogie has an attach point for a drive motor and wheel assembly..."

[Kenny Bunkport]

I like those little NASA hubcaps.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Ref for above: http://hobbiton.thisside.net/rovermanual/

[KDD]

bump

[HKMk23]

Not bad for a couple of pieces of equipment that were designed to last for 90 days!

This ain't you Father's Oldsmobile.

NASA may have written a 90-day MTBF criteria into the design spec, but you know that got multiplied by 5 or 10 by the time the material demand hit the upstream suppliers. Nobody wanted to have their company name in the negative news.

"Failure of a teflon coated titanuim sphincter bearing sold to NASA by Federal Moneytaker Inc. has ended the Mars rover mission early..."

THAT would go over like lead balloons in the boardroom.