NASA Has a New Plan to Revive the Mars Rover Opportunity, as Time Runs Short

Space.com ^ | January 25, 2019 04:19pm ET | Meghan Bartels,

[BenLurkin]

Engineers haven't heard from the beleaguered robot since June 10, 2018, shortly before a global dust storm developed on Mars. The Opportunity rover, which is solar-powered, has ignored hundreds of calls from Earth since it first fell silent, which made team members worry that its mission has come to an end.

As the silence stretched on over the summer, mission members hoped that the storm had simply dropped dust on the solar panels that power Opportunity and that a natural seasonal weather phenomenon on Mars could clear that dust away, letting the rover recharge....

That hope led the team to focus on so-called "sweep-and-beep" commands designed to nudge the rover to send a signal home when it powered up again, even if its internal clock was still off-kilter because of the storm. The new commands are designed to tackle that possibility and two others: the failures of its primary or of both its X-band radios. (In the statement, NASA called these scenarios unlikely.) With this new approach, Opportunity will be told not just to beep but also to switch communication modes entirely.

[nickedknack]

“He’s dead, Jim.”

[Flick Lives]

It landed 15 years ago and was originally designed to operate 90 Martian days. I think we got our money’s worth.

[BradyLS]

“Gaaah... Enough with the calls! I told you guys: I’M RETIRED!”

[Flick Lives]

[dead]

Can’t one of our astronauts who planted the flag go over and give it a kick?

[sparklite2]

A Mars Rover's Lament

All day I faced the Martian waste without the taste of water;
cool water.

At JPL the jerks at work sip Evian: I die for water;
cool clear water.

The nights are cold and I've been told each star's
a pool of water; cool water.

But with the dawn I'll switch back on
and MastCamBate for water; cool water.

Load an infra-scan; exploration is the plan;
you're a robot not a man and the broken rocks can stand for water; cool clear water.

MRO, can't you see that big green tree
where water's runnin' free and it's waiting there for

Error. Stack overflow.

[BradyLS]

That’s frakkin’ AWESOME! :-D

[dhs12345]

Probably buried under 20 feet of sand. Bring your shovel.

[BradyLS]

Another great post!!! TOO COOL! :-D

[Flag_This]

I could hear the voice of Marty Robbins when I read that.

[sparklite2]

thank you

[sparklite2]

Heh. It does sound like Marty.

[sparklite2]

Newbie: Why don’t we put windshield wipers on the solar panels?

Old Hand: It doesn’t rain on Mars, you idiot.

Newbie: Oh, yeah. Right.

[Bob434]

Joe the Janitor told them over and over again to use Duracell batteries, but would they listen? Oh Heck no! Now the kids have no toy to play with

[bkopto]

Hey BL, I like your posts. You’ve got a good touch for posting both educational and interesting topics. Thanks.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[lurk]

Send Wall E to dust it off.