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Mars' reddish dust covers the Opportunity rover's solar panels in this downward-looking view, assembled from images taken by the NASA probe's panoramic camera from Dec. 21 to 24, 2011. The mosaic was put together in such a way as to omit the mast on which the camera is mounted.
One of the trickiest things that NASA's Opportunity rover does on Mars is take a look at itself — but for the six-wheeled rover, it's been a vital part of its eight-year-plus mission on the Red Planet.
This picture illustrates why the occasional once-over is so important: Because Opportunity relies on solar power, mission controllers back on Earth need to know how much dust is accumulating on the rover's solar panels. It's been a while since the dust has been swept off by Martian winds, and so there's quite a bit of dust covering the power-generating cells right now.
The dust hasn't been so much of a concern during the previous southern winters that Opportunity has spent in Meridiani Planum on the Red Planet. But as winter approaches this time, NASA has decided to position the rover on a north-facing slope so that it can soak up as much of the sun's weak rays as possible. That's a strategy that the rover team employed in the past with Opportunity's twin, the Spirit rover, which now lies moribund in Gusev Crater on the other side of the planet.
Opportunity is conducting research in place as it sits on the north-facing slope of a ridge known as Greeley Haven, on the rim of the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater. The rover's going to be there for a while: Mars' southern winter solstice takes place on March 30, and the planet's seasons last roughly twice as long as Earth's. So we'll be seeing a lot of the rover's surroundings at Greeley Haven — including the current focus of its scientific studies, a rock called Amboy.
For comparison's sake, here's a picture of Opportunity's relatively clean solar panels from September 2007:
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell
This mosaic shows Opportunity's solar panels in September 2007 as seen by the rover's panoramic camera. The downward-looking view has been assembled to omit the mast on which the camera is mounted.
And here's a real treat from space artist Don Davis: A painstakingly assembled mosaic of imagery from Opportunity, looking east-southeast over Endeavour Crater to the far side just before sunset. You can see Opportunity's dust-covered solar panels and color-calibration sundial in the foreground. In the distance, you can see the long shadows cast on the crater floor — including the slight bump of a shadow that could well have been cast by Opportunity itself. It's a picture to marvel over, and astronomer/educator Stuart Atkinson does his fair share of marveling on the "Road to Endeavour" website. Emily Lakdawalla provides further details about Davis' rendition on the Planetary Society Blog.
Copyright Don Davis / NASA / JPL / Cornell
Don Davis created this mosaic from imagery sent back from Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover as the sun was setting on Jan. 27. The rover is looking out from a ridge toward the far rim of Endeavour Crater. The shadow of the ridge, and Opportunity itself, can be made out on the crater floor, toward the right edge of the image.
A little section of this picture served as this week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page earlier today. It didn't take long for Josh Jones to figure out what the picture showed, and to reward his mastery of a Martian mystery, I'm sending him a pair of 3-D glasses. Join the Cosmic Log Facebook community and stay tuned for the next "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle.
Speaking of Mars, my space-watching colleagues and I touched upon Red Planet research and other cosmic topics during the Weekly Space Hangout on Thursday. To wind up the week, here's the webcast, courtesy of Universe Today's Fraser Cain:
In this edition of the Weekly Space Hangout, we talk about the non-discovery of faster-than-light neutrinos, the possibility of quakes on Mars, and explanation for the ridge on Iapetus, the 25th anniversary of SN1987A, and a steamy water world.
More about Mars:
- Rocks hint at strong quakes on Mars
- Mars orbiter spies on past probes
- NASA aims to shift money from Mars to space tech
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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I'll never cease to be in awe of the accomplishments of space explorers, especially NASA. I only wish I should live long enough to see an astronaut walking on the Mars terrain. They need to hurry though.
It is also my wish to see people walking on Mars, but I'll probably have to live to be at least 90 for that to happen at the rate things are going.
so nobody thought about a wiper or maybe putting a broom on the arm so the panels could be dusted off?????
WTF???
wade,
1) for a 3 month mission
2) the rover was already at its mass limit, so adding a wiper would have made the probe that much heavier, and would have required a different mars entry system, and cost MUCH more money, and probably prevented two rovers from being sent (which also increases your effective costs), etc...
3) a Broom probably would have caused the solar array to be scratched, reducing its effectiveness.
I wish Hollywood NASA would hurry up with the Mars Landing Movie of our manned flight there.
I think the world is just about ripe to believe a B.S. Mars landing as real. Can't you just feel it in the air?
People, nobody has ever been to the moon.
I just hope they represent the Mars-Earth radio contact delay right in this movie. They slipped up a little bit in the Moon Landing Movies and forgot the voice delay.
Heya yall, look at hungrymongoose the cute little troll.
Big Trouble-
Don't respond to the hungrymongoose moron and his fellow know-nothings. It only encourages them.
Ah Hungrymoose. How is that tin-foil hat working out for you troll-bait?
One of these days, if you are able to pull yourself away from watching the "demolition" of the twin towers and reading Obama's "Kenyan birth certificate". You really should stop by the image library from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and see the actual landing site on the moon for yourself. Let me guess....photoshopped right?
Troll-on Hungrymoose.
NASA, you guys rock. But seriously, let's get to Mars already. While I'm still alive.
Brain dead or My hands are tied?
My father worked with NASA for 10 years on the Apollo project. I have first hand knowledge on deals done. NASA has a rover that worked!!! NASA did not modify or enlarge a next generation rover. NASA out of pressure or due to a drunken binge trashed the only proven technology USA has. When are we going to wake up and remove this tag from our body. What a great technology only to c it go to waste. Some day it will die and hopefully the NASA tag will die with it.
A bigger, better, and faster rover is on its way to Mars now. And its nuclear powered.
and that nuclear power is going to guarantee that the new rover won't last as long as spirit and opportunity.
Jonathan-1917156, what is the expected lifetime of the nuclear source?
It will gradually decline, but IIRC (and michael might be better to confirm this) but after about a year, they will have to start shutting down experiments (or time shifting them).
This isn't a nuclear reactor in the way that we think of it, but it is a device that relies on the natural decay of the 'fuel' in order to create the heat which powers the craft.
The advantage is that there is a more predictable power source and one that doesn't need sunlight to recharge batteries (so it replaces the weight of both the batteries and the solar panels) but it has the disadvantage of a much more limited lifespan.
It seems very likely to me that the power source would be a radioisotope thermoelectric generator powered by plutonium, which technology has been used on many space probes including the Cassini orbiter. If it does use 238Pu the power generation will have a half life of about 90 years.
However, I have to say that I am much too lazy to look up the actual specs of this new rover right now. It is Saturday morning, after all....
yes it is the RTG reactor, but just because it has a half life of 90 years doesn't mean it can power all of the rovers instruments for those 90 years. Even voyager has shut down most of its instruments (mostly because they aren't needed anymore, but it still is a power constraint).
Essentially the 90 year item would be valid if the power requirements of the rover was only 50% of the power output of the RTG generator, and that isn't the case, it is more like 95 to 98% (just a guess there, the approximately 1 year mark is something that I read from a NASA document)
Yes, 50% power at 90 years is what half-life means.
It seems from NASA's documentation that the rover will be able to move around freely for about 1 year, and then be able to stay "parked" for some amount of time, which may be as long as 14 years, at which time the MMRTG will output about 100 watts.
I know what it means, I was just trying to state that it had no relevance to this particular probe because of its high power requirements.
The rated output, as Ben sez, should be sufficient for 14 years. But seriously, if Curiosity lasts that long without something ELSE having failed long before, it will be a miracle.
Well I would personally say that a rover that can't rove after a year isn't really saying that it is going to last that long. And all I said is that after about a year, that certain things will need to be turned off, though I wasn't aware that the rover itself (the vehicle part) is what is going to be turned off first.
I agree with that Jonathan. And as we both know, you are much more knowledgeable about the realities the hardware faces than I am.
The reality is that Opportunity could conceivably last longer than this new rover, because the new rover makes a tradeoff, that of known power availability over a known period of time, being traded off for potential longevity. Now if they wanted to make it last longer, they could have just made a larger RTG power source, but that wasn't the decision that they made, which is fine.
I do think that many people get hung up with how long those two little rovers lasted, which is nothing short of amazing, but quite frankly, it is atypical. The accumulation of dust on the solar panels was expected, and the panels have been cleaned off by the martian winds, which has given it life beyond anyones expectations.
Now what I wonder is, how much longer is the MRO expected to last (never checked that one out), because it is through the MRO that the mars probes communicate with earth. I believe that pathfinder is also going to use the MRO to communicate with earth, and if that fails, what does that mean for the pathfinder program.
dipweeb-
"NASA has a rover that worked!!!"
The implication being that Spirit and Opportunity did not work? They have worked beyond our wildest dreams. As stated, they were originally designed to function for 3 months, and here we are all these years later and one of them is still going strong. And yes, a bigger and better rover is on its way even as we speak. Let's hope it proves to have the endurance of Spirit and Opportunity, and hopefully more.
Kevin, I think he's saying that Spirit and Opportunity were the 'working' rover designs, and that the new design is bunk.
Only a pipe dream until better technology comes out of the woodwork, don't send a crew up there to lose them, if we can't make a base on the Moon and live there, why even try Mars, if the Moon doesn't want us why waste a crew on Mars
It is not so much a matter of we can't make a base on the moon, but why should we waste the money on such a base? I would much rather see that money go to getting people to Mars. The price tag is prohibitive, though, and without international cooperation unlikely to happen in my lifetime.
If you offered to send me to Mars with the ability to TRY to colonize/outpost, but told me my chances were 50% I'd be dead in 2 years...I'd go. I'd do all the science I could. I would happily contribute to our knowledge and forward progress. That would be a life well-lived.
Humans thirst for knowledge and exploration. A return trip is only necessary if you are afraid of living.
I agree with onePatriot on that.The lack of tech. to understand what we will be doing to our genetic make up on Mars,scares me.No magnetic field,low gravity,always sub-freezing temp.s.Are we suppose to let our offspring become rubber globs.At least on the moon we have a chance of 'staying'human looking.
Are you saying that the Moon has a greater gravitational force than Mars?
"Are we suppose to let our offspring become rubber globs.At least on the moon we have a chance of 'staying'human looking."
I don't follow this at all. Can you explain what you mean? How will our offspring become rubber globs on Mars, and how would the moon, with its even lower gravity and complete lack of atmosphere, be any safer for us (except for the fact the closer proximity of the moon affords us a better chance of rescue if needed)?
No magnetic field = shielded living for half the time. Already achievable with rudimentary construction.
Low gravity = very different than zero gravity. Bone is reduced but loss does stop in low gravity. See Dr. Alfred Smith
Always sub-freezing temps = McMurdo station, Antartica.
Food source & energy source are the only questions for long term habitation of Mars.
Just colonize Mars with rovers and robots, they won't revolt and are always happy to serve their fleshly masters
At least until Skynet becomes aware!
I could not agree more. The expense of maintaining human safety is overwhelming and the money would be much better spent on the development of autonomous robotics. Building the technical means of human survival on Mars will be of little or no use here on Earth. Building "intelligent" robots that can insure their own survival independent of micromanagement by earth bound controllers would result in machines with a wide range of useful applications here at home.
Don't spend all that money on the bragging rights photo of an Astronaut saluting the flag on Mars, spend it on building better machines that can be used here as well.
Both of you guys operate on the assumption that science is the only reason we do these things. It isn't.
Some of us believe in spreading humanity into space for economic reasons, and/or just on principle. These machines serve all of those ends.
I've always wondered why they didn't design a little mini-robot to launch with the two rovers, who's only job would be to brush off Spirit and Opportunity's solar panels once in a while.
Good question - it was a calculated risk, StopTheHyp. The Rovers are at max weight; what would you take off to allow for a panel cleaner?
And frankly, no one (seriously - speaking from first hand knowledge here), not a single person, in their wildest dreams, thought that the Rovers would last as long as they did, necessitating the need for a panel cleaner. We hoped for several months past the 90 day "warranty", but did not envision several YEARS of additional roving.
Still, if we had the Rovers to do all over, knowing what we know now, I imagine that we'd spend less effort on improving the panel situation, and somewhat attention on who to make the drive train survive the severely abrasive grit we are driving through. (And spare drill bits for the RAT would be great, too!)
If I had my choice, I would have added weight and launched them from a larger rocket or used a more fuel conserving orbital transfer ;)
Of course, the big risk seems to be getting anything to Mars at all.... so many lost opportunities...
You are quite correct about the Rovers lasting much longer than their design life, Michael. Their service so far is tantamount to an unrestored unserviced 1909 Model T still being used as a daily driver, and they are a tribute to their excellent design and construction. And I acknowledge that their long service is bringing up unforeseen (and frankly good) problems to have as well.
But my point was that the editorial "they" had to know how much dust would be kicked up on Mars and how that dust would negatively affect the solar panels (the only power source for these remarkable machines). A smaller rover with a couple of dollar store brushes on a boom or even a source of compressed air wouldn't be a huge stretch and wouldn't have cost that much to send and deploy, even after Spirit and Opportunity had arrived. And if that isn't technically feasible, why not cover the solar cells with a sheet of retractable clear plastic (Saran Wrap comes to mind) that could be manipulated in some way to knock the dust off?
None of my comments were intended as 20-20 hindsight in any way. It just seems to me that protecting your source of power is Engineering 101-type stuff.
ben, they couldn't because they were at the mass limit of the martian atmosphere entry system (the bouncing balloon). Besides, if you look at the way the panels are set up, that would be complex system and would be prone to failure all on its own.
It probably would have been better to design those arms that spread out the panels to retract them partially and shake them slightly, but even there, there is a risk of mechanical failure.
Jonathan-1917156, if that was the technical limitation, then something could have been done with the balloons, or a drogue chute could have been added or whatever.
I guess the point is that NASA has made a "career" out of limited-lifetime missions which have been extended indefinitely. After a few of those, you might just start planning for them, i think...
bed,
that just adds more mass, but they did do something, they created an extremely complex system for the current rover.
As for the 'lifetime' it is a cost constraint during the development process. If you start planning for 10 year lifespans, then you have to design it into the device, which means much higher costs.
Jonathan-1917156, thanks for enlightening me. I have no idea about budgets or anything scientific....
C3PO?
If you just wanted to clear dust, you wouldn't send anything as elaborate as a 'mini robot,' just a wiper of some sort...
But as others have said, the rovers weren't expected to operate long enough for this to be an issue, and the mass for even a wiper would have had to be taken from something else.
Obviously politically unacceptable to create a little robot slave to maintain the comfort of its robot master.
Hopefully a nice gust of wind will come along and clean the little guy up.
Or an astronaut with a squeegee?
Astronaut with a squeegee! Astronaut with a squeegee!!
.
I just have the urge to reach out and dust the little fella off. Maybe a spring breeze will help a bit.
"painstakingly assembled mosaic" Doubt it was a paper cut, maybe a cramp from using mouse to cut and paste.
You have no idea. It's not like they used photoshop to slap the images together.
They use auto stitching software to create the image
The comment is on the use of "painstakingly", creating a mosaic is not difficult and does not rate the use "painstakingly", by the writer, to describe it .
A good hard monsoon rain would be nice.
I wonder if they had covered the solar panels with RAIN-X if that would keep some of the dust off or make it easier for the wind to keep them more clear?
We'll know there's life on Mars when we see 'wash me' traced in the dust on the rover solar panels.
classic
Looks like there's some pigeon droppings on there too ...