A
Rover Update
SPIRIT - Still stuck, so
they've turned it into a stationary research platform until
it's solar panels get too dusty
After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red
Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will
be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving
scientific explorer a stationary science platform after
efforts during the past several months to free it from a
sand trap have been unsuccessful.
The venerable
robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to
position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If
Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new
science from its final location. The rover's mission could
continue for several months to years.
"Spirit is not
dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life,"
said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration
Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We told the
world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free
may not be successful. It looks like Spirit's current
location on Mars will be its final resting place."
After Spirit became embedded ten months ago, the rover team
crafted plans for trying to get the six-wheeled vehicle free
using its five functioning wheels - the sixth wheel quit
working in 2006, limiting Spirit's mobility. The planning
included experiments with a test rover in a sandbox at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., plus
analysis, modeling and reviews. In November, another wheel
quit working, making a difficult situation even worse.
Recent drives have yielded the best results since Spirit
became embedded. However, the coming winter mandates a
change in strategy. It is mid-autumn at the solar-powered
robot's home on Mars. Winter will begin in May. Solar energy
is declining and expected to become insufficient to power
further driving by mid-February. The rover team plans to use
those remaining potential drives for improving the rover's
tilt. Spirit currently tilts slightly toward the south. The
winter sun stays in the northern sky, so decreasing the
southward tilt would boost the amount of sunshine on the
rover's solar panels.
"We need to lift the rear of
the rover, or the left side of the rover, or both," said
Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL. "Lifting the rear
wheels out of their ruts by driving backward and slightly
uphill will help. If necessary, we can try to lower the
front right of the rover by attempting to drop the
right-front wheel into a rut or dig it into a hole."
At its current angle, Spirit probably would not have
enough power to keep communicating with Earth through the
Martian winter. Even a few degrees of improvement in tilt
might make enough difference to enable communication every
few days.
Even in a stationary state, Spirit
continues scientific research.
"There's a class of
science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had
put off during the years of driving," said Steve Squyres, a
researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator
for Spirit and Opportunity. "Degraded mobility does not mean
the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to
stationary science."
One stationary experiment
Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of
Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This requires
months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the
surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an
accuracy of a few inches.
"If the final scientific
feather in Spirit's cap is determining whether the core of
Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful -- it's so
different from the other knowledge we've gained from
Spirit," said Squyres.
Tools on Spirit's robotic arm
can study variations in the composition of nearby soil,
which has been affected by water. Stationary science also
includes watching how wind moves soil particles and
monitoring the Martian atmosphere.
Spirit and
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. They have been
exploring for six years, far surpassing their original
90-day mission.
OPPORTUNITY - Still
driving on to 'Concepcion' Crater
Opportunity has been driving south toward a relatively
young impact crater, called "Concepcion." The crater is
estimated to be about 1,000 years old, the youngest crater
to be explored on Mars.
The rover drove on Sols 2125 (Jan. 15, 2010), 2128 (Jan.
18, 2010) and 2130 (Jan. 20, 2010), totaling more than 170
meters (558 feet). The rover is now only about 100 meters
(328 feet) away from the crater. The plan ahead is to
conduct a circumnavigation imaging campaign of the 10-meter
(33-foot) diameter crater.
The right-front wheel currents have been well-behaved. No
improvement has been observed yet in the miniature thermal
emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) elevation mirror, which
continues to be opened regularly to allow cleaning by the
wind.
As of Sol 2130 (Jan. 20, 2010), the solar array energy
production was 304 watt-hours, with an atmospheric opacity
(tau) of 0.488 and a dust factor of 0.505.
Opportunity currently is
driving toward a large crater called Endeavor and continues
to make scientific discoveries. It has driven approximately
12 miles and returned more than 133,000 images..
Here's a good plan, give
up the Moon, and instead study "Climate Change"...
looks like China wins, after all.
Well, there you have it. He's
going to hobble any serious advancement of Science and Math
in the US...
The Moon inspired a generation of
scientists, and spawned countless new spin-offs and
technologies.
By giving up the Moon and instead
building the Shuttle and a Space Station, the US took a HUGE
step back. It seemed that with the Constellation
program, and Orion, we were finally starting to head back in
the right direction.
Advancement in Math and Science
is vital to our growth as a Nation... having the challenge
of deep space in front of us would go a long ways in
providing the spark of imagination in young kids, and prompt
them to take the hard classes, and become Engineers,
Scientists, and Mathematicians... instead, we're going to
use all the resources of NASA to turn them into greeners.
It was sad to come across this story, to say the least.
NASA's
plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the
rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if
President Barack Obama gets his way.
RIGHT: Orion 1X lifts off on its test flight.
When
the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there
will be no money for the Constellation program that was
supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled
and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space
shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with
money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that
was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans
back to the moon.
There will be no lunar
landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.
In their place, according to White House insiders,
agency officials, industry executives and congressional
sources familiar with Obama's long-awaited plans for the
space agency, NASA will look at developing a new
"heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots
to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day will be
years — possibly even a decade or more — away.
In the
meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on
Earth-science projects — principally, researching and
monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research
and development program that will one day make human
exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system
possible.
There will also be funding for private
companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used
as space taxis to take astronauts on fixed-price contracts
to and from the International Space Station — a major change
in the way the agency has done business for the past 50
years.
The White House budget request, which is
certain to meet fierce resistance in Congress, scraps the
Bush administration's Vision for Space Exploration and
signals a major reorientation of NASA, especially in the
area of human spaceflight.
"We certainly don't need
to go back to the moon," said one administration official.
MORE:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,2770904.story
A
Miracle in the rubble.
French rescuers pulled a teenage girl — very dehydrated,
with a broken left leg and moments from death — from the
rubble of a home near the destroyed St. Gerard University on
Wednesday, a stunning recovery 15 days after an earthquake
devastated the city.
Darlene Etienne was rushed to a
French military field hospital and then a hospital ship,
groaning through an oxygen mask with her eyes open in a lost
stare.
"She's alive!" said paramedic Paul Francois-Valette,
who accompanied her into the hospital.
Authorities
say it is rare for anyone to survive more than 72 hours
without water, little alone more than two weeks. But Etienne
may have had some access to water from a bathroom of the
collapsed home, and rescuers said she mumbled something
about having a little Coca-Cola with her in the rubble.
MORE:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584113,00.html
Unbelievable.
An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's
Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a
robotic stand-in.
People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals says it's unfair to keep the animal in captivity and
subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that
accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in
Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of
Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model.
But William Deeley,
president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog
Club, says the animal is "being treated better than the
average child in Pennsylvania." The groundhog is kept in a
climate-controlled environment and is inspected annually by
the state Department of Agriculture.
Deeley says PETA
isn't interested in Phil from Feb. 2 on, and is looking for
publicity.
MORE:
http://www.wkrg.com/weather/article/peta_proposes_robotic_groundhog_for_festival/682632/Jan-27-2010_2-38-pm/
Now THIS is snow!
These pictures were sent to me in an email.... simply
AMAZING amounts of snow have fallen this year in Qubec!
I really wish some - or all - of this would have come
our way... I really miss it! We had a good amount the
last couple of years, but this year has been a bust.
Its going to be a VERY dry summer this year if we don't bank
lots more water in the form of deep snow in the mountains!
While the rest of the country is going through a very cold
and snowy winter, we're 70% behind on our mountain
snowpack... not good.
Anyway, enjoy these pictures!
Imagine if this were to melt
quickly...
When I was a kid, I used to
make extra money by shoveling off roofs...
This would be AWESOME!
Shoveling away from the
windows to let the sunlight in...
I guess its because you CAN
Enjoying a couple cold ones on
the swing...
Its funner than it looks...
Now THAT is cool!
This is when you bring the
snow to the tub until you work your way out of the doorway a
bit...
Greetings!
