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Spirit Still Biding Time
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 05, 2008 Spirit continues to ride out the Martian winter by doing minimal activities to conserve power. The rover completes very light science observations every three to four Martian days, known as sols, and relays data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter to be transmitted to Earth every four sols. Otherwise, Spirit mostly sleeps. This pattern is not likely to change until sunlight on the rover's solar array consistently generates 250 watt-hours or more (enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 2.5 hours). Barring dust-cleaning winds, that is not expected to happen before about mid-October. Spirit remains healthy, with all subsystems performing as expected as of the Odyssey downlink to Earth on sol 1646 (Aug. 19, 2008). Solar-array energy has dropped back to 229 watt-hours after recently reaching the high 230's. This drop is the result of an increase in tau -- a measure of aospheric opacity caused by suspended dust -- from 0.19 to 0.29. Spirit is approaching a time of year when the rover has historically seen increased aospheric dust levels. Given the rover's low power state, engineers will be watching this trend very closely. Sol-by-sol summary During the past week, Spirit completed the following activities: Sol 1643 (Aug. 16, 2008): Spirit monitored aospheric darkness caused by dust with the panoramic camera. Spirit acquired column 15, part 2 of the so-called "Bonestell panorama," using all 13 filters of the panoramic camera. Sol 1644: Spirit recharged the batteries. Sol 1645: Spirit recharged the batteries. Sol 1646: Engineers on Earth transmitted a new plan of activities at X-band frequencies directly to Spirit's high-gain antenna. Spirit relayed data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter for transmission to Earth. Sol 1647: Spirit monitored aospheric opacity with the navigation camera and acquired column 17, part 2 of the "Bonestell camera," using all 13 color filters of the panoramic camera. Sol 1648: Spirit recharged the batteries. Sol 1649: Plans called for Spirit to continue to rest and recharge the batteries. Sol 1650 (Aug. 24, 2008): Spirit was to receive a new plan of activities transmitted at X-band frequencies directly to Spirit's high-gain antenna. The rover was scheduled to relay data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter for transmission to Earth. Odometry: As of sol 1642 (Aug. 15, 2008), Spirit's total odometry remained at 7,528.0 meters (4.7 miles) CommunityEmail This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Opportunity Facing New Challenges After Victoria Detour
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 03, 2008Opportunity faces several challenges on the way out of "Victoria Crater" but continues to make steady progress. The first of these is a traverse of approximately 10 meters (30 feet, a little longer than a double-decker bus) across a sandy, 17-degree slope. |
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