Anyone else wonder if they are being too careful...

Aviation Week reported that JPL now thinks Spirit will be operational
much longer than predicted pre-launch. There's talk of a full (Earth)
year on Mars before winter kills it. Even so, it might wake up again
the following spring.

I am a little concerned they will die not by
carelesness but do little by being over cautious.

They will almost certainly increase the pace of activity as they
become more familiar and confident with both rovers. They were just
about at that point with Spirit before the flash memory problem, so
we've lost a couple of weeks there and they are probably a tad gun-shy
from that near-death experience. Even so, Opportunity has really made
great progress in the two weeks since it landed, and its not yet at
the point Spirit was when it went on the blink.

I think its time we go look
at the next hill and do some traveling.

Opportunity is going to that bedrock outcropping and will spend a lot
of time there... *that* is exactly what they went to Mars to look for.
It's a gold mine, to them. After that, it will certainly drive out of
its crater and give us our first good look at its surroundings.
Opportunity may be life-limited by the thermostat glitch, but should
still easily make 90 days,.

Spirit is supposed to head for the large nearby crater (seen in the
DIMES image) soon. That will take a few weeks, stopping at interesting
rocks along the way. Then it will indeed head for the hills.

Brian

Thanks for the great summary. I am glad to see things are going well.

I hope a future rover has a radioactive power source. with a light they could
operate 24/7

On 07 Feb 2004 02:30:58 GMT, (Hallerb) wrote:

I hope a future rover has a radioactive power source. with a light they could
operate 24/7

Mars Mobile Laboratory, or whatever it is being called this week, will
be RTG-powered and is planned to have a life of one Mars year. 24.6
hour ops, here we come! Launch is scheduled for 2009. That's a long
time to wait, but between now and then we also have Mars Recon Orbiter
in '05 and the Mars Scout lander in '07.

Brian

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 20:28:03 -0600, Pat Flannery wrote:

Coming down in a shallow crater was a piece of luck that they must of
only dreamed of,

must OF!

Pat, this is an early sign you are coming down with the haller-b virus.
You should make an appointment to get treated ASAP! G

"Hallerb" wrote in message
...
I hope a future rover has a radioactive power source. with a light they
could
operate 24/7

Maybe it's also time to pony up for more antennas for DSN.

Copy Boy and I agree on this one. I'd add a much taller mast (10', maybe)
with additional nav cameras, so while the rover is doing science, the
night's path can be plotted.

In article , bthorn64
@cox.net says...

snip

Aviation Week reported that JPL now thinks Spirit will be operational
much longer than predicted pre-launch. There's talk of a full (Earth)
year on Mars before winter kills it. Even so, it might wake up again
the following spring.

That's good news -- especially since, sometime around Spirit's sol 10 or
so, during the (then) daily press conference, the engineers were saying
that the rate of degradation of the solar panels due to dust
accumulation was right about what they were expecting, meaning that they
were looking at a good probability of finishing the 90-day mission but
probably not a lot longer than that.

As for Opportunity -- damn, ain't there any way to turn that heater off?

Doug

Rick DeNatale wrote:

must OF!

Pat, this is an early sign you are coming down with the haller-b virus.
You should make an appointment to get treated ASAP! G


Well at least I ain't doin' that 'ol "it's" "its" stuff anymore; so
you's musts be makin' progress.

Popeye

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 15:29:50 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

Well at least I ain't doin' that 'ol "it's" "its" stuff anymore; so
you's musts be makin' progress.

....You am what you am.

OM

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his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
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