What happened to Soujourner?

Why did Sourjourner vanish from the news? Once it used up it's 'electricity
was it useless? These crafts are designed to recharge using solar?

--
BenignVanilla
Pond Site: www.darofamily.com/jeff/links/mypond

Newsuser "BenignVanilla" wrote: ...

Why did Sourjourner vanish from the news? Once it used up it's 'electricity
was it useless? These crafts are designed to recharge using solar?

Sojourner failed and Sagan Memorial Station too (after the primary mission end
time).
Any Mars surface probe has to use additional heating source in order to
survive a cold night, but nowadays only acceptable heat source is a
radioisotope heater unit (RHU or LWRHU).
RHUs can work only during few months because of radioisotope mass limits.

Using modified RTGs we can keep probes operable during many years (look at
Vikings), but GreenPeace always stops such a initiative.

(STS)

Stanislaw Sidor wrote:

Any Mars surface probe has to use additional heating source in order to
survive a cold night, but nowadays only acceptable heat source is a
radioisotope heater unit (RHU or LWRHU).

The next rover planned for Mars, the U.S. 2009 Mars Science Laboratory
(MSL), is planned to be a long range explorer (~10 km). As of now, the
design is baselined to utilize an RTG(s) for power and heating.

--


Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii

Newsuser "Alex R. Blackwell" wrote: ...
Stanislaw Sidor wrote:

Any Mars surface probe has to use additional heating source in order to
survive a cold night, but nowadays only acceptable heat source is a
radioisotope heater unit (RHU or LWRHU).

The next rover planned for Mars, the U.S. 2009 Mars Science Laboratory
(MSL), is planned to be a long range explorer (~10 km). As of now, the
design is baselined to utilize an RTG(s) for power and heating.

I know ...
Only a long duration Mars exploration rovers are useful. All other concepts
are a waste of money.
Humans are not able to go to Mars without using a nuclear energy too.

(STS)

"Stanislaw Sidor" wrote in message
...
Newsuser "BenignVanilla" wrote: ...

Why did Sourjourner vanish from the news? Once it used up it's
'electricity
was it useless? These crafts are designed to recharge using solar?

Sojourner failed and Sagan Memorial Station too (after the primary mission
end
time).

Not quite true

We lost contact with pathfinder - but at that time - Sojourner was still
fine. One can presume that over time that sojourner died as well due to
dust settling on the solar arrays

Doug

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 10:52:14 +0100, "Doug Ellison"
wrote:

We lost contact with pathfinder - but at that time - Sojourner was still
fine. One can presume that over time that sojourner died as well due to
dust settling on the solar arrays

....Sojourner had a contingency mode that went into effect if contact
was lost with Pathfinder. It would start circling around Pathfinder
until either it came back online and issued new instructions, or until
the solar panels were finally covered with enough dust to prevent the
cells from generating enough electricity to power the rover.

In all honesty, I one day expect to collect posthumously an ICH
T-Shirt, when a future expedition finds the pair and discovers that I
was right all along, and Sojourner was able to keep running long
enough to dig a circular trench around Pathfinder, deep enough for the
rover to finally cut itself off from enough sunlight to keep
moving...:-)


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

Newsuser "Doug Ellison" wrote: ...

Sojourner failed and Sagan Memorial Station too (after the primary mission
end time).

Not quite true

We lost contact with pathfinder - but at that time - Sojourner was still
fine.

Finally Sojourner failed too.

One can presume that over time that sojourner died as well due to
dust settling on the solar arrays

OK, but it was only a demo mission - the greatest achievement of Faster Better
Cheaper strategy.

(STS)

Newsuser "OM"
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote: ...

In all honesty, I one day expect to collect posthumously an ICH
T-Shirt, when a future expedition finds the pair and discovers that I
was right all along, and Sojourner was able to keep running long
enough to dig a circular trench around Pathfinder, deep enough for the
rover to finally cut itself off from enough sunlight to keep
moving...:-)

Nuclear rover could be found in the next century - full functional :-)

(STS)

In article ,
Stanislaw Sidor wrote:
We lost contact with pathfinder - but at that time - Sojourner was still
fine.

Finally Sojourner failed too.

Presumably. But we don't actually know when and how. Sojourner's
communications went via Pathfinder; it had no ability to talk to Earth
directly. So we have no information on Sojourner from after Pathfinder
died.
--
MOST launched 1015 EDT 30 June, separated 1046, | Henry Spencer
first ground-station pass 1651, all nominal! |

Newsuser "Henry Spencer" wrote: ...

Finally Sojourner failed too.

Presumably. But we don't actually know when and how. Sojourner's
communications went via Pathfinder; it had no ability to talk to Earth
directly. So we have no information on Sojourner from after Pathfinder
died.

Of course, but Sojourner's lifetime was limited by the design!
No one should wait, that Sojourner will be still functioning in 2010.

(STS)