Spirit Mission 2009 and onward

[3488]

Sol 1,874 Wheel tracks in the regolith left by Spirit. More light toned regolith has been uncovered.

Close up of a nice vesicular basalt seen in the top right of the above image.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Spirit Mission 2009 and onward-trouble?

From Spaceflightnow:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0904/13marsrover/


Excerpt:

The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is examining data received from Spirit in recent days to diagnose why the rover apparently rebooted its computer at least twice over the April 11-12 weekend.

"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges. We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and twin-rover Opportunity. "The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we diagnose the problem."

Spirit communicated with controllers Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but some of the communication sessions were irregular. One of the computer resets apparently coincided in timing with operation of the rover's high-gain dish antenna.

Latest from NASA (through the 8th)

SPIRIT UPDATE: Four Drives Add to Progress - sols 1865-1871, April 01-08, 2009:


Spirit has been busy making good progress around the western edge of "Home Plate." The rover drove four out of the past seven sols, making more than 40 meters (131 feet) of total distance.

First, Spirit completed a science campaign on light-toned material unearthed the preceding week, then the rover resumed driving on Sol 1866 (April 3, 2009; no sol number for Spirit corresponded to April 2, 2009, using the criterion of the date in Los Angeles at local solar noon on Mars). The Sol 1866 drive achieved only about 3 meters (10 feet) of progress due to excessive slip. On the next drive sol, Sol 1868 (April 5, 2009), Spirit avoided the troubled terrain and completed about 17.5 meters (57 feet). A pair of drives on Sols 1870 and 1871 (April 7 and 8, 2009) added another 20 meters (66 feet) of progress.

As of Sol 1871 (April 8, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 240 watt-hours, equivalent to what it takes to light a 100-watt bulb for 2.4 hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) has improved slightly to 0.99. The dust factor is 0.304, meaning that 30.4 percent of sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. The rover is in good health as it makes progress around Home Plate. Spirit's total odometry is 7,726.78 meters (4.80 miles).

 

[3488]

Thank you very much Wayne.

Lets hope that a cleaning event comes soon, as has happened with Opportunity.

Sol 1,875 looking towards Thera Crater & a dust devil.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

More Spirit-ual problems...

From SDC: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... nesia.html

Humans aren't the only forgetful ones. The Mars Rover Spirit "had a bout of temporary amnesia" on Friday, NASA officials said today.

They have no clue why. And the recalcitrant robot has not offered any clues.

The event is part of a string of problems dating back to an unexpected computer reboot that Spirit initiated a week ago. Another reboot occurred this weekend after the amnesia trouble.

Here's how NASA describes the robot's forgetfulness: Spirit unexpectedly fails to record data into the type of memory, called flash memory, where information is preserved even when power is off. Spirit has had three of these amnesia events in the past 10 days, plus one back on Jan. 25.

Officials don't know if the amnesia is related to the reboots.

The most recent reboot put Spirit back into an autonomous operations mode in which the rover keeps itself healthy, according to today's statement. Spirit experienced no problems in this autonomous mode on Sunday.

The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., revised plans today for regaining Earth control of Spirit's operations and resuming diagnostic and recovery activities by the rover.

"We are proceeding cautiously, but we are encouraged by knowing that Spirit is stable in terms of power and thermal conditions and has been responding to all communication sessions for more than a week now," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.

.....

Officials aim to get Spirit back to full operation or, if something is broken, at least get it going in some capacity.

"For example, if we do determine that we can no longer use the flash memory reliably, we could design operations around using the random-access memory," Laubach said.

Spirit has 128 megabytes of random-access memory, or RAM, which can store data as long as the rover is kept awake before its next downlink communications session.

 

[JonClarke]

Good news - looks like the memory problem has been fixed.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... iving.html

 

[centsworth_II]

More good news:
"Spirit also had a small dust cleaning event on her solar arrays on Sol 1881 (April 18, 2009). Solar array energy improved by more than 10 percent. As of Sol 1885 (April 22, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 306 watt-hours."

This is the first time in almost a year and a half that Spirit's power level has been over 300whrs. Winter had a lot to do with that, as well as dust cover.

 

[3488]

It is great news indeed. Lets hope another cleaning event comes along shortly.

Also it looks like Spirit is continuing to make some progress, although slow now towards Von Braun (perhaps the pace will quicken now).

Looking back, is apparent that progress is being made.

Andrew Brown.

 

[centsworth_II]

Also it looks like Spirit is continuing to make some progress, although slow now towards Von Braun (perhaps the pace will quicken now).

Well, not now. If you are following Spirit's progress on unmannedspaceflight.com as I am, you know that it's rough going at the moment, but hopefully there will be some pace-quickening in the future.

They are trying to keep Spirit as high up the sloped side of Home Plate as possible, even if there is an easier route lower down (and I don't know that there is). They want to reach Von Braun on as high a path as possible so the interesting layers are hopefully within reach.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5901&view=findpost&p=139724

 

[summoner]

Damn, looks like he's driving through snowdrifts.

 

[JonClarke]

Von Braun is now 160 m away (down the bottom of this story about Opportunity)

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/29 ... r-on-mars/

At present rate of progress 160 m = 80 sols, say mid July. That's an improvement on my estimate of October.

 

[centsworth_II]

Bad news: Spirit still having trouble moving.

Good news: "Holy smoke! Spirit has over 470 W-hr thisol! Don't quote me on this, but tomorrow's downlink might show more energy than on Opportunity!" -- Scott Maxwell

 

[3488]

Goddard on the side of Von Braun. Sol 1,888.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Bad news: Spirit still having trouble moving.

Good news: "Holy smoke! Spirit has over 470 W-hr thisol! Don't quote me on this, but tomorrow's downlink might show more energy than on Opportunity!" -- Scott Maxwell

Thanks Centsworth. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Whilst the lack of general motion is bad news, that good news is awsome. Perhaps a major cleaning event & clearing martian skies over Gusev crater???

Andrew Brown.

 

[centsworth_II]

Even better:
"Oh, my goodness. We just got Spirit's latest power actuals: 652 Watt-hours. Six. Five. Two. That's about 2/3 of what we had at LANDING!"-- Scott Maxwell

These rovers are miracles that keep on giving!

 

[3488]

Even better:
"Oh, my goodness. We just got Spirit's latest power actuals: 652 Watt-hours. Six. Five. Two. That's about 2/3 of what we had at LANDING!"-- Scott Maxwell

These rovers are miracles that keep on giving!

Hi Centsworth.

Spirit must have had a dust devil pass right over clening the arrays or a serious dust gust.

Either way, this is the best news possible. Lets hope the cameras have not been splattered with dust.

Andrew Brown.

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

Sounds like Spirit is bogged down and it might be a couple of weeks before an attempt is made to move her
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... stuck.html

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

Not to hijack this thread but the recent talk of "slow pace" and Spirit getting stuck rekindled an old idea. What have the MERs told us about the surface vis-a-vis the possibility of using hopping as a mode of locomotion about the Mars surface ? A Mars Hopper need not be like this one in an old SDC article but perhaps something more MER-like. While I'm dreaming I would propose a bimodal means of movement, hopping for long distance where accuracy isn't required and normal wheeled driving for when and where it is.

I can put this into a thread of it's own if desired (though I'm not sure which forum it should be in).

 

[3488]

Sounds like Spirit is bogged down and it might be a couple of weeks before an attempt is made to move her
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/09 ... stuck.html

Hi EBM,

You might like this?

MER B Opportinity Sol 1890 images her underside.

Looking right.

Looking left underside.

An exercise to see if possible for MER A Spirit to image her underside to see if she is jammed on rocks. The Microscopic Imager is not designed for this task as the focus is set at macro, i.e to see very close, but it does work, for this task.

Not like the Phoenix Mars Lander Arm Camera which was designed for this sort of thing.
View beneath Phoenix Mars Lander, Sol 142.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Looks like Spirit is dug in very deeply.

Sol 1,916. Front Hazcam looking back (Spirit is driving in reverse).

Sol 1,916. Rear Hazcam looking forward. Von Braun & Goddard are visible near the top centre.

The trench in the fine loose regolith does not look good.

Efforts are underway to free Spirit.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Great News.

MER A Spirit is NOT stuck on rocks.

Microscopic imager has imaged underneath Spirit & the base of the rover is clear.

Looking left.

Andrew Brown.

 

[bearack]

I hope there is hope to salvage this. I would like to see many more SOL's with this little trooper!

 

[3488]

I hope there is hope to salvage this. I would like to see many more SOL's with this little trooper!

Hi Tim,

If Spirit is indeed stuck & will no longer drive, Spirit can still carry out a very effective lander mission, a little like Mars Pathfinder.

Can report on the weather, take regular panoramas under different lighting, weather & seasonal conditions, the arm can still sample surrounding rocks & regolith.

IMO, the mission is far from over.

However, I think Spirit WILL drive again. The images of Spirit's underside using the Microscopic Imager although fuzzy (the MI is designed to look at tiny very close objects under a MACRO lens), are still sharp enough to show that Spirit is not stuck on rocks & the base of Spirit is well clear of the regolith.

I think she will roll again.

Apparenty Spirit has had another cleaning event on Sol 1,919, the arrays now producing a massive 843 Watt Hours!!!!!!!!!!

843 Watt Hours.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Great News Andrew, as Tim would say...

MORE POWER!!!

 

[3488]

Great News Andrew, as Tim would say...

MORE POWER!!!

It's wonderful news Wayne.

All that needs to happen now, it to get Spirit out of that powdered regolith. Far easier said than done for sure, but I think JPL will succeed with that & Spirit WILL get to Goddard & Von Braun eventually.

Andrew Brown.

 

[3488]

Spirit has imaged the underside again. These new images are slightly clearer & confirm that Spirit is NOT grounded.

Looking left.

Looking left again. The left hand wheels are deeply buried in the dusty regolith. A small rock is visible on the right.

Looking right. The right hand wheels are really deeply buried in the dusty regolith.

Andrew Brown.