Hi folks, fighting some computer/network at the moment, so will keep this scriblenotes short.
I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes, so this is based on the part I heard. To listen to the teleconference, dial toll free in the US 866-502-6119.
It sounds like they have given up on extracting Spirit from the crater before winter. The priority is improving the amount of power by tilting her in the best possible direction. Due to a number of factors, every 1 degree of tilt adds about 5 watts out of the 160 total, so anything they can do before power runs low will be of great benefit.
Sometime in the March-April (earth season) time frame, Spirit will enter a low power warning hibernation mode which will last through the winter solstice in mid May, and hopefully survive until August- Sept when sufficient power returns for more operation.
The odds are low that she will ever leave the Troy crater. However, there's good science to be done, as Steve Squyres described.
1. Accurate tracking of the precise position of Spirit while it is not moving (after she wakes up) should allow conclusive determination of whether Mars has any liquid in it's core. Basically, by remaining stationary, the precise location of Spirit can be determined. There are two factors...Mars' orbit (which is very precisely known) and the rotation of Mars. With about 6 months of data (after awakening) it should be clear what the state of the Martian core is. While it is pretty well shown that at one time Mars had a liquid core, hence a dynamo, hence a global magnetic field, there's no evidence for a current one...the magnetic field as it currently exists is in patches of a relict field preserved in surface formations. No previous landers/rovers have been able to do this science.
2. Changes in a particular area of the surface can be monitored, showing how the environment changes the surface. When roving, of course, you never look at exactly the same patch of the surface twice. If Spitit is indeed stuck, it's a benefit for this type of examination.
3. Spirit is stuck because it's on a bizarre piece of the surface. When she wakes up there's much that can be learned about this location, where the sulper rich stuff she fell into may indicate a fumarole, or some other unsuspected mechanism.
91 peer reviewed papers have been published so far including 2 Science, and 1 Nature special issues, with 411 abstracts presented at various conferences. That's of a year ago.
Current cost of the combined missions is about $20 million a year.
Total so far for Design, development, launch, primary and extended missions so far is ~ $900 million.
More later.
MW
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