(Trying to) Leave WH3 Behind |
(Trying to) Leave WH3 Behind |
Jan 23 2009, 09:06 PM
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#1
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Another drive today, it seems! Take it easy Scott, these sorts of speeds we'll get dizzy!
Doug |
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Feb 4 2009, 09:29 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4247 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
There's some very interesting information in the new batch of Spirit updates. In this one, it says:
QUOTE Spirit is also at some of the highest tilts of the mission and very nearly at the angle of repose. When the slope exceeds the angle of repose, dust, sand and other granular material slide downward. Spirit has been trying to take advantage of the steep tilt by spinning the middle wheels before driving to shake dust off the arrays. Engineers hope that as the wheel cleats bounce on the rocks, they will shake the solar arrays and cause dust to slide down and off. Once Spirit achieves a flatter tilt, this strategy will be less effective. It appears they tried this not long before sol 1772, according to this quote: QUOTE Sols 1772: ...The rover took... a quarter-frame, panoramic-camera image of the spacecraft deck to see if vibrations during recent drives had dislodged any dust. This must be the explanation for the dust movement on the solar panels that we talked about at the time! Looking at those images again, it does appear that the dust movement is consistent with the downslope direction. Didn't someone on UMSF suggest they try something like this? |
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