10 years - with Opportunity, The MER mission continues Options

[ddeerrff]

Didn't see this posted elsewhere

Ustream event Jan 16, 7PM PST
http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL

[RichforMars]

Does anyone here think this rover could make a long trek to Ares Vallis?

It came to mind, as last month I was reading the old Pathfinder mission press briefing which was posted days after the mission's last data transfer from the craft. Sojourner Rover's mission was not yet over if the battery failure hadn't occured when it did the extended mission was designed to send the six wheel probe to the outer vicinity of the landing site.

It would of been a target 50KM from Pathfinder, the challenge to anaylis the rocks.

From what I understand the rover will eventually go past marathon valley, going south.

[djellison]

Does anyone here think this rover could make a long trek to Ares Vallis?

No. Even in her most rapid of years - Opportunity covers, typically, about 10-15km/year. It's 2000km from Opportunity to Pathfinder - so it would take more than a century of driving.

It came to mind, as last month I was reading the old Pathfinder mission press briefing which was posted days after the mission's last data transfer from the craft. Sojourner Rover's mission was not yet over if the battery failure hadn't occured when it did the extended mission was designed to send the six wheel probe to the outer vicinity of the landing site.

I think you mis-read the press briefing. The plan was to send Sojourner on a long drive of around 50 meters around the lander - but not to the edge of the MPF landing ellipse. Sojourner's maximum theoretical radio range was about 500 meters - not the 30km+ to the edge of the MPF landing ellipse.
From https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/newspio/mpf/r...es/mpfover.html
The rover team had planned to send the rover on its longest journey yet -- a 50-meter (165-foot)clockwise stroll around the lander -- to perform a series of technology experiments and hazard avoidance exercises when the communications outage occurred. That excursion was never initiated once the rover's contingency software began operating.