Cape York - The "Lakelands", Starting sol 2703 |
Cape York - The "Lakelands", Starting sol 2703 |
Sep 19 2011, 02:39 AM
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#91
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
Is there a nice summary somewhere of what instruments are still working and what sort of science Opportunity is still able to do? Obviously the pictures alone are still spectacular, but I'm wondering what else is still working.
--Greg |
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Sep 19 2011, 02:45 AM
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#92
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Pancam - Fine, and less dusty than it has been
MiniTES - Bust IDD - Azimuth joint bust - can position instrument along a vertical plane, not full 3D space. APXS - Fine MI - Fine RAT - Fine ( but obviously, teeth are consumed to near death ) Mossbauer - VERY VERY tired. We're > 10 half-lives into it - so integrations that would have taken 6 hrs could technically take > 6 months. A good integration now would involved several weeks. |
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Sep 19 2011, 02:52 AM
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#93
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
I can't help but think that if I were the MER team I'd aim for a likely looking rock in early November, do some documentation, put out the Moessbauer, and take a nice long Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday while it integrates!
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Sep 19 2011, 03:37 AM
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#94
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4256 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
From Lenda's blog:
QUOTE Squyres put down a lien to get a super-resolution panorama of the entirety of Endeavour Crater, and it has taken the better part of a week to get it all done. Super res? |
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Sep 19 2011, 04:01 AM
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#95
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2228 Joined: 1-December 04 From: Marble Falls, Texas, USA Member No.: 116 |
That rock was incredibly soft. I wasn't expecting that. In retrospect, perhaps I should have expected it. The outcrop is worn down just as flat as the surrounding Meridiani sandstones, so why wouldn't we expect it to be soft?
-------------------- ...Tom
I'm not a Space Fan, I'm a Space Exploration Enthusiast. |
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Sep 19 2011, 05:23 AM
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#96
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1592 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
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Sep 19 2011, 05:59 AM
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#97
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
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Sep 19 2011, 06:30 AM
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#98
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Or dust. Depends on how you see it. They do gamely keep checking it. Check the documentation for the MER Analysts Notebook. For example - Sol 2261-2267 MER B Downlink Report QUOTE Opportunity is healthy and all* subsystems are nominal as of the Sol 2267 UHF downlink. Energy is currently 296 Whr with Tau at 0.370 and a dust factor of 0.5820 as of Sol 2267. *except the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MTES) which has experienced a failure. Investigations into the Mini-TES failure are ongoing. or Sol 2281-2287 MER B Downlink Report QUOTE [Mini-TES, the miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer experienced an anomaly on Sol 2257 which is currently being investigated.] later, you will just find QUOTE *with the exception of a known problem with Mini-TES as of the Sol 2308 downlink. Or from the excellent : http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0901_Ma...ver_Update.html QUOTE Last Sunday, the rover's Sol 2700, the team decided to have the rover conduct another set of diagnostics on the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) that began acting up last year and hasn't been working since. "We’re all about trying to exhaust even remotely likely possibilities," noted Nelson. Opportunity followed her commands to exercise the back-up laser and back-up optical switch. Or going back further in time http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0430_Ma...ate_Spirit.html QUOTE Last year, after being turned on, the Mini-TES failed to conduct a transferring kind of "handshake" with the PMA. "It timed out, and then said it wasn't talking to the flight software, and it was also not properly commanding the motors that would have changed the PMA azimuth, and we got a PMA fault," Nelson recounted. The ensuing diagnostics indicated the PMA azimuth motor is fine, and the issue is likely between the Mini-TES and the motor control board. This month, the Mini-TES exhibited more anomalous behavior. Specifically, it failed to draw power. A functioning Mini-TES should draw 200-250 milliamperes up to about ¼ amp, according to Nelson. "We're not seeing that current draw," he said. That would seem to suggest that the Mini-TES is simply not turning on, or that something somewhere between the instrument and motor control board has failed. Although the instrument investigation is continuing, the Mini-TES remains, Nelson said, "effectively out of commission." It is, as I said.... bust. |
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Sep 19 2011, 07:40 AM
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#99
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1057 Joined: 17-February 09 Member No.: 4605 |
..... The outcrop is worn down just as flat as the surrounding Meridiani sandstones, so why wouldn't we expect it to be soft? Indeed. Remember Clovis rock - a Spirit RAT in 2004 - image below? Looks a bit softer than Opportunity's last grind. But this is a breccia, probably suevite and the weathering susceptibilities of the constituent elements are different to the Moh's scale resistance to abrasion. http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/sp...o-A223R1_br.jpg |
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Sep 19 2011, 09:40 AM
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#100
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2872 Joined: 22-April 05 From: Ridderkerk, Netherlands Member No.: 353 |
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Sep 19 2011, 10:21 AM
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#101
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1089 Joined: 19-February 05 From: Close to Meudon Observatory in France Member No.: 172 |
...and take a nice long Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday while it integrates! Yes : great idea Emily and and at a place where the global view of Endeavour is terrific and where a 360° pan can be taken (i.e. somewhere near the top of Cape York), and -even better if possible- with low sun and nice long shadows to enhance the features |
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Sep 19 2011, 10:38 AM
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#102
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
QUOTE (CR) That rock was incredibly soft. I wasn't expecting that. In retrospect, perhaps I should have expected it. That is what I initially thought but decided that the surface looked "too glassy" to be deeply weathered. I imagine that the actual criteria for hardness of the rock would be Oppy's RAT engineering telemetry, such as the current draw or the grind time of the operation, and not amount of cuttings. --Bill -------------------- |
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Sep 19 2011, 03:24 PM
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#103
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4256 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
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Sep 19 2011, 03:31 PM
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#104
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 98 Joined: 17-July 11 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 6066 |
I can't help but think that if I were the MER team I'd aim for a likely looking rock in early November, do some documentation, put out the Moessbauer, and take a nice long Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday while it integrates! I'd agree with Scott Maxwell's opinion on such a thing... "*Yawn*." -m EDIT: Haha, I love the multiple shadows in there. Very clean merge! |
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Sep 19 2011, 05:42 PM
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#105
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Member Group: Members Posts: 146 Joined: 31-October 08 Member No.: 4473 |
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