Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM, the end of the beginning of a new era in robotic spaceflight Options

[Tom Tamlyn]

Another fine elegiacal article about Opportunity and the MER mission, this one much longer, over 2500 words in Scientific American by Rebecca Boyle, a science writer who I should have been following.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...oaches-its-end/

There’s nothing particularly new for our crowd, but it's deftly written, contains a well-informed overview, and includes pleasing short profiles of Ray Arvidson, Steve Squyers, and particularly of Deputy Project Scientist Abigail Fraeman, whose mentors include Emily Lakdawalla, through Lakdawalla's first Planetary Society project, “Red Rover Goes to Mars” for high school students.

[marsophile]

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...nniversary.html

Discussion about so-called "Hail Mary" recovery attempts.

[rlorenz]

My take is that the likelyhood of Oppy waking up increases as time goes by until end of January 2019 then it drops quite rapidly. The idea being that between Ls 290 and Ls 310 we have seen cleaning events.

Maybe moot at this point, but the evidence is that it is dust devils specifically, rather than gusts overall, that are principally responsible for clearing events.

See my paper in Icarus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350794

[mcaplinger]

See my paper in Icarus

Interesting paper. It's surprising and disappointing to me that the solar array performance data remains unreleased.

[RoverDriver]

Maybe moot at this point, but the evidence is that it is dust devils specifically, rather than gusts overall, that are principally responsible for clearing events.

See my paper in Icarus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350794

Regardless of what the source is, we all call them cleaning events, whether strong winds, dust devils, or other unknown aeolian events, between Ls290 and 310 historically we have seen the highest number of cleaning events for the past 7 Martian Years.

Paolo

[marsophile]

I've been keeping a log of the spurious locks, ostensibly on Opportunity, since November.
They occurred at these times:

3:37 AM - 1 Nov 2018 from Paddys River, Canberra
6:25 AM - 4 Nov 2018 from Paddys River, Canberra
5:20 AM - 7 Nov 2018 from Paddys River, Canberra
11:02 AM - 14 Nov 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
12:46 PM - 15 Nov 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
1:01 PM - 15 Nov 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
1:59 PM - 17 Nov 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
2:51 PM - 18 Nov 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
3:44 PM - 24 Nov 2018 from California, USA
5:57 PM - 25 Nov 2018 from California, USA
8:24 PM - 26 Nov 2018 from California, USA
9:52 PM - 30 Nov 2018 from California, USA
2:09 PM - 29 Dec 2018 from Robledo de Chavela, Espa<C3><B1>a
7:01 PM - 30 Dec 2018 from California, USA
7:37 PM - 30 Dec 2018 from California, USA
8:47 PM - 5 Jan 2019 from California, USA
9:47 PM - 9 Jan 2019 from California, USA
9:39 PM - 9 Feb 2019 from California, USA

Very frequent during November and then becoming less frequent. Perhaps the software has been improved to better rule out false locks. Although the reports tend to blame MRO, I think it is actually Maven that was the subject of many of the false locks.

[elakdawalla]

NASA to Share Results of Effort to Recover Mars Opportunity Rover

[dot.dk]

So this is it probably. An ending.

[Explorer1]

This is going to be a tough one to watch folks. Just remembering what Steve Squyres said in a recent interview; an honourable way to go. No accidental commands to turn off, programming glitches, unit conversion mix-ups, or anything like that. Mars allowed Oppy to survive, until it didn't....

[MahFL]

Oh man... .

[RoverDriver]

This is my way to say goodbye to Oppy. 15 years, 13Km and I don't know how many sequences. Thank you Doug for creating this forum and allowing me to share the road with all of you. I am eternally grateful to Mark Maimone for introducing me to the MER folks. I still can't believe that they let an Italian driver roam on Mars.

Paolo, signing off.

PS: the URL links my my server at home which has a self signed certificate, so don't be surprised if you get a message saying it is a dangerous web site.

[tdemko]

Sleep well little rover. You did good. We know where you are, and we will be there when you awake again. Sweet dreams.

[Sean]

A sad day but a truly incredible journey.

I put Ryan Anderson's poem to my favourite Oppy comp...


...and I imagined a sequel to Emily's Curiosity book a while back...



My thoughts with all the engineers & drivers.

[Steve G]

I don't think anyone in their wildest fantasies would have dared to dream that this amazing rover would convert a 90 day mission into 14+ years. All my congrats to the MER team for an amazing run.

[jaredh]

Opportunity...how I will miss you. Your spectacular landing. The daily updates. The insane craters you visited.

I remember fondly you driving off into what I assumed at the time was essentially the void.....an absolutely impossible drive distance to Endeavor that I laughed out loud about when I first heard they were going to attempt it. Laughably impossible I thought. Man, did you ever prove me wrong.

Opportunity....you are probably the biggest rock star of all unmanned space explorations humans have ever done....certainly without question the biggest on Mars. I doubt anything will ever trump you there (unless one day something physically finds running water....a man can dream....)

One day, men will build a shrine around you.....until that day rest old friend. Your work is done.