Strange Mi Images Options

[Bill Harris]

...I would sell my soul to &$*#@ and work 365 days a year , without salary or food to have their job...are they looking for rover drivers?

Send JPL a resume', apply for the job...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, California 91109
United States Of America

[Toma B]

Spouse to Rover Driver:  "Either you figure some way to drive that (expletive deleted) thing over a clifF, or I'm getting a divorce.  90 days is one thing, but nearly two years and no end in sight, I'va HAD IT!"

Reminds me of my wife...
"Stop spending so much time on that? forum or else...."

[mike]

Women like attention. In particular, they like undivided attention into perpetuity for all eternity.

[elakdawalla]

Send JPL a resume', apply for the job...

You joke, but check out this message that arrived in my inbox two weeks ago. Most of us are sadly too old (or too foreign ) for this opportunity, but I'll bet we know some people who aren't. It's not rover driving but I'll bet you could meet some rover drivers as an intern on MRO...

The Mars Program Office at JPL/NASA has released the first request for applications for Mars Flight Project Internships !!!

The program is an outstanding opportunity for science and engineering students to contribute to current Mars Flight Projects, and become part of the next generation of scientists.

Mars Flight Project Interns will work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( Pasadena, California ) directly with leading Mars scientists and engineers on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission (http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/). Initial Internships will run for a period of 6 months - from March 2006 to September 2006, on a full-time basis, with compensation for time/labor and relocation.
Opportunities include working with scientists on instrument calibration, science research, and aerobraking.

Internship eligibility requirements include being a student in good standing at an accredited university or college and U.S. citizenship or legal resident. The preferred education level for this internship program is junior or senior undergraduates or first or second year graduate students. University concurrence by department chair and an advisor recommendation will be required. Selection criteria will include (1) scholarship (GPA and publications) and experience; (2) education and career objectives and scientific interest; and (3) coursework. Internships are open to all students without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status, sex, military service, sexual orientation, or non-disqualifying disability. Additional Internship Program and Application information is available at http://www.sop.usra.edu/mars_intern/.

Regards,
Jeff Cardenas
USRA Program Manager

In regards to what may be an anomaly happening over a holiday, you can be sure that there are rover drivers on duty AND that they were taking a good look at what was going on (if it was an anomaly). There are just not any quick fixes for anomalies, holiday or no holiday. If there really is an anomaly they have to have a lot of people feel their way very slowly through what might have caused the problem, and how to test their theories through new sequences of commands and images and then work out a solution. Just remember how long they were stuck in Purgatory Dune. Be patient! We are SO lucky to have these images released so fast so that we can sit here on this forum and speculate about whether there might be an anomaly or not. If this were nearly any other mission, we'd never have seen those pictures, and wouldn't know what was going on for weeks or months, if ever.

--Emily

[odave]

Ah, if only I had seen an e-mail like that back in 1989....

[Toma B]

Is there any news on that stuck IDD arm???
Notice that last Steve Squyres Mission Update was on October 24, 2005...

[mars_armer]

Here's the information I have. At the beginning of the unstow sequence, the IDD tripped the circuitry that senses a motor stall (high current). The trip happened almost immediately after the azimuth motor started, which strongly suggests the arm is not physically jammed. (In that case, it would wind up before stalling.)

Hopefully it was just a glitch, such as a momentary current spike, but it takes a little while to sort out these things from a distance. To me, it seems unlikely that there is a permanent problem with the arm.

[ElkGroveDan]

Ah, if only I had seen an e-mail like that back in 1989....

I was thinking the same thing but for me it would have been 1986. I even lived in Southern California at the time. JPL would have been a 20 minute commute from my parents house.

[mike]

You could always go back (or just go, if it's the first time) to school. I'm tempted myself, but you know, I want to do everything..

[Bill Harris]

>Ah, if only I had seen an e-mail like that back in 1989....

In 1976 I was just out of college and landed a job as a "senior administrative intern" inspecting sewers for the county. Yep, work as a geotechnical grunt with a title...

--Bill

[odave]

Yep, JPL would have been a dream job for me. No regrets though, I still got to work with robots - they're just not as glamorous as these fly-boys/girls we talk about here.

Thanks for the IDD update, mars_armer.

[dot.dk]

The Pancam tracking site indicates some diagnostic being done tosol!

659 p1157.01 0 0 0 0 0 0 idd_debug_hazcam_lossless_512x1024_subframe_pri_27
659 p2626.02 0 0 0 0 0 0 pancam_sky_radiance_thumbs_L457R247
659 p2900.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 microscopic_imager_health_check_image
659 Total 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Guest_Edward Schmitz_*]

Yep, JPL would have been a dream job for me.  No regrets though, I still got to work with robots - they're just not as glamorous as these fly-boys/girls we talk about here.

Thanks for the IDD update, mars_armer.

I've always wanted to work for JPL, too. But now I'm working for Raytheon/SBRS who built the Mini-TES, TES and THEMIS instruments, so I'm pretty excited about that. We also had a visit from Phil Christensen. I have been meaning to write here about that but I just haven't had the time.

But I was in the highbay at JPL with the rovers while they were being assembled. That was the thrill of a lifetime! I was about 30 feet from one of them. I'll never know which one.

ed

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Still no sign of the IDD :

http://207.7.139.5/mars/opportunity/forwar...KCP1157R0M1.JPG

MI picture:

http://207.7.139.5/mars/opportunity/micro_...KCP2900M1M1.JPG

[Tom Tamlyn]

Yesterday the Planetary Society posted one of its excellent MER status reports.

http://planetary.org/news/2005/1130_Mars_E...ate_Spirit.html

The report quotes Albert Haldemann, rover deputy project scientist, as stating on November 29 that both rovers are in "good health."

This of course doesn't negate the possibility that JPL is keeping an emerging problem under its vest for now, but it's something.

TTT

[edit start] P.S. Whoops! whatonmars.com has just recorded a JPL Opportunity update that discusses the stalled arm.

http://whatonmars.com/?q=node/778

I continue to be impressed (depressed?) by how unnecessarily complex and cryptic the jpl MER site is. I tried several times to find this update starting with http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html, and failed each time.

This post has been edited by Tom Tamlyn: Dec 2 2005, 02:47 AM