Sol 800 coming up |
Sol 800 coming up |
Apr 1 2006, 08:16 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
Yep, another nice round number to celebrate. 'Course, this one is slightly bittersweet now that Spirit has lost some mobility. But I remain optimistic that as Spirit crawls slowly through the dust towards McCool Hill, a tiny metallic chip will get lodged somewhere in the inner workings of the wheel and repair the open connection. We can but hope.
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Apr 1 2006, 08:38 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
Frankly, I am a little bit worried by Spirit mobility/energy issues, so I do not want to celebrate Sol800 unless she is in a safer position...
-------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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Apr 3 2006, 07:32 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2920 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
You're right, I do have a strange mood too.
Anyway, don't forget the following. On April 13th three new milestones will be achieved : 1-Spirit will have lived 9 times her schedulled live. 2-Cost per SOL for any one of the Rovers will go under 500.000 USD*** 3-We've got just over 150.000 pictures. Here you can see some data I collected from October 2004 when we get to 50.000 pics. Pics N° Date Day diff Pic/Sol 50.000 12/10/04 543 92 75.000 28/03/05 167 75 100.000 19/07/05 113 111 125.000 27/10/05 100 125 150 000 01/04/06 156 80 *** Steve Squyres once wrote that, at the bigining of the operations , the big issue was trying not to screw up any SOL since cost per sol was 4 million USD! Now, if you consider the mission cost at 800 Millions USD (I know, it has rosen since, but well, it will just push back the real date by a few tens of Sols) a simple calculation give you 800M/1600Sols = 0.5 M/Sol. Does any one have a recent figure of the REAL total cost of the mission by now ? -------------------- |
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Apr 3 2006, 11:40 AM
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#4
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Does any one have a recent figure of the REAL total cost of the mission by now ? I believe it's something like $900 including extensions. That means, for 1580 sols (the total of the two) - it's about $580k/sol Nominally, it would have been about $800m for 180 sols, $4.4M/sol Pathfinder at $280M for 84 sols was about $3.3m/sol (nominally, 30 sols, so just about $10m/sol) Viking, in total, with the estimated $3B tag today, would have been 1280 + 2244 sols = $851k/sol MER Remains a bargin I seem to remember that they were expecting, thru technical or other problems, to lose one sol in three. Doug |
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Apr 3 2006, 12:02 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1083 Joined: 19-February 05 From: Close to Meudon Observatory in France Member No.: 172 |
Viking, in total, with the estimated $3B tag today, would have been 1280 + 2244 sols = $851k/sol MER Remains a bargin Doug Well... please, don't forget that there were 4 spacecrafts involved as "Viking" for the USD 3bn : 2 landers PLUS 2 orbiters. Then, that's make only USD 425 k/sol for the Viking landers ! |
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Apr 3 2006, 12:12 PM
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#6
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Good point - I'd totally forgotten to factor them in
Doug |
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Apr 3 2006, 12:25 PM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2920 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Well, pathfinder get Sojourner + Carl Sagan's station too
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Apr 3 2006, 12:58 PM
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#8
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Sojourner was $25m over and above Pathfinder iirc, which at 84 sols as well, is $297k/sol - but would have been approx $3.5m/sol over it's nominal 7 day mission
Doug |
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Apr 3 2006, 01:26 PM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212 |
I dont have the numbers at the moment,
but how about Marineer 4, 6, 7, 9 and MGS, MO, MEX and the new MRO ken TODAY, 2006 April 3, is SOL 800 despite the wheel, lets celebrate |
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Apr 3 2006, 07:56 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
Thanks for the statistics, climber et al.
In addition to figure out the cost/Sol of each mission, we should also consider quality and quantity of data transmitted to Earth! Obviously, thanks to unparalleled mobility and newer technology, MER is for sure well above all the others... do someone knows how many bits were returned by each mission? PS: about Sol800, maybe we could celebrate it if Sol799Sol small movement will continue... -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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Apr 3 2006, 08:12 PM
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#11
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I have a different way to do the MER maths...
150,000 images $900M $6000 per image. Some people pay more than that for a bad piece of art work Doug |
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Apr 3 2006, 08:30 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2920 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
You're right, but you'd better like "calibration-target-sundial's" pictures!
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Apr 3 2006, 08:43 PM
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#13
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I do
Doug |
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