Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM, the end of the beginning of a new era in robotic spaceflight |
Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM, the end of the beginning of a new era in robotic spaceflight |
Jun 5 2018, 03:05 PM
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#1
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Expect a quiet few sols - http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars-tau-b.html
SOL TAU 5097 0.65 5098 0.64 5099 0.67 5100 0.64 5101 0.60 5102 0.60 5103 0.61 5104 1.55 5105 **** 5106 2.12 |
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Jun 9 2018, 06:38 AM
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#2
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Breaking news: As Mars nears one of its closest perihelion passes, a large dust storm has developed. Per the press release, the storm now covers a surface area the size of North America. It may possibly grow into a global storm as has happened during previous close perihelion years (notably 1971, which coincided with Mariner 9's arrival).
Needless to say, this will produce highly challenging conditions for Oppy, and the mission team is making survival preparations. Science operations have been suspended at this time. We wish the team the very best of luck, and GO OPPORTUNITY!!!!! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jun 9 2018, 11:17 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 923 Joined: 10-November 15 Member No.: 7837 |
Oh god.
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Jun 9 2018, 02:17 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4260 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
Some details of the storm activity at the MRO MARCI Weekly Weather Reports site. That's only updated weekly, on Wednesdays.
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Jun 9 2018, 06:44 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 691 Joined: 21-December 07 From: Clatskanie, Oregon Member No.: 3988 |
Good luck to Opportunity and to the very talented team that has brought her through obstacle after obstacle after all these wonderful and fascinating years. She will prevail with the Sun gleaming off her dust-free camera lenses and solar cells after this passes. GO OPPY!!
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Jun 9 2018, 07:18 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Given the length of the mission, it was only a matter of time until another dust storm showed up; hopefully it won't be global or very long lasting!
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Jun 10 2018, 12:46 AM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Once the dust storm per se abates, there may be a period while dust settles out of the atmosphere. I wonder if there might be some advantage at that point to positioning the rover on a slope so that it minimizes the catchment area that is presented to the falling dust. If this conflicts with maximizing the sun exposure of the solar panels, perhaps it could be done at night.
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Jun 10 2018, 08:21 PM
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#8
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10256 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
"I wonder if there might be some advantage at that point to positioning the rover on a slope"
The rover is already on about as steep a slope as it can easily manage. But pondering the geometry, to reduce the projected area of the panel to 50% you would need a slope of 60 degrees, completely impossible. The allowable slopes are only going to cut dust deposition by a small amount. We'll have to rely on wind gusts. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jun 10 2018, 09:03 PM
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#9
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
When you have skies this dusty - the single best strategy is to be flat. You're getting your power from the diffuse glow of the whole sky.....anything other than flat hurts you.
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Jun 10 2018, 09:21 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
Also, with panels flat, a gust of wind from any direction will blow off dust.
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Jun 10 2018, 09:34 PM
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#11
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Moreover - it's not dust 'fall' that hits the arrays - it's just blowing around and sometimes you get some. Tilting at a large angle may actually put your arrays facing upwind and cause more harm than good.
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Jun 10 2018, 10:07 PM
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#12
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Member Group: Members Posts: 154 Joined: 8-June 04 Member No.: 80 |
Will Opportunity get a chance to send back images from the surface during the dust storm?
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Jun 10 2018, 10:13 PM
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#13
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Other than taking occasional tau measurements of the sun - no - there simply is not enough power to do so.
If you look at the MER raw image page and PanCam tracking database - you'll see the only imaging attempted since Sol 2107 has been tau measurements of one sort or another. |
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Jun 10 2018, 10:29 PM
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#14
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I wonder how much tilt you need to shake some dust off by jiggling around a bit. Anything worth trying there?
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Jun 10 2018, 10:38 PM
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#15
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14448 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
The sort of slope that represents a threat to vehicle safety can cause some kinds of coarse dust, bordering on sand, to rattle down the rover deck.
This is all academic - we don't know how long this storm will last, nor what state the vehicle will be in when it ends. We may find we come out of it with hundreds of watt hour to burn. Remember - dust on the arrays is not the problem right now. It's dust in the atmosphere. A brand new rover with clean arrays would also be in trouble right now. We went into this with a pretty clean rover. A dust factor of 0.772 ( see https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/mission/statu...tml#opportunity ) is remarkably clean. |
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